Calgary Flames: Get to Know New Flame Goaltender Eddie Lack

In a surprising turn of events, the Calgary Flames acquired G Eddie Lack in a trade this off-season. But who is Eddie Lack? Let’s get to know him here.

When nobody was quite expecting it, the Calgary Flames acquired G Eddie Lack from the Carolina Hurricanes for peanuts, basically.

The Flames managed to make something out of prospect Keegan Kanzig and they also lost a 6th rounder in the process, which really isn’t a big deal. Eddie Lack has spent four years in the NHL split between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vancouver Canucks.

With the Flames and Canucks rivalry, many fans know who Eddie Lack is. Especially with this infamous moment during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs:

eddie lack is now a flame, let's look at this iconic moment of him punching brandon bollig's butt pic.twitter.com/S6oGA5pYsF
— Flame For Thought (@Flame_4_Thought) June 30, 2017

But Flames fans don’t really know Eddie Lack that well. Aside from seeing him compete against the Flames. And with the last two seasons of him playing backup for the Carolina Hurricanes and them being on the East Coast, the Flames really didn’t see much of him.

Let’s look at his NHL stats so far:

standard NHL career statistics
	Goalie Stats	Scoring
Season	Age	Tm	Lg	GP	GS	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO	MIN	QS	QS%	RBS	GA%-	GSAA	GPS	G	A	PTS	PIM	Awards
2013-14	26	VAN	NHL	41	37	16	17	5	93	1052	959	.912	2.41	4	2319	20	.541	5	103	-2.35	6.1	0	0	0	0	Calder-16
2014-15	27	VAN	NHL	41	35	18	13	4	95	1201	1106	.921	2.45	2	2324	18	.514	5	93	7.51	8.1	0	0	0	2
2015-16	28	CAR	NHL	34	31	12	14	6	90	910	820	.901	2.81	2	1920	14	.452	7	116	-12.52	3.9	0	2	2	0
2016-17	29	CAR	NHL	20	18	8	7	3	48	492	444	.902	2.64	1	1090	9	.500	3	113	-5.42	2.3	0	0	0	0
2 yrs		CAR	NHL	54	49	20	21	9	138	1402	1264	.902	2.75	3	3010	23	.469	10			6.2	0	2	2	0
2 yrs		VAN	NHL	82	72	34	30	9	188	2253	2065	.917	2.43	6	4643	38	.528	10			14.2	0	0	0	2
Career			NHL	136	121	54	51	18	326	3655	3329	.911	2.56	9	7653	61	.504	20			20.4	0	2	2	2

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/28/2017.

He’s also played in one playoff series in his NHL career (against the Flames), let’s take a look at those stats as well:

NHL Playoffs Table
	Goalie Stats	Scoring
Season	Age	Tm	Lg	GP	GS	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO	MIN	QS	QS%	RBS	GA%-	GSAA	G	A	PTS	PIM
2014-15	27	VAN	NHL	4	4	1	3	0	10	88	78	.886	3.03	0	198	2	.500	1			0	0	0	0
Career			NHL	4	4	1	3	0	10	88	78	.886	3.03	0	198	2	.500	1			0	0	0	0

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/28/2017.

We asked our friends over at The Canuck Way, the Canucks side of FanSided, for more insight on Eddie Lack. Our good friend Alex Hoegler, who is the site expert for The Canuck Way (he used to write for us here, too!) was nice enough to answer some questions we had! This is how the Q&A panned out.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – APRIL 09: Wayne Simmonds Wayne Simmonds #17 of the Philadelphia Flyers takes a shot on goal against Eddie Lack #31. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Let’s have a Q&A!

I asked Alex some questions about Eddie Lack so all of us Calgary Flames fans can get to know him a little better. Here is how it went down.

Question 1: Eddie Lack has spent most of his NHL career as a backup and his two best seasons were with the Canucks. How do you think he’ll do backing up a veteran like Mike Smith?

Alex: I think Lack is one of the most overlooked backups in the league. After the Canucks traded Roberto Luongo in 2014, Lack became the No. 1 starter and actually kept Vancouver in games. When Ryan Miller missed a couple of months in 2015, Lack held his ground and led Vancouver into the playoffs. He has the experience and calmness to be an extremely reliable backup.

Question 2: For people who don’t know Eddie Lack well, what kind of style does he play in the crease? (Does he stay low, does he leave the crease a lot, does he play the puck a lot, etc.).

Alex: From my memories of watching him in Vancouver, Lack played the classic butterfly style. None of the unorthodox stuff. He stayed in his crease and played the style you see of most goalies today. Went down a lot to make saves. Nothing too aggressive.

Calgary Flames

Question 3: How do you think he’ll fit in with a team like the Flames?

Alex: Lack is a huge character guy, one of the most lovable teammates possible. A young team like the Flames (full of big personalities), will love Lack. He’s not a selfish player, and he never puts his team down even if it’s justified. He’s going to love Calgary, a city that’s crazy about hockey like Vancouver.

Question 4: In the one playoffs that Eddie Lack played in with the Canucks in 2014-2015, he went 1-3-0 and had a sv% of 0.886. With the Calgary Flames aiming to be a cup contending team this season, do you think Lack will be able to hold his own in the playoffs?

Alex: Absolutely. Folks need to remember that goaltending was not the issue for Vancouver in the playoffs. They were way too old to keep up with the speedy and tougher Flames. That series was not on Lack or Miller. If he does have to take over for Mike Smith in the playoffs, Calgary Flames fans aren’t to worry.

Thanks a lot for answering these, Alex! So, what I gathered is that Eddie Lack will fit in just fine with the Flames (and their fans), both on and off the ice. Make sure you go give Alex a follow on Twitter @AlexHoegler and give a follow to The Canuck Way too @FSTheCanuckWay !

So what does this mean?

Does this mean that Calgary Flames fans shouldn’t worry at all about Eddie Lack? Well, no, and they wouldn’t either. It’s Flames fans. They were ready to fight Brad Treliving when he initially acquired Mike Smith.

But, maybe we can all take a deep breath. Eddie Lack will be able to hold his own, especially with the defence core he’ll have in front of him.

Next: Get to Know New Flame Travis Hamonic

Just no punching butts this season, hey Ed?

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