Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

It’s time for the Steve Mason experience to end in Columbus

Steve Mason

It seems like forever ago that Steve Mason posted 10 shutouts in a season and won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. That was just the 2008-2009 season though and since then it’s been a slow decline for Mason in Columbus.

Going from a rookie year that saw him put up a goals against average of 2.25 to becoming a guy with a GAA over 3.00 is a terrifying change of pace for the Blue Jackets and with the team doing miserably once again, it’s time for the Blue Jackets to start looking around for alternatives for their starting goalie.

Yes, the Blue Jackets foolishly gave Mason a huge contract after his big year and it’s a contract that’s got one more year left on it after this one at $2.9 million. That doesn’t mean the Jackets have to stop snooping around, however. A major issue for Columbus now is they have no one to challenge Mason.

Backup goalie Mark Dekanich has been hurt since preseason and top AHL option Curtis Sanford is also banged up leaving fresh out of college rookie Allen York, formerly at RPI, to be the backup. Banking on your fourth stringer to help be your safety net is dangerous living.

Without anyone to seriously push Mason or even take the job away from him for the time being, Columbus is stuck in a bad way. If they’re unable to do anything about it, it’s an issue that could linger through til next season whether coach Scott Arniel or GM Scott Howson are there to see it through or not. Figuring things out in goal could go a long way to fixing things in Ohio.