Quoting: tryger
He can start 50+ games, but in almost every facet what he gives a team is not worth his contract even with retention. I think you can't call me biased for saying statistically this guy has been getting worse, with this season being particularly bad.
- 8th highest GAA, that's more than Cal Petersen (14th)
- 41st ranked in save percentage (.899) that's .001 more than Cam Talbot who the Kings got for $1M this season
- Leads the league in goals allowed (200), Vejmelka had 3 fewer starts and put up 167
- His save percentage has hovered around or below .900 for the last 4 years (.904, .903, .904, .899) compare that to his backup for the last three seasons (.926, .917, .897)
- His GAA has continued to get worse over the past 3 seasons (2.98, 3.19, 3.99)
With goalies like Helleybuck and Ullmark being on trading blocks, do you really think Gibson should be able to demand LA's best prospect ++?
Leagues worst defense, as is evident by his backups drop in SV%, explains your first three points. No, we're not proud to admit how bad our defense was, but it was basically AHL quality after the top pairing.
Stolarz's 0.926 season was a total of 8 games, it's not difficult to hold that SV% when your 8 games are against the leagues weakest teams. You can dig further and see the teams that Stolarz and Dostal typically started against were mostly against the leagues other bottom feeding teams (San Jose, Arizona, Chicago, etc). Gibson pulls the harder assignments where the Ducks are even more mismatched against their opponents. Compound that with a lack of goal support, of which the Ducks have been bottom 5 4/5 last years, and dead last for two of them.
As to his GAA, so have his backups, because the defense has gotten worse year on year.
Now, the final point? No, it's a bad trade. For starters, another center, even a former 2OA isn't hugely high on our list. Byfields more of a project at this point as you'd expect someone of his draft pedigree to have solidified a full time NHL spot and he just hasn't, probably why LA went and got Dubios. Anaheims also not in a position to move off from Gibson yet. A tandem of Talbot Stalock would guarantee us another last place finish.
I'd imagine Boston would be desperate to retain 50% for Ullmark if they heard Byfield was an option, and would be a smarter trade partner, though I might try to land Swayman at that point.