The Philadelphia Flyers made a minor move today by claiming goalie Mike McKenna off waivers. McKenna was dealt from the Ottawa Senators to the Vancouver Canucks two days ago before he was placed on waivers yesterday, as the Flyers would be the seventh team he’d play for in the NHL. If he appears in a game, McKenna will be the seventh (…seventh…) goalie to play for the Flyers this season, which is of course a record.
So, uh, assuming Hart does start a game, if the Flyers do get another goalie that starts a game, they’d be the first team to start seven goalies in one season since whenever the NHL started recording Starts as a goalie statistic: https://t.co/tBFhRZ8U5w pic.twitter.com/LjKqieAtN2
— Kurt (@Kurt_BSH) December 17, 2018
McKenna is a 35-year-old netminder who has started a total of 26 games at the NHL level since the start of the 2008-09 campaign and has appeared in 34 NHL tilts over that time. Over his career, he is 7-16-3 with an .892 save percentage, 3.58 goals against average, and one shutout. A good chunk of his playing time has come this season with the Ottawa Senators, where he went 1-4-1 with an .897 save percentage and 3.96 goals against average. The last time McKenna appeared in over four games in a single season was in 2008-09, when he took to the crease 15 times for the Tampa Bay Lightning providing a record of 4-8-1 with an .887 save percentage and 3.56 GAA. In between this season and 2008-09, McKenna played a total of nine games with a record of 2-4-1, a save percentage of .894, and a goals against average of 3.25 splitting time between the New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets, Arizona Coyotes, and Dallas Stars.
After the team provided updates on Brian Elliott and Antony Stolarz yesterday, and with Alex Lyon still readily available in the AHL, the decision to pick up McKenna is a somewhat curious one, to put it politely. The Orange and Black have more than enough warm bodies to sit in the crease and lose games, and no offense to McKenna, but he’s far from The Answer in net. Maybe this is the first shoe to drop and something else will come along shortly? If not, it feels somewhat like general manager Chuck Fletcher making a move to make a move unless the updates the team provided yesterday aren’t up to speed.
