Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The confusion over the Bruins’ decision to sign Jonas Gustavsson to a one-year contract this weekend was twofold.
For starters (OK, backups), the Bruins seemingly already had their No. 2 goalie for the season in Jeremy Smith. That obviously changed when the B’s gave Gustavsson the keys and Smith a ticket to Iowa.
Equally as notable, however, is that Gustavsson being the backup isn’t a particularly safe play. The former Maple Leaf and Red Wing couldn’t stay healthy last season, but that isn’t the extent of his concerns. His .901 career save percentage wasn’t skewed by a bad season or two: In each of his six seasons in the NHL, he has been below the league average in save percentage. It would be optimistic to assume that will change playing behind what could be a rocky defense this season.
Meanwhile, the Bruins backups always were above the league average over the last six seasons, including the discarded Niklas Svedberg last season.
There was no sure thing in the Bruins’ backup goaltending battle. The choice was to either go with the inexperienced Smith (zero NHL games but a .933 save percentage in 39 AHL games last season) or put faith in Gustavsson’s experience despite that it hasn’t been particularly good experience.
“It wasn’t just because of experience,” Claude Julien said. “We looked at different things. At the end of the day we took that direction, and I’m saying this again: We had to make a decision and it could have gone either way, but we made that one based on how we felt. Maybe it’s a slight, slight edge but even we can be wrong and maybe you do get to see Smitty back here again. We’re not saying that this is it [and] this is what we’re going with for the whole season. We’re keeping our options open there as well.”
Gustavsson, who was limited to seven NHL games with the Red Wings last season by a separated shoulder and concussion issues, admitted that he was unsure of whether he would get an NHL job this season. The Bruins opened that door by giving him a professional tryout, with saw him stop 42 of the 45 shots he saw in one and a half preseason games.
“In the summer when a lot of the teams signed their goalies [and] there wasn’t many spots open anymore, obviously you’ve got to be realistic and think about, ‘Maybe I’m going to have to go and play somewhere else,’ ” the 30-year-old netminder said. “My goal was to play here, but there’s only so many spots. At one point, you’ve got to be realistic. I know I didn’t play that many games last season, so I knew it was going to be tough, but I just tried to stay positive and hope that I would get a chance somewhere. I’m happy I got the chance here.”
Health and performance will dictate how long Gustavsson’s chance will last. The fact that the Bruins used a contract on another goalie when they didn’t need to shows that they feel the difference between him and Smith wasn’t close, but the B’s do have options if Gustavsson is to falter or get hurt.
“It’s not like it’s over now,” Gustavsson said. “Now you’ve got to keep pushing yourself and prove that you’re supposed to be here. I’m happy to get the contract done, but it’s just another day. You take the next step and try to help yourself and help the team win some games.”
Check out the latest Bruins Podcast, a 6-Pack of questions to preview the season, with DJ Bean and Ken Laird:
