Tim Thomas: Dallas Stars Season Ending Report Cards
By Josh Clark
Happy Friday all! Hope everyone had an easy week, and if not, I hope you were at least able to survive it! But a few more hours and you’ll be ready to gear up or kick back for the weekend!
I’m so sorry that all I’m posting at the moment are future polls or report cards, but no need to worry, I have many new ideas to implant before June ends and my posts shift to the havoc of the FA market.
But, if you can manage, here’s the next report card on #30, Tim Thomas:
Tim Thomas, after taking off a season to get all his ducks in a row, started this season tagged to the Florida Panthers with a 1 year deal, but found himself packing his bags and heading to Dallas on March 5th in exchange for former Stars’ backup netminder Dan Ellis in a trade between the two organizations and has been wearing green ever since.
Season recap:
Well, there isn’t much I can say about Tim’s time in Big D. So I guess I’ll start with a brief background on Tim’s NHL time and lead it to the present time. So Tim Thomas played for the Boston Bruins for 8 seasons and worked his way from the murky and disappointing seasons to crystal clear and brilliant seasons. The year his numbers really hit home turned out to be the year he helped guide the Bruins to a finals victory over the Vancouver Canucks and bring the Stanley Cup to Boston. He ended up winning the Conn Smythe and the Vezina that year and it ended up being the peak of his career. And boy did he tumble downhill fast. With a less impressive but still notable season following the Cup win, he decided to take the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season off. When he came back in July of 2013, he was searching for a team to pick up a veteran goalie which had a great season before he went into hibernation for a year.
Enter stage left Florida Panthers. The Panthers picked Tim Thomas up and decided to split the starting job between he and Jacob Markstrom. Through the season, the Panthers struggled (but they always do that), but oddly enough, so did Thomas. With his stats and record dropping, the Panthers decided to go another way when they brought Roberto Luongo to the Sunshine State in exchange for Markstrom at the deadline. With Tim Thomas being the imminent backup, they dished him to Dallas, a team in search of veteran leadership in a possible playoff appearance in the future, for the young and unpredictable Dan Ellis.
So that’s where he stands. A man looking back on his glory days. Thomas played 8 games which included 7 starts and a fill in for a pulled Lehtonen against Carolina. He finished the regular season with a 2-4-1 record, along with a .902 SV%, his worst save percentage of his career, and a 2.97 GAA, his second worst of his career. These numbers obviously are not what the Stars were looking for in a backup.
Playoff recap:
Not much to see here. The Stars plopped him in Game 5 after Lehtonen handed over 5 goals to the Ducks. Thomas didn’t necessarily stop the bleeding. He gave up 1 goal out of just 2 shots on net. Now if you can’t do the math, that means his playoff save percentage was .500. Wow.
Quick note to store in the back of your mind for later in the article. Do you remember the goal Thomas gave up to Corey Perry? Here’s a refresher.
Now I don’t know about y’all, but to me, it kind of seemed like he didn’t even care anymore. Is that really how you want a player on your team acting in crunch time in the playoffs? Just a thought.
Anyway, in his entire time in Dallas, he only had one real stellar performance, being against the St. Louis Blues in the OT win the night after Rich Peverley’s heart failure.
Contract situation:
As I said before, Tim Thomas inked a 1 year deal with the Florida Panthers and he carried it West with him to Dallas, including a salary and cap hit of $2,500,000. Which puts it pretty clear. He will officially be a UFA on June 30th, which means he will be a 40 year old goalie looking for a new home. No one knows whether or not Tim is looking at retirement or not, but if he is looking for a new home, he will want it to be in a barn where he gets the starting gig. Right now, I can’t think of any teams that need this at the moment. But we will have to see.
In my opinion:
Have I not made it clear enough? Tim Thomas does not need to return to the AAC next year, unless he’s wearing any color but green. With his declining stat-line and increasing age, an investment in Tim stock is a bad investment to say the least. He needs to go, and the Stars have complete control on whether he returns or not. But I say get him and his contract off the Stars’ squad and free up some good space for a new and young backup to mind the board door on the bench next year (and play some too, I guess…).
The bottom line on Tim Thomas:
Tim Thomas came to Dallas with a declining goalie status and a falling reputation. With the Stars picking him up looking for a change from the below average Dan Ellis on their way to the postseason, Tim Thomas was not able to deliver.
The Stars could re-sign him, but they won’t. Jim Nill has already made it clear that he will not be offering Tim Thomas or Ray Whitney new contracts, and both geezers have made it clear in interviews that Dallas is not tickling their fancy and they want out. That’s just fine for both parties then, huh? Wow, that was a fast bottom line.
The Stars have a busy offseason ahead of them if they are looking to go all the way next season. The backup goalie position will be a key void to fill in order to get them there.
What do you think? Comments please below and don’t forget… GO STARS