Guerin gets his man in goal in veteran Talbot

With the NHL's version of Christmas morning coming a few months later than normal, the Wild wasted little time ripping the wrapping paper off its newest toy, inking goaltender Cam Talbot to a three-year, $11 million contract.
It was one of the few remaining pieces of business that Wild GM Bill Guerin has said needed to be addressed this offseason, after a busy couple of weeks that has included several trades, re-signings and contract extensions.
In Talbot, the Wild gets a veteran netminder who is expected to come to Minnesota and carry the load right off the bat.

"Cam Talbot's our No.1 goalie. That's his role, and that's why he came here," Guerin said. "We believe he's very well suited for the position, for that role, and he's going to have a lot of success."

It was an uneasy market for veteran goaltenders, with several spots around the League open but a glut of experienced veterans available.
Besides Talbot, Stanley Cup winners Braden Holtby and Corey Crawford were available. So were Anton Khudobin and Henrik Lundqvist, who have carried their teams to the Cup Finals.
Jacob Markstrom, Craig Anderson, Thomas Greiss, Mike Smith, Cory Schneider, Ryan Miller and Jimmy Howard were others who were unrestricted free agents, and that doesn't even count a crowded trade market, where others remain available.
"In this market, it was extremely tough. You didn't know where offers were gonna come from, you didn't know when they were gonna come in," Talbot said. "Without a talking period, it's a little bit tough. Do you take the first offer? Do you kind of hold on and stuff like that? We were extremely lucky with the way the process went."
Guerin gave Talbot a choice of either a two-year or a three-year contract. With a wife, and two young children -- twins Sloane and Landon -- Talbot chose the longer deal.
"For myself, we wanted the security of a three-year deal and we just went with that," Talbot said. "It was an extremely calm process with him, great to deal with."
Guerin credited the Wild's Director of Hockey Analytics, Mat Sells, for crunching the numbers and seeing a fit for Talbot with Minnesota.
Last season, according to naturalstattrick.com, the Wild gave up the fewest number of high-danger shots in the NHL (8.6 per 60 min).
But the Wild combined for the third-worst team save percentage (.897).
Sells has his own set of criteria when it comes to analytics, but there is something about Talbot's game that the Wild believes it can unlock playing behind one of the League's deepest defensive groups that can help propel it up the standings.
"To be quite honest, a lot of it gets deeper than just the goals against and the save percentage and things like that," Guerin said. "There is a significant amount of other data that we used that helps us make decisions."
The bottom line?
"We just feel like with what Cam did last year," Guerin said, "if he does that or better, we are going to have some success."
Talbot agreed.
"Minnesota has been such a sound, structured team for a long time," Talbot told NHL Network. "Who wouldn't want to play behind them?"
Talbot, a 33-year-old native of Caledonia, Ontario, is coming off a good year in Calgary, where he played in 26 games (22 starts), posting a 12-10-1 record, a 2.63 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage, serving largely as the backup to David Rittich. But Talbot has plenty of starting experience in seven-year NHL career.

He started 73 games in 2016-17 with the Edmonton Oilers, winning a career best 42 games and posting a .919 save percentage, 2.39 goals-against and seven shutouts, finishing fourth in balloting for the Vezina Trophy as the League's top goaltender.
In 3 1/2 years as the Oilers top goaltender, Talbot started 222 games.
Talbot broke into the NHL in 2013-14 with the New York Rangers, serving as backup to Henrik Lundqvist. After posting a 1.64 goals-against average in 19 starts as a rookie, and a 2.21 goals-against average in 34 starts in his second season, Talbot moved to Edmonton for his first opportunity as a starter.
Talbot struggled at times in his final year and a half with the Oilers and was traded to Philadelphia at the end of 2018-19 before signing a one-year deal in Calgary for last season, where he looked and played more like his old self.
Over 314 games in his career, including 300 starts, Talbot is 150-122-25 with a 2.61 goals-against and a .915 save percentage with 22 shutouts.

"I think people kind of wrote me off after my last year in Edmonton," Talbot said. "I had to go to Calgary and really work my way back up and prove to everyone that was still capable of being that guy again and getting back to where I was in 16-17 and re-gaining that form and string some games together. That's when I'm at my best is when I'm playing the most."
That certainly seems like an opportunity he will get in Minnesota.
"Just going through all the data that we have, everything suggests that Cam was a good fit for us. The years that he had as a starter, he had a lot of success," Guerin said. "[He] played great up in the bubble. We got to watch him firsthand and he was one of the guys that we were targeting.
"When he became available, it was an easy choice for us."

Wild inks two to two-way deals

Minnesota added a couple of AHL veterans on two-way contracts on Friday, signing forward Joseph Cramarossa and defenseman Dakota Mermis.
Cramarossa, who played for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Rockford Ice Hogs last season, played a season and a half for Guerin when he was GM of the Baby Pens.
He has 59 games of NHL experience, with 49 of those coming with the Anaheim Ducks in 2016-17, when he scored four goals and had 10 points. He went scoreless in 10 games with the Vancouver Canucks that season as well.
In all, Cramarossa has 37 goals and 84 points in 336 career games with five AHL clubs.

Mermis played 10 games for the New Jersey Devils last season and scored his first NHL goal on March 6 against the St. Louis Blues.
A former Denver University Pioneer, has 304 games of AHL experience with three different clubs.