Let’s face it, things aren’t looking very rosy for Marty Turco at this point. There isn’t a slap-you-in-the-face obvious destination for the veteran puck-mover, so the goalie is playing the waiting game right now.
Still, as I discussed last night, he can bring something to the table. Does that mean he’s worthy of the contract he expects to receive? Probably not, but I feel confident in saying that he deserves a deal somewhere. (I’m also on record of saying that he might be wise to consider taking a chance with a one-year contract to prove his worth in the longer haul.)
With that taken into account, I thought it might be interesting to see who might consider giving Turco a shot. I want to emphasize that I have no insider information here; in fact, this is almost a brainstorming exercise more than anything else. Some of these teams would be long shots and maybe there are squads whose interest I incorrectly disregard. Still, here are a few teams who might make marginal sense.
As you’ll notice, none of them are anywhere close to perfect fits.
Edmonton – The Oilers are trying to bounce back from a horrible, horrible 2008-09 season. There’s an outside chance that they might be able to get out from under a problematic Nikolai Khabibulin contract, but either way, they’re far from settled in net. Two things would be imperative here: a) it would probably need to be a one-year deal and b) it also might have to be cheap, despite the Oilers’ substantial cap space.
Philadelphia – The Flyers are already over the cap, but they’re likely to move a piece or two after adding Nikolai Zherdev. They have Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher under contract, but considering the two goalies’ minuscule cap numbers, they could probably move one of them if they wanted to. He’d also be their best “fiery puck mover” since beloved goalie Ron Hextall hung up his skates.
San Jose – ESPN shot down Turco to San Jose rumors, but again, this is a highly hypothetical exercise. The bottom line is that a goalie duo of Antero Niittymaki and Thomas Greiss is far from proven. Perhaps the Sharks will want a little insurance, especially since Greiss is (in my opinion) a fairly expendable goalie?
After the jump, I explore more long-shot possibilities for Turco.
Columbus – So at this point we’re down to a lot of “Three’s Company” scenarios (without the foxy dames, sadly). Blue Jackets fans beat up on me a bit when I suggested that the Blue Jackets might consider Turco in March, but after Steve Mason’s Hindenburg-sque sophomore season, why not? Mason might rebound, but why tie your hopes to him and steady-but-mediocre Mathieu Garon? This one’s almost starting to make a little sense …
Chicago – With Antti Niemi set for salary arbitration and Cristobal Huet’s laughable cap hit primed for a possible relocation to the minors or the KHL, the Blackhawks and Turco could be an unlikely marriage. The guys at Hockeenight won’t be happy with this scenario, but if Turco came in a cheap, one-year deal he could be worth settling for. (And on Turco’s end, he could benefit from a still-strong team boosting his stats for a season.)
Washington – The Caps seem fine with counting on youngsters Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth, a duo sure to depress spell-checkers around the D.C. area. I put them in the San Jose category; it seems like they’re set with putting an affordable combo in net, but I include them because it at least makes some sense for them to consider Turco.
Ottawa – The Senators lack much maneuverability when it comes to their goalies, particularly the stupidly expensive flop known as Pascal Leclaire. Still, the team is hurting in net and has enough expensive and/or veteran players (Sergei Gonchar, Jason Spezza, Alex Kovalev, Daniel Alfredsson) that you can’t really make a “rebuild mode” excuse. Even for this list, they’re not highly likely, but I would argue they’d be more stable in net with Turco than Leclaire or Brian Elliott.
Montreal – This is the longest of the long-shots, I’d say, but what if the Habs decide they don’t want to pay Carey Price to be an average goalie with a considerable junior pedigree? Bonus points for the comedy of reuniting the not-so-dynamic duo of Turco and last year’s backup in Dallas, Alex Auld.
So, what have we learned from this little experiment? Well, there aren’t many good matches. Almost every single scenario would require an incumbent getting kicked out. That being said, there is some logic to these teams at least taking a glance at Turco.
What do you think? Should one of these teams roll the dice? Did I leave out a more logical suitor out in this process? Share your thoughts in the comments.
