Free agent goalie Tomas Vokoun is committed to remaining in the NHL and will not accept an offer from a KHL team at this time, according to his agent, Allan Walsh on Friday.Vokoun spent the past season playing for the Washington Capitals after signing a one-year deal with the club over the summer, and finished with a 25-17-2 record in 48 games while posting a .917 save percentage.
He will hit the unrestricted free agent market on July 1 and figures to be one of the top goalies available in free agency (his closest competition should be Minnesota's Josh Harding).
Still, the question remains as to what sort of market there will be for his services. He was one of the top goalies available this past summer as well and didn't generate much interest, despite his strong play in Florida and Nashville over the previous 12 seasons. As far as we know the only two teams that pursued him were the Capitals and Detroit Red Wings. Vokoun ultimately chose the Capitals because he felt they gave him a better opportunity to win a Stanley Cup.
This summer he will be a year older (he turns 36 on July 2) and is coming off his worst season since 2003-04.
Walsh was already making his sales pitch, via Twitter, on Friday.
Over the last 6 seasons, Tomas Vokoun has the 2nd best SV% of any goalie in the NHL(5 years on a non-playoff team).
— Allan Walsh (@walsha) May 25, 2012
He's not going to be a long-term starter for anybody, but as a short-term solution teams could certainly do worse. But how many options will he have?
Teams searching for a starting goalie this summer (and there doesn't figure to be a ton of them) will have no shortage of players to chose from. It appears that Vancouver's Roberto Luongo could be available, and there is always a chance that Calgary could put Miikka Kiprusoff on the market if its front office decides to blow things up and start from scratch.
The benefit to signing Vokoun would be the fact that he would no doubt be cheaper against the salary cap than a player like Luongo. Along with that he also wouldn't require a team to give up any assets to acquire him in a trade.
Photo: Getty Images
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