Jacque Lemaire is a good pick.
And with that, the condition of my conditional trade with EagleBelfour is satisfied:
The New Jersey Swamp Devils are pleased to pick our starting goaltender, a guy that I feel is better than every goalie picked since Billy Smith (and I would argue that he compares favorably to Smith):
G Crazy Eddie aka Eddie the Eagle aka Eddie the Billionaire Belfour
Ed Belfour
-7 times Top 5 in Vezina voting (1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4)
--2 Vezina Trophies against a prime Patrick Roy (1991, 1993)
--2nd in Vezina Voting to a prime Hasek (1995)
--3rd in Vezina Voting in 2003
--4th in Vezina voting in 92, 98, 00
-2 First Team All Star nods (91, 93)
-1 Second Team All Star nod (95)'
-3 "Third Team" All Star nods (92, 98, 03)
-4 Jennings Trophies (91, 93, 95, 99)
-Regular season save % leader in 91 and 00
-Stanley Cup Champion in 1999
-Stanley Cup Runner up in 2000
-161 career playoff games (3rd all-time)
-88 career playoff wins (tied with Billy Smith for 4th all-time)
-career playoff save % of .920 -
tied with Martin Brodeur and behind only Dominik Hasek among goalies with more than 60 career playoff games.
-All this while playing in the most competitive era ever for goaltending.
--Without Roy or Hasek (argubly the two best goalies ever), Belfour would have 3 1st team and 2 2nd team All Star nods.
--Without Roy, Hasek, or Brodeur (as good a trio as Sawchuk, Plante, and Hall), Belfour would have 4 1st team and 2 2nd team All Star nods.
--Belfour had to compete with one-season wonders who wouldn't even be in the league if there were still only 6 teams. (See a couple of the Vezina winners during Belfour's career).
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In my opinion, a peak Belfour was just as good as peak Brodeur and a tiny hair behind peak Roy at stopping pucks. He wasn't the puckhandler Brodeur is/was, but I don't need puckhandling from my goaltender when I have Bobby Orr.