The Minnesota Wild have signed free-agent goaltender Cam Talbot. The team was in the market for a new goalie, after Devan Dubnyk got traded to the San Jose Sharks earlier in the month. Talbot’s new deal is three-years long and has a grand price of $11 million, or roughly $3.67 million per year.
Cam Talbot is going to the #mnwild
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) October 9, 2020
Minnesota Wild Signs Cam Talbot
Talbot is a 33-year-old goaltender who has played nine seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames. Over his career, Talbot has played in 324 games, won 155 of them, posted 24 shutouts and has a career 2.60 goals-against-average and .916 save percentage.
Last season in Calgary, Talbot split regular season games with David Rittich, but became the team’s starter in the playoffs. In 26 regular season games, Talbot won 12 and had a .919 save percentage, which was 13th in the league. In 10 playoff games, Talbot had a .924 save percentage.
Talbot had an unusual pathway to the NHL. He was never drafted and played college hockey with the University of Huntsville-Alabama. The school that only has him and Jared Ross (13 career NHL games) as their NHL alumni. In his third season, Talbot had a .925 save percentage and led his school to their second-ever NCAA tournament berth. At the end of the season he signed with the Rangers. Three-years later he was a full-time NHL goalie.
What this Means for the Future
The Wild are getting a reliable goalie in Talbot. He’s not a star, but he can be their starting goalie, or be in a tandem pairing and give them a quality start. Talbot is at his best when he faces many shots that he is reasonably expected to stop. Among the top-40 goalies in ice-time over the past three seasons, Talbot has the sixth-worst high-danger save percentage. He’s a goalie than can win a game his team is expected to win, but he won’t be counted on to steal many of them.
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