The Kings will sign goalie Cam Talbot to a one-year contract, as first reported, fittingly, by NHL goalie turned multi-platform media personality Kevin Weekes.
Talbot, who will turn 36 on Wednesday, will fill out a goalie tandem that already included Pheonix Copley, who went from toiling in the minors to righting the Kings’ ship last season before playing sparingly in the playoffs.
Exact terms of Talbot’s deal were not yet disclosed, but the annual average value for both goalies will come almost certainly in under $3 million, meaning the Kings went from having one of the priciest (and least effective) netminding duos in the league last season to what will be among the very lowest expenditures for goaltending this season (with its efficacy remaining to be seen).
As mentioned in SCNG’s trade-deadline preview last season, when Talbot was potentially available as a member of the Ottawa Senators, Talbot played under Todd McLellan with the Edmonton Oilers. Most notably, he started a whopping 73 games in 2016-17, when Edmonton was eliminated by the Ducks in the second round, and 67 the following season.
Talbot saw his performance dip after those rigorous campaigns, playing for four teams in three seasons. He rebounded during stints with Calgary and Minnesota, where he re-established himself as a starter before the acquisition of three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc Andre-Fleury made him expendable (Talbot was traded for Filip Gustavsson, who became a dark-horse Vezina Trophy contender this season).
Last year, Talbot plied his trade in Ottawa, where he posted a 17-14-2 record with an .898 save percentage and 2.93 goals-against. Those figures were below the league average across 36 appearances for Talbot for the Senators, an up-and-coming team in a fiercely competitive division.
After machinations to dump unfavorable contracts, most notably that of goalie Cal Petersen, the re-signing of Vladislav Gavrikov and a massive, multi-faceted investment in acquiring center Pierre-Luc Dubois, the Kings had to get creative just to sign a goalie. It’s unclear how many roster players they will carry, but it won’t be 23, per GM Rob Blake, for much of the season and it could be as low as 21 initially, giving them just one extra available skater.
More to come on this story.
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