Casey DeSmith comes over from Vancouver following the departure of Scott Wedgewood.
The Dallas Stars have signed goaltender Casey DeSmith to a three-year contract worth $1 million per year, exactly what General Manager Jim Nill was looking to spend to back up starter Jake Oettinger.
DeSmith is a career backup goaltender who is reliable and can carry a good portion of the workload if needed. He spent five seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins before moving on to the Vancouver Canucks last year. DeSmith had an up-and-down year in Vancouver, where recorded a career low save percentage of .896%. However, his goals-against average was at 2.89, which is on par with the rest of his career.
DeSmith was asked to step in and become the fill-in starter for a good portion of the second half of the season when Canucks star netminder Thatcher Demko went down with injury. DeSmith had a similar run to Stars backup Scott Wedgewood, playing double-digit games in a row before finally getting a rest in the last month of play. Arturs Silovs made his first start of the season and got a few more down the stretch, which would play into Vancouver's playoff run just a few weeks later.
After Demko came back, he re-injured himself during the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against Nashville. After allowing three goals on 15 shots in a 4-1 Game 2 loss, DeSmith responded with a 29 save performance in a hostile environment on the road in Nashville, spurning Vancouver to a 2-1 win. Before the next game, DeSmith was announced to have an injury that put Silovs in net for Vancouver, where he stayed for the entire rest of the Canucks playoff run that ended in Game 7 against Edmonton in the second round.
The 32-year-old's strengths in net are most evident in his 5v5 play, but statistically he struggles to make needed saves on the penalty kill. Luckily, the Stars penalty kill has been very strong in the last several years, so it's possible that his weakness there can be offset by the cohesion and ability of the four penalty killers in front of him.
DeSmith fills the void left by Scott Wedgewood, who left Dallas to take a two year deal with Nashville worth $1.5 million per season. Wedgewood wanted a raise, while Nill wanted to keep his backup goalie number right at the $1 million mark that DeSmith agreed to. Despite some shaky stretches, DeSmith has had more good games than bad over the past several seasons and could prove to be a great value behind Oettinger, who will assuredly carry a heavy workload when healthy.
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