Weekly Question: What Is Good Enough for the Hamburglar?

One of the big debates over the summer was just what the team has in Andrew Hammond - or rather if they have anything at all.

This weekly question is fairly straight forward. What will you use to measure if Andrew Hammond lives up to his signing?

Expected Role

Andrew Hammond is signed to be a backup goaltender. He just needs to post respectable backup numbers to be worth of that role. For reference, the average save percentage by goalies who were a clear-cut second on the depth chart (or lower) was below .910 last season.

Comparable Value

Other than Hammond at $1.35m, there are 11 goaltenders carrying a cap hit of $1m-$1.5m next season. Frederik Andersen, Reto Berra, Jhonas Enroth, Thomas Greiss, Chad Johnson, Darcy Kuemper, Eddie Lack, Al Montoya, Anders Nilsson and Cam Talbot. Will Hammond outplay the majority of those names?

Though of those, only Greiss and Montoya were signed as UFAs like Hammond was. That may or may not factor in for you.

"The other guy"

If it weren't for signing Hammond, we might still have Robin Lehner.

Will Hammond outplay Lehner?

Credit: Ryan Classic

Uhhh... You know what? Forget I suggested this was even possible.

The High Bar

He got the contract on the basis of the team's meteoric run to the playoffs, and for better or worse that's his measuring stick. We won't quite hold him to his exact numbers, as long as he leads the league. Anything less would be uncivilized unacceptable.

How does Andrew Hammond have to play to live up to his signing?