Canucks: 3 possible back-up goalie options for next season

3. Laurent Brossoit

This one is relatively new to the list.

Brossoit spent the last three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, serving as the back-up netminder to starter Connor Hellebuyck. During his time in Winnipeg, the Port Alberni native played in 54 games, where he put up a record of 25-19-3, to go along with a 2.74 GAA and a .913 SV%.

Brossoit spent his first five NHL seasons between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, before signing a one-year, $650,000 deal to join Winnipeg as a free agent in 2018.

Winnipeg continued to extend Brossoit one year at a time for the next two years, slowly increasing his AAV during that span. He was paid $1.5 million last season, and ended up going 6-6-0 in relief of Hellebuyck. In addition to the .500 record, Brossoit also put decent numbers, as indicated by his 2.42 GAA, .918 SV% and one shutout between the pipes.

That one shutout came against the Canucks on February 19th, after he stopped all 29 shots faced.

Despite his success in Winnipeg, it appears that the Jets organization has decided to go in another direction for their back-up position.

On Tuesday evening, it was announced that Winnipeg had resigned netminder Eric Comrie to a one-year deal worth $750,000. The 26-year-old was coming off of a two-year, $1.4 million deal that he inked with Winnipeg in September 2019. During this past season, Comrie was placed on waivers and claimed by the New Jersey Devils, only to be reclaimed by the Jets just one month later.

With the signing of Comrie, it appears that Brossoit’s services are no longer needed in Winnipeg.

So what exactly does that mean for Brossoit? There are a few options.

On one hand, Brossoit might be more than happy to continue his career as a back-up, something that would be music to the ears of Canucks’ management.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Brossoit was still able to record expected performance numbers just below that of Hellebuyck, despite a much smaller number of games with longer breaks in between those contests.

Compared to Halak and Elliott, Brossoit would also be a younger option with much more upside, and could likely provide Vancouver with the 10-15 wins that they would need to get over the postseason hump with little to no issues. Plus, based on his track record, Brossoit might only be interested in playing north of the border.

At just 28 years old, however, this might also be the perfect time for Brossoit to start transitioning himself into a starting goaltender in this league.

Of course, he’s still far from proven himself, having only played a career-high 21 games in any given season. But there are some clubs out there that might take a flyer on Brossoit, whether it be on a low-risk, low-term deal on a team that already has another solid goaltending option and is looking to put together a competent 1A/1B tandem, or on a team that doesn’t have a netminder with any NHL experience and is looking to give someone an opportunity to grow and perform well within the organization.

There’s also the notion that Brossoit might not want to play behind Demko, given that the 25-year-old is expected to suit up for 55-60 games next season, while also building upon his stellar performances from last season.

If Brossoit does opt for the former, while agreeing to just a slight raise from his last contract, it would be wise for the Canucks to at least kick that tire to see if he’d be interested. And yes, it would definitely be a big “if” at this point.

Free agency is set to kick off on July 28th at 9am PST.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Will management be able to land any of these back-up options in free agency, or do they need to look elsewhere? Make sure to let us know in the comments!