The Buffalo Sabres may want to address their goaltending situation in the offseason. Linus Ullmark showed some improvement last season, but he hasn’t shown the ability to be an unquestioned starter moving forward. He’s a restricted free agent this summer, and it would be surprising if he’s not brought back.

Carter Hutton, on the other hand, is coming off a poor season. A few months ago it came out that he battled vision issues during the season and that may have contributed to his struggles. Having said that, it may be wise for the Sabres to look for an upgrade over Hutton.

The catch is that he has one more year remaining on his contract. Therefore, they either need to trade him, buy him out, or waive him if they want to move on.

Short Term Solution

This offseason is a good one to go looking for help in goal. A handful of goalies will be available in free agency and a few more will be up for grabs in the trade market as well. One player that could be a short term solution for the Sabres in Cam Talbot.

The 33-year-old goaltender spent this past season with the Calgary Flames splitting the crease with David Rittich. He was the goalie that was given the net in the play-in round and first round of the playoffs. Outside of the elimination game against the Dallas Stars, Talbot played good enough for the Flames to win. You can see in Sean’s chart below that he was nearly two goals saved above expected.

He had a bounce-back season after a rough 2018-19 campaign where he spent most of the season with the Edmonton Oilers before being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. In two of the last three years, Talbot has been among the top 30 goaltenders in the league in Evolving Hockey’s goals saved above expected model.

Talbot has faced some of the highest quality attempts against among all of the free-agent goaltenders this year. He ranks in the middle of the pack in goals saved above expected over the past three years. If the Sabres remain of the top 10 shot suppression teams in the league, as they were this past season, Talbot should be able to give them league average results. Which is something that hasn’t been the case in the last few years.

Talbot is the goaltending option for the Sabres that is at the top of the list, but he’s far from the worse idea. They can likely get him on a short term deal to work roughly a 60/40 split with Ullmark for the next year or so while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen continues to develop in the AHL.

His current contract carried a cap hit of $2.75 million and I would imagine his next contract would come in less than that. A two-year deal at a cap hit around $2 million would make sense.

Data via: Evolving Hockey and Charting Hockey

Photo Credit: Derek Leung/Getty Images