With Free Agency tomorrow, some free agents on the Calgary Flames will be leaving. And that includes goaltender Brian Elliott.
The Calgary Flames don’t have too many unrestricted free agents heading into free agency tomorrow, but there are still some names there. One being goaltender Brian Elliott.
Elliott was acquired by the Flames last off-season during a draft day trade. Since Miikka Kiprusoff, it was no secret that the Flames crease was lacking in consistency. With Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo not giving the Flames what they needed, the Flames looked to add to that and they did last season.
They traded for Brian Elliott on a draft day trade and signed free agent Chad Johnson as a backup. In the last six seasons, Elliott had the second best save-percentage of all goaltenders who have played at least 50 games a season, right after Cory Schneider. So looks like the Flames will fix that consistency issue, right?
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Well, not so much. It took him a couple of months to get into the swing of things and the Flames season didn’t start out how they pictured it would. But he finally came through near the end of January and he even managed to tie a Calgary Flames franchise record of 11 consecutive wins by a goaltender – one higher than a personal high for him of ten games. That record was tied with Flames alum Mike Vernon.
But other than that, he wasn’t the Brian Elliott the Flames hoped to trade for. The playoffs came around and while he wasn’t too bad in the first two games, he also didn’t excel. But then games three and four came around and he completely let the team down. And the Flames got swept (sad face).
I’m very pro not-goalie-shaming, however, he wasn’t there when the team needed him most. And since the end of the playoffs, fans knew he wouldn’t return in a sweater with a flaming C. Last season, his record was 26-18-3 with a save percentage of 0.910. So, like I said, not horrible, but the Flames needed more.
He is now reportedly going to sign with the Philadelphia Flyers on a two-year contract with an average salary of $2.75 million.
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His relationship with the Flames may not have worked out, but we wish the moose all the best!