Sanford Anyone?

by disposablehero on Jan 14, 2009 5:48 PM CST Comment 5 comments

Clearly Tippett and Co. don't trust poor Tobias Stephan, and obviously Turco has been the team's biggest weakness this season.

Sanford is out there on waivers, ripe for the picking. He's a solid veteran backup that might be able to gain some trust and carry them through a few games next time Turco forgets where he placed his confidence.

I say go get him... agreed?

need a few more words to meet the minimum.... Red Wings suck. There we go.

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I dunno

I mean, Sanford has good stats this season (He has a 7-8-0 record this season with a 2.59 GAA and .906 save percentage), and would be good here to spell Turco every now and then, but is it worth the risk of possibly losing Stephan? I know a lot of scouts are high on him, believing that he could be a starting goalie in this league, so is it worth the risk losing him to waivers?

Its a tough decision that I’m glad I don’t have to make

Is it Spring Training Yet?

by Smoak Some on Jan 14, 2009 6:35 PM CST reply actions

Waivers...

How exactly does the hockey waiver system work? I assume it is not like baseball where you have so many opportunities to move player up and down before he gets exposed to waivers. IF Stephan ends up on waivers in order to pick up Sanford, then I would not do it. I think Stephan has too much upside to let him go that easily…and someone WILL pick him up.

by chichitao on Jan 14, 2009 6:39 PM CST up reply actions

Stephan

has enough service years since signing his first contract that he would have to pass through waivers, I believe. Maybe somebody could confirm that.

Disagree on Stephan’s upside and the possibility of him getting claimed, however. He is largely viewed as a guy that will be a career backup. Nice player with great size, but not really expected to be a future starter. Not sure if there’s anyone out there that would view him as an upgrade right now over their current backup goaltender and put in a claim on him.

and to chichitao, the NHL waiver system is based on service time and NHL games played…. if a player has been around x number of years since signing their first professional contract, or has played in y number of games in the NHL, he must go through waivers before being sent down to the minors. I’m pretty sure Stephan has met the first criterion as he was drafted in ’02.

by disposablehero on Jan 14, 2009 7:18 PM CST up reply actions

We've been spoiled with backup talent in Dallas

Turek, Fernandez, Smith, etc. I don’t think there’s a reason to believe Stephan couldn’t be just as good. I think the Stars just aren’t in a position right now to entrust games with valuable points at hand to a rookie backup. This year’s team isn’t sitting on their usual playoff cushion, enabling Tipp to give Marty random nights off for rest.

I don’t think you can place Stephan’s lack of playing time solely on Tippett’s faith in him because Marty got hung out to dry fairly frequently early in the season. Granted, Marty wasn’t everything he should have been early in the year, but he certainly wasn’t getting much help from the likes of a struggling Niskanen or a young Janik.

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by RPT on Jan 14, 2009 8:20 PM CST reply actions