Tomas Vokoun might not be a “hockey household name” but he warms many a hockey nerd’s heart even though he toils away in obscurity as a member of the Florida Panthers. He might not get many wins (a stat, like baseball’s runs, that bothers geeky bloggers and stat-crunchers quite a bit), but even Vokoun is aware that he consistently ranks highly in save percentage.
The issue is that the Panthers haven’t been able to provide much goal support – and let’s be honest – most of the optimism about the Panthers focuses on the light at the end of roster rebuilding tunnel. After all, most of the improvements made to the team came about with new GM Dale Tallon’s focus on adding young talent through the aggressive addition of high-end draft picks.
It’s not crazy to notice that Vokoun might not be a part of that future, especially considering the fact that his contract will expire after the 2010-11 season. For that reason, Vokoun is looking forward to October 2010 and not much further. The Hockey News captured his short-term focus in this story.
“You have to be positive,” said Vokoun. ”There are a lot of good players on this team-maybe not as high profile as some people think.
”But it’s hockey. If we play a good team game we can beat anybody. Colorado showed it last year. We’ve just got to be a little tougher in key moments, key games. When crunch time came, we weren’t able to score or do whatever. The key is for us to show it when it matters.”
If not, it could be another early vacation for the Panthers and for Vokoun, who has made a career playing for underdogs and has only been in the playoffs twice, both times when he was with Nashville.
”It’s been a little bit easier on me because I played for the (Czech) national team at the Olympics and world championships,” he said. ”That, in a little, tiny way, substituted for playing in the playoffs.
”But it’s frustrating. I’m spending the best time of my career and obviously you want a chance to get into the playoffs.”
As that Hockey News article points out, another reason Vokoun might take a short-term outlook is because the Panthers have a high-end goalie prospect in the pipeline named Jacob Markstrom. The 20-year-old goalie is considered by some to be the best goalie prospect outside the NHL, in no small part because of the fact that the 6’4″ goalie covers up a ton of net.
If Florida stumbles out of the gate as they often do or simply look like a rebuilding team in a tough year, don’t be surprised if the expensive-but-excellent Vokoun becomes the most coveted goalie during the trade deadline. The Southeast Division boasts a bunch of intriguing stories going into the season, but the Czech goalie’s fate might have one of the biggest impacts on how this next season shakes out.
Even if he’s not a Florida Panther for the full season.
