Talbot Sidelined, Senators Pivot to Hellberg
Having traded Matt Murray this offseason, the Ottawa Senators were not supposed to worry about goaltending injuries.
Fortunately, they are not strangers when it comes to them. Injuries have forced the organization to go out into the marketplace before, leading to solutions like Mike Condon, Anders Nilsson, and Anton Forsberg.
The Senators can now add Magnus Hellberg to that list.
Yesterday it was revealed that Cam Talbot would miss the next five to seven weeks after he fractured a rib in appearing in a preseason game versus Toronto on Saturday, September 24th. Talbot reportedly tried to work through the pain all week before an X-ray revealed the severity of his injury.
It is not the start that the 35-year-old veteran was hoping for to begin his Senators career. Last season with Minnesota, Talbot posted a 32-12-4 record with a 2.76 goals-against average, .911 save percentage and three shutouts in 49 appearances. He was acquired this summer in a trade with the Minnesota Wild to bring some experience to the position alongside Forsberg and give the Senators’ coaching staff a veteran duo that they can rely on.
For any successful NHL team, one of the things that they have to manage over the course of the season are injuries and being able to adapt and overcome them. So much emphasis over the last few months has been placed on the Senators needing to get off to a good start to avoid falling too far behind the pack.
After years of faltering and having seasons swirling the drain by January, playing meaningful hockey down the stretch is paramount for the growth of this team’s young core this season.
The Senators play 22 games through the months of October and November, so if Talbot misses a significant chunk of these two months, Talbot could ultimately wind up missing a quarter of the season. That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on Anton Forsberg to live up to the expectations placed upon him because of his performance last season.
The good news is that the Senators do not play any back-to-back games during the first two months of the season, so load management for Forsberg may not be as significant of an issue as it could be.
The Senators may need Forsberg to play almost every night because it is hard to really pin down how reliable Magnus Hellberg can be. The 6’6”, 209 lb. goaltender has only appeared in one NHL game since the 2016-17 season. In that lone appearance with the Detroit Red Wings last season, Hellberg allowed three goals on 23 shots (.870 SV%) in a winning effort.
It’s a small sample size of data, but this small sample also extends across his NHL career. Drafted in the second round (38th overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft, Hellberg only has five appearances and 161 minutes of experience on his NHL resume.
The 31-year-old has put up some impressive numbers in the KHL over the past five seasons. He even stood out with his international performances representing Sweden at the Winter Olympics and World Championships in 2018 and 2022.
The combination of Hellberg’s pedigree, size, and performance overseas is intriguing in the sense that perhaps he is a player in need of the right opportunity to showcase his abilities and prove he can play at the NHL level.
Anton Forsberg is the perfect example of a player who took advantage of a similar opportunity, so maybe there is a chance that lightning can strike twice here and Hellberg can reliably eat some minutes until Talbot returns to health.
And when Talbot does return, it may take him some time to acclimate and round into midseason form. The Senators’ goaltending situation was already going to be put under pressure playing behind what is widely considered one of the weaker blue lines in the league.
Pierre Dorion’s relying on his goaltenders to overcome his team’s defensive shortcomings, but if they struggle with performance or the workload in the early going, it could undermine a lot of the good that the Senators did this offseason.
With so many positive vibes surrounding this team as it prepares to enter the season, the organization can ill afford another bad start.