The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses Red Wings free agent signing Cam Talbot this morning, noting that the 37-year-old goaltender still believes that he can lead a team to playoff success:
“There were some other teams in the mix that maybe weren’t as close to making the playoffs,” Talbot said earlier this month. “I’m at the stage of my career where I’m not ready to just mail it in yet. I don’t want to give up starts. I still want to compete for starts and I still want to compete for the playoffs and I still want to win a Stanley Cup. I’ve never done that yet.”
Talbot is a veteran of 486 NHL games, spread across stints with the New York Rangers (2013-15), Edmonton Oilers (2015-19), Philadelphia Flyers (2019), Calgary Flames (2019-20), Minnesota Wild (2020-22), Ottawa Senators (2022-23) and Los Angeles Kings (2023-24). He has a 2.63 goals-against average and .914 save percentage in his career, solid numbers for a goalie who went undrafted. That’s one thing he has in common with Alex Lyon, whose rise from No. 3 to No. 1 last season gives him an edge going into 2024-25 — not that Talbot isn’t coming in with an eye to do what he did last fall, which was to end up starting 52 games. The Kings had Pheonix Copley (Michigan Tech) and David Rittich under contract when they signed Talbot; the Wings have Alex Lyon and Ville Husso under contract. So Talbot knows what it will be like come training camp.
“It was kind of the same situation I’m coming into now,” he said. “They had a guy there that had played a bunch the year before. Then they signed myself and David Rittich and it was a healthy competition to start the season. I thought I started the season really strong. Got the All-Star nod at the beginning of January. Had a little dip as did the rest of the team midway through January to beginning of February, but I think I finished strong again. Overall I’d say my season went as well as I expected it to go. I just wanted to go in there after a down year in Ottawa and prove I could still be the guy and I thought I was able to do that. Internal competition always makes everybody better, so I think that bringing in the guys that they brought in just drives everybody that much more and that’s a good thing for everybody.”
Continued (paywall, plus video from Talbot’s media availability);
Talbot has definitely “been around” as a journeyman goaltender, but his past season with Los Angeles was good enough that his 27-20-and-6 record, 2.50 goals-against average and .193 save percentage were being talked about as a dark-horse Vezina candidate at mid-season.
Talbot has been somewhat inconsistent in terms of his year-to-year stats, but during his better-years, the well-traveled goalie posts a save percentage at or above .910. If the 6’4,” 196-pound Talbot can reach that kind of save percentage, nobody’s going to be complaining about how old he is, or whether he’s able to perform at a level that can lead Detroit to a playoff berth.
Here’s hoping.
