With the departure of Mike Smith, it seems pretty evident that Calgary Flames goaltender David Rittich will begin the upcoming season as the de facto starter. At the very least, he’ll be the 1A. But as the Flames and Rittich’s representatives hash out a new deal for the restricted free agent, a look at recent contracts signed by goaltenders point towards an interesting realization: contractually, there aren’t many goalies like Rittich out there.
Rittich is 26 years old. He has three seasons of North American hockey under his belt: one in an AHL tandem, one where he worked as an NHL backup, and one where he played just over half of an NHL season.