Making Moves With Mrázek - What It Means for the Hawks and Kevin Lankinen
If you're Kevin Lankinen, the signing of Petr Mrázek has to poke you in the gut, at least a little bit. Clearly upper management doesn't believe Lanks is ready for that starting position. But even with his contract wrapping up, I don't think they've lost all hope for him.
Bringing in Mrázek feels like a last season Fleury move, albeit on a slightly lesser level. No offense to Petr, of course, because he's made the playoffs with every team he's played for in his 10 year career, and despite recent injuries and poor performance in Toronto (.888 SV%), is still a goalie to be reckoned with.
According to Blackhawks' GM Kyle Davidson, as reported by Ben Pope of CST, «We've got two years of term on him, so we don't have to worry about going into the free-agent market and dealing with a bunch of competition. We've got a guy that can come in and give us solid NHL starts.»
And he's not wrong. In his 6 years with Detroit, the Czech Republic native started 145 of 166 games, and had a record of 72-58-20, with 13 shut outs and a save percentage of .912. He started all but 2 of his 90 games in Carolina, at 50-32-8, 10 shut outs and SV% .911.
Ten years is a long time in the hockey world, and it seems like the Blackhawks' organization feels like their number 2 guy still has some things he can learn, before claiming that number 1 spot. Having Fleury around definitely helped, as it almost always does (see - Matt Murray, Robin Lehner). Even though Mrázek only has 3 years on 27 year old Lankinen, the league knows him as a leader who can play well with others, and perhaps bring out that extra something in Lanks that can either turn him into Chicago's number 1 guy in the next two years, or make him valuable enough to trade for another prospect.
Either way, I like Petr Mrázek as a Hawk. I just hope his Detroit roots don't give him too much inner rivalry grief.
| POLL | ||
Is Mrazek forever, or for now? | ||
| He'll get an extension. | 15 | 10.3 % |
| He'll be gone after 2. | 61 | 41.8 % |
| It'll depend on how he plays. | 52 | 35.6 % |
| I'm just here for the cheese fries. | 18 | 12.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
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