Appreciating Cam Talbot, Because No One Else Will

When the season ends, only one goaltender will have accomplished the following:

• Started 70 games
• Finished top ten in save percentage among goaltenders with at least 50 starts
• Finished top seven in even-strength save percentage among goaltenders with at least 50 starts
• Top five in wins
• Anchored a 25-point turnaround (at least) in the standings over last year and a trip to the postseason

That goaltender isn't Carey Price, Braden Holtby, Henrik Lundqvist, or Devan Dubnyk. It's not a former first-round pick or second-round pick—or any-round pick, for that matter. It's not any one of the 20 biggest cap hits among goaltenders.

It's Cam Talbot, the 29-year-old undrafted guy from the University of Alabama-Huntsville with a $4.16 million cap hit in just his second season as a starter. A consistent workhorse for a team lacking a reliable backup goaltender, he is one of the biggest reasons the Edmonton Oilers are returning to the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

And it's likely to go down as one of the most underappreciated performances in NHL history.

There are, without a doubt, Oilers fans who watch every game and understand his value. If Talbot goes out to The Keg in Edmonton, there's a chance someone will pay for his steak and potatoes.

But it's not everyone, and on a national level Talbot's season could get lost to history.

Want an example of not appreciating Talbot? The local Edmonton chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association chose to nominate Patrick Maroon for the Masterton Trophy—given each year to the player "who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey"—instead of Talbot. Maroon's resume for persevering and dedicating himself features him overcoming being traded for a fourth-round pick and being out of shape last year. That's how Maroon got the award.

Talbot spent three years playing college hockey in a state that cares more about the Alabama football spring game than a team that at the time was losing way more than it was winning. Then Talbot plied his trade in the AHL for four years, existing in a Rangers organization that featured Henrik Lundqvist in his prime. If those seven years don't sap your desire to play in the NHL, nothing will.

But Talbot got his chance in 2014-15, when Lundqvist had to sit out for almost two months after injuring a blood vessel in his neck, and he ran with it all the way to a starting gig in Edmonton last season.

If you're thinking Talbot wasn't a Masterton nominee this year because he got the nod last year, that's when it went to Matt Hendricks because he blocks shots (and probably because he ran Aaron Ekblad from behind last season).

But hey, it's just the Masterton. No one plays for the Masterton. It just happens by accident, usually because you've overcome an illness or plain old sucking. It's not a coveted individual award.

So what about the Vezina Trophy? Or the Hart Trophy? Talbot seems to have credentials worthy of those awards, doesn't he?

It's possible Talbot is one of the three Vezina finalists, but it seems unlikely. Sergei Bobrovsky of the Blue Jackets, Devan Dubnyk of the Wild, and Holtby of the Capitals all have more impressive resumes, as does the Canadiens' Price. It's not as though Talbot is having anything stolen from him if he doesn't get a free trip to Las Vegas for the NHL Awards in June.

But while Talbot lags behind those guys in save percentage and goals-against average, what about the value of those numbers in relation to his workload?

Talbot will have played about ten more games than his Vezina rivals when the season is over. He will be the first goaltender in five years to start as many as 73 games as long as he appears in four of the Oilers' final five games. And while some enjoy the narrative of Adam Larsson coming over in the Taylor Hall trade and solidifying a weak blue line, the Oilers still allow a ton of high-danger chances, which Talbot has turned aside as effectively as almost anyone.

In one sense, Talbot, Holtby, and Bob have better cases for the Vezina than Dubnyk based on the danger of shots they face. — Good Tweet Pete (@peterhassett)March 26, 2017

For Talbot to get a Vezina nod, all that has to happen is for general managers—a group that includes some people who decided not to draft Talbot or trade for him two years ago—to embrace the analytics that show his value beyond basic save percentage and goals-against average.

Yeah, so it's probably not happening.

As for the Hart, well, yeah.

It's hard enough for a goaltender to win the Hart— in 2015, Price became the fourth goaltender in 52 years to do it. On top of that, the Oilers have Connor McDavid. It's impossible for a goaltender who isn't leading the league by a mile in every major category and who also has the NHL's points leader on his team to win the Hart. If Talbot cracks the top ten in Hart voting, it would be a surprise. It's not that Talbot deserves the Hart, necessarily, but in most any other situation, given what he's done, there'd at least be serious talk about it.

Throw in the fact that all the things making Talbot look so great now—facing so many high-danger chances, the massive workload—will all likely work against him in the postseason. Seven games worth of high-danger chances from the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, or Calgary Flames coupled with the fact that Talbot will likely play 20 more games than he's ever played in a season, and an early postseason exit seems very possible. A bad six games will be the last thing people remember.

A decade from now, when McDavid is swimming in trophies and Oilers fans are taking for granted all the playoff berths with someone else between the pipes, Talbot's 2016-17 will probably look like just another decent season by an NHL goaltender.

But really, it will have been so much more than that.

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