Quoting: pensfan21
Raanta isn't my top choice to replace Jarry, but we have to replace Jarry. He wants term and it would not be smart for us to give it to him. He has either been injured or played very poorly at the most important points in the season and playoffs. Giving him anything more than a year or two would be way too much of a risk and surely another team will pay him what he wants.
Any option in net is a risk. IMO, Jarry is the least risky, even for long term.
Before his injury right before the playoffs last season, Jars only had 2 injuries in his career, and neither were more than a week. His numbers this year were dragged down by a horrible stretch after returning from injury and he's spent the majority of his career as an above average starter at best. We know what he's usually capable of, and it's not what he looks like now.
There aren't better options available for trade. Demko and Jarry are basically in the same position, except bringing in Demko will cost a 1st+ at least. John Gibson has been below average for 4 seasons in a row now, even by models that adjust for the fact that Anaheim has sucked during that span. I seriously doubt we have the assets required to get Saros or Vejmelka. I love Fleury, but is he really going to be able to be the starter of a playoff team at 39?
The same argument for Saros/Veggie applies to the RFA goalies: Gustavsson, Swayman, and Samsonov. Do we have the assets to aquire their rights? And if we let Jarry go and whatever team matches our offer, we're screwed.
UFAs fall into 3 categories: 1. Too old to realistically be the starter (Varlamov, Quick, Raanta, Talbot, Anderson, Stalock); 2. Probably not a significant upgrade to DeSmith (Hill, Korpisalo, Brossoit, Ingram), and 3. Definitely not an upgrade to DeSmith (Jones, Rittich, Nedeljkovic). There is some overlap here, but the point stands that there really isn't a bona fide starter on the UFA market other than Jarry.
And I'm gonna focus in on Korpisalo for a second, because he's gotten a lot of traction from his play this year. Him being NHL caliber, let alone as good as he's been, is the exception and not the norm. Korpi has a sub .900 SV% in half the seasons he's played in the NHL. DeSmith's down year has the same SV% as Korpisalo's average. I don't trust him as a starter.
I get the hesitation with Jarry. But I just don't think there's a better option.