Among the flurry of post season signings, The Athletic’s Scott Powers floated a story on Wednesday regarding 24-year-old Russian goaltender Ivan Nalimov. The Blackhawks chose Nalimov in the 6th round (179th overall) of the 2014 draft as a low risk reach pick. Since then, little was known about the 6’4″ 215 lbs highly regarded KHL prospect.
It was widely thought that the right Blackhawks’ draft rights had expired, but Powers uncovered that the organization still held his rights a few years back based on an unclear NHL/KHL transfer agreement. Since then his progress has been monitored at a distance, but he has mostly been an emigma.
Seemingly out of nowhere in October of 2016, Nalimov showed up in Blackhawks training camp and was immediately inserted into a pre-season game against the Detroit Redwings. He quickly gave up two soft goals in the opening two minutes of the contest and a third midway through the period, and was replaced by Lars Johansson in the second period. Never to take the ice again for the organization.
It was clear Nalimov, then 22, was not ready for the NHL. As a result, the Blackhawks released him from camp and he returned to the KHL where he re-joined Vladivostok Admiral.
Last season is where Nalimov began to hit his stride, beginning the season with Vladivostok. He posted a 6-10-0 record, 1.98 GAA, .942 sv%, and 2 shutouts in a backup role for 17 games before the financially struggling team took drastic measures and released most of their top players.
With his successful start to the season UFA Salavat Yulayev picked up Nalimov to backup former Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens for the rest of the season and he finished the season with a respectable 4-0-2 record, 2.59 GSS, and .927 sv%. Nalimov and his agent negotiated with UFA to mutually terminate the final year of his KHL so he could explore a potential move to the NHL, which leads us to the current situation.
According to what his agent, Shumi Babaev, told Scott Powers the logjam of goaltenders signed to NHL deals has Stan Bowman putting the brakes on taking another look at Nalimov. They currently have Corey Crawford, Anton Forsberg, Jean-Francois Berube, Collin Delia and recently signed Kevin Lankinen on the books for the upcoming season.
Powers goes on to say that the Blackhawks did not anticipate that Nalimov would be a potential option this soon but, of the four returning goalies, only Crawford and Collin Delia put up respectable numbers last season with Delia’s being in Rockford.
The vast uncertainty of Crawford’s health and the below average play behind him has led to rumors of the Blackhawks trying to re-acquire failed Carolina Hurricanes project Scott Darling. Simply the speculation of that kind of move stinks of desperation. It was announced that Crawford will attend the fan convention later this summer but this does not indicate whether he will be able to play the full season or at all for that matter.
This begs to question, why not bring Nalimov into camp and let him compete for a spot? There is zero risk, and a potential high reward. Bowman could simply release him or trade his rights, if the staff is not impressed. Telling him to simply stay in Russia makes no sense whatsoever. Regardless, the murky future at the position should leave all options open and on the table.
Unless they already have a deal in place or a verbal agreement with an established NHL goalie to (at minimum) backup Corey Crawford.