By Jordan Long
The Boston Bruins are into the offseason. The major unrestricted free agent on the team is goaltender Anton Khudobin. They would like to keep him as the backup goaltender to Tuukka Rask.
Khudobin was reliable when he started games. The Bruins could trust him to save pucks from entering the net. Khudobin was 16-6-7 and his goals against average was 2.56. Those are decent numbers but his save percentage was an impressive .913. In the postseason he appeared for 26 minutes and 37 seconds making 8 saves.
The Bruins are going to do whatever they can to keep Khudobin. He might be in high demand because of the way he played this year. If Khudobin wasn’t with the Bruins, he could start for any team. The Bruins may have to pay him more than the market value of a normal backup to keep him.
If the Bruins are unable to reach a deal with him, there are other goaltenders who could backup Rask including Jonathan Bernier and Kari Lehtonen. Bernier appeared in 37 games for Colorado going 19-13-3 as the backup to Semyon Varlamov. His goals against average was 2.85 with a save percentage of .913. If not for his play down the stretch, Colorado wouldn’t have made the postseason.
In the playoffs Bernier struggled with a record of 1-3 with a 3.87 goals against average and a .883 save percentage. Colorado hopes to re-sign him. If he is a free agent, Bernier is the top backup goaltender. Bruins shouldn’t miss a chance to talk to him. Bernier fills the void and could backup Rask.
Lehtonen’s record with the Dallas Stars was subpar at 15-14-3. He was still stopping the puck with a 2.56 goals against average. He is a respectable goaltender and wouldn’t be a bad choice for Boston.
The Bruins must make the best decision for the hockey team moving forward. They shouldn’t overpay for a backup goaltender even if they want to keep Khudobin. Boston has plenty of time to figure out who will be the backup to Rask.
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