Claimed:Goalie Talk [Reviewed]

[Tagger 2,722]

So New York are out of the playoffs which saw us fall short of our attempt to repeat our Continental Cup success from last season. While there’s been a few changes in personnel in between the two seasons (Thomas O’Malley and Lloyd Light retired to be replaced by Freedom McJustice and Kerkko Hyvarinen), one change has been brought up by some as a big reason why New York did not repeat. Blake Campbell, the Americans goalie from the previous season, used his player option to enter Free Agency and he was replaced by GM rule player Atticus Von Braxton IV. While Von Braxton had a solid regular season, his form took a nosedive during the playoffs as he was only able to put up a .871 save percentage in a seven game series that was ultimately won by the Seattle Bears. A comment by CowboyInAmerica (agent of Hans Wingate) in the Game 7 game thread seemed to indicate that he felt it was a mistake to let Campbell go and instead elect to move forward with the rookie Von Braxton, however despite the result, I still feel that the right move was made and, if I was given a chance to do so, I would absolutely make the same decision again. Here’s why:

First of all, if salary was no barrier, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I wanted to keep Campbell and Campbell wanted to stay here, but unfortunately keeping Campbell meant we would have been $3 Million over the cap. We could have traded Campbell for a low pick, but we wanted to allow Campbell the opportunity to choose his next team as thanks for getting us out of a sticky situation after Niklaus Mikaelson retired.  

 

It’s easy to say that a team who releases a player who’d just been the best at his position the previous year has made a mistake, but with these kind of decisions, there’s always more to it than that. Had Campbell elected to stay with the team his TPE should have had him earning $3.25 Million Dollars, but a contract extension that was signed in Season 46 ensured that Campbell would earn $3.75 Million if he stayed. So combined with Atticus Von Braxton IV’s $1.5 Million salary, the New York Americans would have been spending $5.25 Million just on goalies, more than any of the other playoff teams.

 

Now, if Blake Campbell was the best goalie in the VHL, then maybe spending that much on goalies would make sense. However, after hitting the second tier of his regression, Blake Campbell was now sitting at 74 overall which has him sitting as comfortably the sixth best goalie in the league (The previous season, Blake Campbell was the third highest overall goalie) and also would have been the lowest overall starting goalie in the playoffs had he stayed with the Americans. In a league where every dollar spent counts, spending more than your competition at a goalie position where you are considerably weaker leads to you having less money to spend on skaters than your competition, meaning that your competition would also likely be better at that position as well.

 

I’m over 500 words, so I’ll make a part two of this, where I’ll look at other justifications for sticking with Von Braxton such as; the recent success of younger goalies, the lack of recent success of teams that run with a two goalie system and regular season stats that suggest Braxton should have been OK in the playoffs.

[Phil 5,111]

Fantastic insight as you explain your goaltending situation. It`s a shame for you guys that Von Braxton`s inexperience was ultimately your guys undoing this season, but overall this will be great for the future. I look forward to part ii

[CowboyinAmerica 2,842]

OK. I get the reasoning, but what I'm curious about and would be interested in hearing your thoughts in part two since it's not one of your justifications there: It looks like you're treating this as choice A (von Braxton) or choice B (Campbell + von Braxton). But where is choice C, and the one I was focusing on in my statement: Campbell, but trading von Braxton? In that case, you're only about $1.5M over, either the price of Nezhmetdinov or downgrading the depreciating and inactive Delicious slightly.

 

I feel like it's the exact same thing I criticized Calgary for in Season 46 - you have to know what your window of opportunity is. For New York, it's probably now through Season 50, maybe even before then if McJustice can't be replaced. What's the point of holding onto a S47 goalie in that case, building for a future where you won't be contending anyway? Wouldn't it be smarter to ride out a proven thing in Campbell, then pick up one of the glut of goalies currently in the league (hey there, Weinstein) if you want and try in S50 or 51? Not to mention that you literally can't bring your next player up until Advantage is traded anyway.

Edited May 1, 2016 by CowboyinAmerica

[Tagger 2,722]

4 minutes ago, CowboyinAmerica said:

OK. I get the reasoning, but what I'm curious about and would be interested in hearing your thoughts in part two since it's not one of your justifications there: It looks like you're treating this as choice A (von Braxton) or choice B (Campbell + von Braxton). But where is choice C, and the one I was focusing on in my statement: Campbell, but trading von Braxton? In that case, you're only about $1.5M over, either the price of Nezhmetdinov or downgrading the depreciating and inactive Delicious slightly.

 

I feel like it's the exact same thing I criticized Calgary for in Season 46 - you have to know what your window of opportunity is. For New York, it's probably now through Season 50, maybe even before then if McJustice can't be replaced. What's the point of holding onto a S47 goalie in that case, building for a future where you won't be contending anyway? Wouldn't it be smarter to ride out a proven thing in Campbell, then pick up one of the glut of goalies currently in the league (hey there, Weinstein) if you want and try in S50 or 51? Not to mention that you literally can't bring your next player up until Advantage is traded anyway.

I'll probably address some of those issues you brought up in my next article. There was actually a point where a trade was discussed with Von Braxton to do with a vacant GM job, but there were some excessive demands that kept that from happening. 

[Evans 305]

Review: Maybe it's just me, but taking in a young guy like that is always the route to go. His value in the trade market could easily net you something more valuable than the sixth best goalie in the long run. Whether he stays or not, you have that position filled so it seems like a win-win in my eyes. Although I could have no idea what I am talking about in this league regarding this. Good article with nice insight on the decision.

[Kendrick 4,741]

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