Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving has been busy over the past few days. A report from TVA’s Renaud Lavoie indicates that he’s crossed another item off his to-do list.
Per Lavoie’s reporting, the Flames have re-signed restricted free agent goaltender Jon Gillies to a two year deal worth $750,000 annually. The first year is a two-way deal, but the second season is a one-way.
Jon Gillies signed a 2 year deal with the @NHLFlames at $750 000. First season is a two way deal. 2nd is a one way.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) July 16, 2018
Gillies, 24, was the Flames’ third round selection in 2012. He won an NCAA Championship in 2015 with the Providence College Friars and captured a gold medal as Team USA’s backup at the 2013 World Juniors.
He’s entering his fourth year of pro hockey, but he missed the bulk of his first season with hip surgery so he’s really just played a pair of full seasons. In 85 AHL games he’s posted a 37-33-10 with a 2.70 goals against average, .914 save percentage and seven shutouts, along with a 4-5-1 record in 12 NHL games with a 2.71 goals against average and .903 save percentage.
Gillies has shown himself to be a pretty strong AHL netminder and his NHL results, while in a limited sample size, have been fairly encouraging. His waiver exemption will expire at the end of 2018-19 and he’ll become a Group 6 unrestricted free agent at the expiration of his contract unless he plays 16 more NHL games. He’s likely in contention with David Rittich for the backup job behind Mike Smith at training camp this fall.
The Flames have six remaining unsigned RFAs: Rittich, defensemen Noah Hanifin and Brett Kulak, and forwards Mark Jankowski, Garnet Hathaway and Hunter Shinkaruk.
He starts 30 this year.
Gilles and Rittich are not the answer. Please find a real back-up goalie!!!
How do you suggest an NHL team gets a 24yo goalie into the league?
Yup, if we’re not going to at least try to develop these guys why even bother having them. Let’s give them a chance to see what, if anything, is there.
That’s what the AHL is for
The AHL is great but to gain confidence to get to the next level they need to be given a chance. I just don’t like leaving money on the table by not trying our best to bring these guys up.
If he has to start 30 then the Flames don’t have a number 1 goalie which is something that needs to be addressed. 2 goalies sharing the duties has never worked for the flames or many other teams. You need a solid number 1 that’s going to play at least 55 to 60 games.
And Rittich needs to get trashed again as well
$!/:! Damn auto correct…once you hit send you’re screwed
And Rittich needs to get TESTED again as well.
with a team that hasn’t given up in front of him.
So you’re saying that the line in the sand for a solid #1 plays 55 games? 52 games and he’s not a #1 anymore?
And another five hundred after that!
He starts 30…..for the Heat.
JG has not proven he’s close to the show. He plays small, he’s on his knees all the time, he doesn’t challenge well, he doesn’t track the puck well at all (twice long shots sqeaked past him last year). I do believe he has promise but leave him in the A till he’s ready. Not yet, we need a proven backup that will support Smith and the team. I have zero faith in him from what he has shown.
Long shots as in icings, that got by him and just missed.
Ya go ahead and trash. You were the same trashers when I said trade Doogie. I’ve coached many goalies and JG needs more time in the minors.
Nope, we just need an NHL level goalie coach…
Ah another arm chair coach of course you have
Rittich will steal the show.
Hopin for Gillies. I’d like to see the home grown boy in there
I don’t care if they’re home grown or parachuted in, as long as the best guy for the job is the one that’s doing it.
I feel i have more confidence in Rittich than Gillies as well. Hopefully Parsons can get some time in the AHL this year and stay healthy too.
Parsons having a good full season in one place will be key. Development of goalies has been our weakness and downfall. Looking forward to Parsons stealing the starting role in Stockton either this season or next
The Flames need to ride the rookie goaltenders after Smith is gone plzzz… it not like we going to trade for Quick to help out the Kings with the caphit lol
Based on what we saw last year and feedback from Stockton, Rittich has a more consistent game in the crease where Gillies has the highlight real saves and raw talent which does not usually produce a consistent NHL backup. Gillies will continue to hone his game for another AHL campaign and improve his crease play to use his size more and move less, hence the 1 way deal in year 2, perfect transition period for a young goalie yet to steal an NHL job.
Its like you read my mind dude…..get outta my head.
Hopefully Rittich or Gillies runs away with the back up job. But if you don’t retain both and there is an injury then we are screwed completly. At the very least he’s a decent 3rd option for next season. Who knows. Goalies are odd to get a read on no matter what the stats say really
Perfect development contract
Doesn’t deserve the second year as a 1 way. The guy has done nothing to deserve it.
I don’t think anyone can really argue with the dollar price or term for this one. Its dirt cheap. I’m just hopeful that he can develop into a goalie that can be trusted game in and game out in an NHL crease. Same goes for Rittich, but he did look very promising before Smith got injured. I’m interested in seeing what Rittichs term will be. He will undoubtedly get paid a similar amount as Gillies.
I don’t think we’ll see another goalie signed.
The team wants to see what they have in Gillies and Rittich…
WW
..and that makes the most sense!
I sure like to see Gillies develop. He has all the tools, just needs practice, patcience, and a good goaltending coach. Look what Sean Burke did in Arizona with Mike Smith, Bryzgalov, and Dubnyk. A good goaltending coach can make all the difference.
Not sure how well that will work, but I think you’re right.
A second year at 750,000 seems to indicate to me that the Flames are not confident that he will be ready for prime time next season.
The second year is one-way: Seems like a pretty decent commitment.
You said it
Doesn’t deserve it.
Expectations are set. Lets see if he lives up to them in time.
Gillies seems to have a few weaknesses, so right now is probably his peak value. I think teams will catch on and he will be done.
Well having Peters as the coach, I hope for both Gillies and Riitch to bring their A games at all times…
How long before Billy Peters tosses one of these jokers under the bus?
The whole Rittich fell off his game in the second half or after Smith got injured is getting old!!!! Everyone fell off their game! You could tell something was wrong with Mony in February, I remember saying it out loud. Hamonic lost us 3 games by his own personal errors. Then Frolik messed up, nobody was playing together in the last couple months. We had a bunch of games in row that went to overtime and we couldn’t seal it. I don’t care what goalie is out there, they are not gonna stop a puck if your D and offense aren’t all there helping him.
I also remeber noticing Monahan in February. In the space of couple of games he was in his usual 10 feet from the net position but missed on 5-6 straight opportunities. He should have had 2-3 even 4 but just couldn’t put it on target almost all of a sudden.
I live in Utah and we have a ECHL team that has just recently turned into a Avalanche affiliate, I made sure and was excited to go and watch them play Kansas City to see a couple of the prospects play, Parsons being the one I wanted to watch the most. He looked amazing, down and up and side to side, insanely quick but Kansas City lost in overtime. And the only goal I would say Parsons was at fault is the one in overtime. Do I blame Parsons? No, he had no help. Am I concerned about the goalie situation? No! As long as our defense does their job and our offense and PP works out well then plan that damn parade route
After the break we lost 4 straight games that went to overtime, at least, ending in a 6 game losing streak. Monahan, Frolik, Tkachuk then Smith were all injured for extended times afterwards and that’s all she wrote…..
Not sure who is going to be better between Rittich and Gillies. I would say the good news is the Flames have 2 guys competing and pushing each other to become an NHL regular. They both have had experience and success in the AHL and a good sampler of NHL game time. I don’t think it is unrealistic to expect one of them to take step forward and be a legit NHL back up. I expect BT wants to let training camp and pre-season play out and see if it looks like one of them is ready.
That was valuable experience both Rittich and Gillies got last season. They both played enough games to get a good taste and realize what they have to do to step it up one more notch. If you’re going to acquire and train young goalies you also have to put up with the ups and downs of getting them into the show. Both learned a ton last year and I’m all for Smith #1 and continuing on with the development of both goalies.
It appears BT is going to go with the same 3 guys…if so very risky. I think he has another option we are not aware of at this point. I’m guessing it will be in the form of a trade in the event of an injury to Smith….
But he had one more last year, Lack. Lack was brutal and forced GG to overplay Smith early. There were many factors that hurt Rittich’s (and the entire Flames goaltending groups) second half performance. I have confidence in a strong rebound for the group. Mostly because I believe the team will play stronger as entire unit. I think we see a similar deal for Rittich, then the two will battle to see who will be the starter next year. At which point (year 2), Parsons will have the full season to develop as the #1 in Stockton. Are they perfect, no, I personally would have liked to see Lehner signed as the backup, (my guess is Lehner wanted a shot at #1 this year) but obviously the management team thinks there will be a rebound as well. Let the battle in the crease continue.
Looking for Gillies or Rittich to step up is a bad move. Peters doesn’t have a great record with goalies and we know Signalets record. Bad decision if they don’t bring someone else in.
We got that, for the hundredth time. Mark it on the calendar so if one of them has a bad game you can come back and tell us you told us so…..
To those of you so very concerned we need to trade for a goalie. Washington;Holtby Pitts; both Murray and Fluery, Chicago; Crawford LA: Quick all have one thing besides recent cups in common. They all drafted their own cup winning goalies and developed them themselves.
Rittich can start the season as Smith’s back-up. If he doesn’t bring his “A” game, Gillies can be called up from Stockton and take a run at it. A good way to manage an asset with one year(or 48 games played) of waiver exemption.
With the exception of Sigalet, our coaching has improved dramatically. Smith should be gone after this season and there will be time in the spring / summer period to make a decision to assess the situation. Gillies was a stand up goalie and needs to return to that style of play. . Sigalet is the reason he is on his knees all the time and there has to be a pee wee team out there that could use his coaching skills. Gillies, if you are reading this blog, you’re easy to score on over your shoulders. Please stand up. Better lateral movement, quicker reaction and positioning for glove stops. Easier to have your skates inside the goal on the posts and wrap your pads around said posts. Better vision all around you and you can use your stick to protect your crease as well. Standing up will allow you to make more reflex saves. Gillies could be a tremendous goalie. He needs better coaching.
You hit the nail on the head. Also look at what happened to Rittich when he started to change his game to match Smith. Nice guy JS is not the answer here. Need to get a goalie trainer to help get them to the next level.
Stockton has their own goalie coach and what do you know about what Sigalet does as a coach
Ideally…
Two of Rittich/Gillies/Parsons become our 1/2, within 3 years. Whichever two it is, you run them as a 1/1a tandem (again, “ideally”, in an almost perfect world), both being comfortable w/this arrangement, for the purpose of the cap and the team. I wonder if this is the plan, for 2018-19?
He’s such a terrible goalie tho
Montreal are wanting to trade Pacioretty asap. They apparently cannot sign him. Poor team? Regardless to get involved you would have to give Les Rouge a quality player, someone like Frolik and add a good prospect to make Montreal sit up and take notice. Max had 4 / 30 goal seasons and last year played hurt and still got 17. Methinks it would be worth offering up
Fro and Killington plus another prospect. You would have to do a sign and trade for this to make sense as Max is F/A next year and we still have to sign 3 or 4 guys. Perhaps a 5/6 D is moved to bring back cap room and a 2 or 3 pick. Just a thought. Tre was talking to Montreal on the draft floor. Would be a great addition to grow our top 9 to 8 quality players. Maybe something can get done!