The importance of having two reliable goalies was perfectly demonstrated by the 2014-15 Dallas Stars.
Unfortunately for the Stars, it was demonstrated in a bad way.
This year, with Antti Niemi joining Kari Lehtonen, they’re hoping to show it in a good way.
“We’ve got two No. 1 goalies,” GM Jim Nill told The Dallas Morning News. “If there’s an injury or one of them is struggling, we’ve got time to get it corrected. We know when we go into a back-to-back situation, we have a fresh goalie that will be able to come in and win a game for us. I’m excited. We’ve had some good talks with both goalies and they’re excited. Kari went into a lot of games last year knowing he had to play even though he was tired, hurt, or whatever. He knows now that he has a comfort level.”
Nill had better hope his plan works, because based on combined cap hit, no team is spending as much on goaltending as Dallas.
Above figures from war-on-ice.com.