Whether or not you have confidence in Huet, it is evident that he is the starting netminder for the Hawks. Even if Huet squashes his critics and succeeds in the No. 1 role, history dictates that his backup will also play a crucial role in the upcoming season. For all of Stan Bowman's talk of Huet excelling while receiving the bulk of the work, the veteran goalie has never played more than 52 games in an NHL regular season. That effort was in the '07-08 campaign split between the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. Huet has averaged around 40 starts in three other full NHL seasons.
The trend in the NHL is that backup goalies see plenty of time. Only ten NHL netminders played in over 60 games last season. That leaves over a quarter of the games to the man normally sitting quietly on the bench. Added to that is the fact of 18 pairs of back-to-back contests for the Blackhawks this season - more than any other team in the NHL.
So who does Huet get to stare at behind his shoulder? My money is on Niemi. Last year's free agent signee from Finland appears to have a pad up on Crawford.
