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Displaying pretext
The recent signings of Antti Niemi, Jimmy Howard and Craig Anderson were of interest to many hockey observers. You could argue these goalies have similar talent levels, and yet each player received a different contract.
Most analysts would agree that Tomas Vokoun is a better netminder than any of the three aforementioned names. Coincidentally, Vokoun is also a pending UFA, as the three above goaltenders were when they signed their three respective contracts.
The two biggest distinctions between Vokoun and Niemi/Howard/Anderson are age and productivity. Vokoun, unlike the other three, is over 30 years old (34 in fact). Yet in terms of productivity, Vokoun has been amongst the top goaltenders statistically for the past half decade—we will examine these numbers in depth in a few paragraphs.
Before we examine what Vokoun could be worth, let's first examine which teams will likely have a need in between the pipes entering the summer. For simplicity's sake, I am not including teams that may have a need (see: Edmonton, Columbus and New York Islanders) but have already locked up big money in their current netminding situation (Khabibulin, Mason and DiPietro). That arguably leaves only seven teams that have a goaltending need heading into the offseason: Colorado, Phoenix, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Florida and Tampa Bay.
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Illegal Curve (08/08)
2 comments have been left for this article. 
It would be interesting to see both of Florida's goaltenders wind up in Colorado only two years apart from each other.
Sherman didn't need to spend big money to bring Anderson over, so it will be interesting to see if he loosens the purse strings to bring in Vokoun, who has a much better track record.