Curtis McElhinney’s time with the Blue Jackets has been an up and down affair. The public opinion surrounding him has always been solid as many have accepted who he is as a player. If others have accepted the type of player he is, then why is he still on the team? He has reached his potential and is still unable to give the Blue Jackets a consistently good player in net. Is there something I am missing when evaluating him? Let’s take a look.
The Eye Test
When you watch Curtis McElhinney, it doesn’t inspire confidence. Comparatively to other goalies he isn’t as fast or as agile as others. He comes way out of his net to cut down angles but in reality it brings him out of position. If he was an athletic specimen he could come out of his net effectively, unfortunately for him, those days are long gone. Watching him play on a consistent basis, you see glimpses of a good goaltender, a goaltender whose play got him to the NHL. He can have a good stretch where he makes adequate but not great saves. He was never that flashy of a player and because of it, the reputation around him is that he is a solid goalie that can get the job done.
The Stats
One of my favorite recent tools outside of Hero Chart’s are these SAVE Chart’s (shown above). They really hammer home the “picture is worth a thousand words” idiom. I could have compared McElhinney to Bobrovsky but I figured a more generous way of comparing him, was to goalies his age. It doesn’t really matter how you slice it, McElhinney isn’t very good. Most goalies his age at least approach league average in most categories. The only part that he excels in is Low-Danger Save Percentage where he is slightly above league average. The part that saves him is the cheap contract that can be easily buried if necessary.
The Grade
When looking back on McElhinney’s past performances, you see glimpses of why teams have given him a chance over and over again. He had a couple of stretches with the Senators and Ducks where he had a .917 save percentage. Very respectable and puts him right around the league’s average. The problem is the inconsistency and the aging curve that has begun to catch up with him.
His .914 save percentage in 2014-15 is more of an outlier then anything else and even then, it isn’t great. If the arugment you are standing on to play Mac is built on a below average season, it is already flawed. What we saw from McElhinney this past season is more in line from what we have seen from him in the past and as he begins to grow older, he isn’t going to become a brand new goaltender.
Plainly, the Blue Jackets can’t have a .890 sv% goalie on their roster, the Jackets know it and McElhinney has to know it. If he comes in at or around the same level as last year, he won’t be long for the Blue Jackets roster.
Grade: D-
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
