The Minnesota Wild have officially traded goalie Cam Talbot to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for goalie Filip Gustavsson.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion gave a statement on the deal in a team release:
Cam is experienced and provides us with greater goaltending stability heading into next season. He was instrumental in helping Minnesota reach the playoffs in each of his two seasons with the Wild. The tandem of he and Anton Forsberg sets us up nicely for the upcoming year.
The trade is an important one financially for Minnesota. It’s a net cap hit decrease of $2.9MM, giving the Wild and general manager Bill Guerin some (small) flexibility heading into the opening of free agency tomorrow.
It was clear Talbot wasn’t happy with Minnesota’s decision to retain Marc-Andre Fleury on a two-year deal, and now he’ll get another job as a clear-cut 1A goalie (at worst) with the Senators. The Senators now have a more experienced and upgraded goalie tandem taking them into next season as they aim to make some noise in the Eastern Conference, essentially swapping out the oft-injured Matt Murray with Talbot for the cost of Gustavsson, a third-round pick, and a seventh-round pick. In 49 games with the Wild last year, the 35-year-old Talbot had a 32-12-4 record, three shutouts, 2.76 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
The deal isn’t without on-ice merit for the Wild, either. Gustavsson is young and has decent upside, and while he doesn’t steal the “goalie of the future” tag claimed by Jesper Wallstedt, he fills the void in the organization left by Kaapo Kahkonen as a long-term tandem or backup option. Originally a second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016, Gustavsson now finds himself with his third NHL organization by no fault of his own. He’s stepped in 27 games as a Senator over the past two years, maintaining a career 10-13-3 record and a .905 save percentage. Those numbers are bound to improve with increased development and more stout defense in the State of Hockey.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes was the first to report Talbot heading to Ottawa.
lapcheung39
The leafs better off with Talbot!!!
jawman74
“I don’t have shit to do, Cam Talbot’s under contract” — Bill Guerin, less than a week ago
66TheNumberOfTheBest
I like this trade for both teams and yeah, this makes Dubas look even dumber.
Not a huge fan of Talbot but he was good for 80% of his time with Minny. Matt has been flaming garbage for years now.
Also, turns out Billy did “have to do ****”.
jdgoat
Summer of Pierre continues.
Grocery stick
I was literally asking “Is this really Pierre Dorion pulling off all those deals?” From my armchair he looks like a different GM this summer. (Or is it just the change in ownership?) I also liked his draft. Took a lot of risk with his picks.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
The thing about Dorion is he’s actually made a bunch of good moves, it was just all overshadowed by making one of the worst (if not, the worst) trades in NHL history by shipping a boatload of stuff to COL for that DOG, Matt Duchene.
Ironically, one of his good moves was fleecing us for that other DOG, Derrick Brassard…which, coincidentally featured Gustavsson.
TJECK109
2 former Penguins in net for the Wild
Grocery stick
and none of them is called Matt Murray
Gbear
When was the last time you thought to yourself “the Sens had a good off-season”? :o
The Mistake of Giving Eugene Melnyk a Liver Transplant
When did Melnyk buy the team?
uvmfiji
Savings? Are they paying Kaprisov next year?
waterdog311
The leafs missed an opportunity here, maybe they did their due diligence on The Mrs and decided to pass.
pawtucket
So who’s the backup now?
Josh Erickson
Gustavsson in Minnesota, Forsberg in Ottawa
The Mistake of Giving Eugene Melnyk a Liver Transplant
Something is different about the way Pierre Dorion works lately. It is almost like he suddenly is good at his job! Clearly nothing external has changed in the organization, so it must be internal to him.
DarkSide830
maybe Dorian is just good at win-now moves?
uvmfiji
Cam has no chance of winning a cup now
Nha Trang
What, did you see Minnesota going much of anywhere this year? He wasn’t winning a Cup as it stood.
User 318310488
Talbot Is a glorified backup. Minnesota needs to rebuild. Has anyone seen Kaprizov?