After being put on waivers yesterday and clearing, Eddie Lack has been sent down to Stockton. The Calgary Flames recalled David Rittich.
Yesterday morning, Eddie Lack was put on waivers. After nobody recalling him, he cleared waivers which means that the Calgary Flames were able to send him down to the Stockton Heat, the Flames’ AHL affiliate.
Everyone was wondering if Jon Gillies or David Rittich were going to be recalled or if GM Brad Treliving had something else up his sleeve. But the Flames announced that the Rittich has been recalled from Stockton.
Like I mentioned yesterday, Lack has only started in two games and has relieved Mike Smith in two other games. He unfortunately hasn’t had the best success this season. This season, he’s 1-2-0 with an SV% of 0.813. He has allowed 12 goals on just 64 shots.
Related Story: Eddie Lack placed on waivers
Rittich has only played in one NHL game which was the last game of the season last season. He only played in the third period where he allowed one goal on 10 shots against. Not too shabby. He’s also been the better goaltender between him and Gillies down in Stockton.
Gillies right now is 5-4-1 with an SV% of 0.919. Rittich on the other hand is 5-1-0 with an SV% of 0.931.
Many people on Twitter don’t feel that it’s fair for Eddie Lack to be placed on waivers since he’s barely even had a shot. And Treliving agrees. He says he needs some games in and he won’t get that up at the NHL level with how well Mike Smith’s been playing. Down in the AHL, he can get some minutes and get more comfortable between the pipes.
Over the last two seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes, Lack’s numbers have taken a bit of a hit. He had a 0.901 and 0.902 SV%, respectively. He mainly served as a backup with the Hurricanes, playing just 20 games. His record wasn’t terrible last season, especially for a backup, going 8-7-3, but it hasn’t been cutting it this season. However, giving him the benefit of the doubt, he only starts one game a month right now. Hard for him to improve on that.
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Let’s hope he does whatever he needs to do down in Stockton and gets his confidence and abilities back up.