To say that this season has been a disappointment for the Arizona Coyotes would be a tremendous understatement. Assuming things continue at their current pace, this is a team that will likely continue to battle it out with the likes of the Edmonton Oilers to stay out of the Western Conference cellar, a far cry from where this team was just a few years ago, when they made it as far as the Western Conference Finals.
The player that aided them in getting that far that season, when they fell to the hated Los Angeles Kings for a chance at an unprecedented Stanley Cup title is now the player that is struggling to do his job perhaps more than any other individual in the National Hockey League this side of Edmonton. Mike Smith had a rough start to the season that featured some lingering questions about a potential goaltending controversy. Now those whispers are as loud as ever.
As things stand right now, Mike Smith is the worst goaltender in the NHL, and it really isn’t even close, especially when you consider what he’s being paid in comparison to some of the league’s top netminders. Signed through the 2018-19 season, Smith’s $5.67 million cap hit is the 11th highest figure in the league among goaltenders, in front of names like Sergei Bobrovsky, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Jimmy Howard, among a number of others.
Smith’s numbers on the season are downright putrid. He has a save percentage of just .884 to date, while he’s posted a goals against average of 3.48. He’s allowed five or more goals on five difference occasions this season, three of which featured six goals against, and has been an early exit from the game on multiple occasions. This is a player who was a Vezina Trophy candidate in 2011-12, and you could have very easily made an argument that he was a Hart Trophy candidate as well.
Of course, it doesn’t help that the team in front of him has all but disintegrated. A team that prides itself on defensive play, the Coyotes have gone season to season without adding much of anything on offense and relying on the system of Dave Tippett, and subsequently the play of Mike Smith, to find success. That run of success that featured three straight postseason runs came to an end in the lockout-shortened 2013 campaign before coming to a screeching halt as the Pacific Division’s fourth place club last season.
The Coyotes are 27th in the league in goals against, surrendering the fourth most goals against thus far. The normally stout system of Dave Tippett has been anything but, as the Coyotes have allowed fifth most shots per game in the league, at 31.7. And that’s with them ranking fifth in the league in blocked shots. The Coyotes are simply getting overrun in the possession department, as indicated by their standing as ninth worst team in teams of CF%, which indicates the Coyotes’ total Corsi For percentage across all phases.
So it isn’t completely without the finger pointing elsewhere that we can find blame to distribute to folks other than Mike Smith. Even so, goaltenders like Jonathan Bernier or Bobrovsky, whose teams are also poor possession teams, find a way to get the job done. Regardless, this is the franchise goaltender, in the most literal sense. A player that a team that typically can’t afford to make huge financial commitments put in the driver’s seat of their future. He has completely failed to live up to expectations, especially in these last couple years. Blaming the defense, as at fault as they may be, can only be true to a fault.
When you’re surrendering goals at the rate Mike Smith is, while demonstrating the lack of composure that he regularly does, and really holding onto as small a sample size of legitimate success as he is, you cannot afford to produce what he has for the Arizona Coyotes. As the season wears on, we may see more and more of Devan Dubnyk as the Coyotes demonstrate some extreme buyer’s remorse in paying so handsomely to keep Mike Smith around.
