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As the World Championship of Hockey nears its final rounds in Quebec City and Halifax, there is an unexpected player who’s name is passing everyone’s lips: Robert Esche.
The netminder for Team USA was last seen in the NHL playing for the Philadelphia Flyers a few years ago and the Coyotes a bit before that. In the last few games he’s been turning in performances that have people around the league talking NHL comeback.
Says the Edmonton Journal:
But the fact is the 30-year-old Utica, N.Y., native has been drawing the attention of media, fans, his coaches and a few National Hockey League general managers who have seen his solid play at the Halifax Metro Centre. He sports a 1.79 goals-against average and .942 save percentage in three appearances.
Esche has been playing in Russia this past season for Medvedev’s SKA St. Petersburg team for $1.8 million U.S. per season. In fact, he moved his whole family there, including his wife who now homeschools their kids.
Ya… how much would he welcome a North American contract?
To come out of obscurity and put on a performance like that sure has a “Dooon’t forget about meeeeeee!” feel to it. He’s got the skills, and there’s definitely some teams out there that can use a boost in goal tending… Let’s see what happens.
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May 15th, 2008 at 9:50 am
1) If Esche is pulling down almost 2 million in Russia, might he take the guarenteed pay cut to be someone’s back up in the NHL? The standard of living is light years better here, but 2 million is better than the 800K or so he’d expect if he returned here!
May 15th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I was actually quite surprised LA didn’t take a flyer on him this past season, especially after they supposedly upgraded their front-end in the UFA market…
I still see LA as a possible taker, and you can add St. Louis and potentially Ottawa to the list. Another, albeit kind of remote, option would be Tampa Bay, who suck at that position both on the ice and in terms of organizational depth…
I could be wrong tho.