Last July, when Brian Elliott signed a one year contract worth $600k with the St. Louis Blues many people thought he would be an average back up to Jaroslav Halak and maybe get into 15 to 20 games tops. With Blues prospect Jake Allen still needing another season in the AHL, and their other farm team option Ben Bishop not looking like he was ready for NHL back up duties, Elliott was a cheap option off the Wal-Mart clearance shelf.
At the start of the season, Halak struggled and Elliott was able to string together some wins and get some well-deserved playing time. The Blue fired their coach, Davis Payne, after only 13 games into the season with the team sporting a 6-7 record. Halak was 1-6 in that stretch and Elliott had a 5-1 record.
New Blues coach, Ken Hitchcock, has both goalies playing well now, as Halak has picked it up of late and the Blues have only lost 4 games in regulation so far with Hitchcock behind the bench. The Blues are sitting 5th in the West with 21 wins, 11 losses and 4 overtime losses. Quite the turnaround for the Blues, but also one hell of a turnaround for Brian Elliott who is looking like the steal of free agency.
Grabbed him off of waivers in my Yahoo Pool a month ago.
ReplyDeleteFor a guy who could very well win the Bill Masterton trophy at year's end (especially if Sidney's still out), Tomas Fleischmann has sure had a hell of a season.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I still have Halak in my Yahoo pool... going to stick it out!
What a turnaround, I wonder how many games it will take for him to reach his Goals Against with Colorado!
ReplyDeleteI don't think he can be the best UFA signing if he is only playing half the games so far for St Louis.
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