2015-16 Report Card: Karri Ramo

Karri Ramo

Goalie

Grade: C

MarkParkinson14 - C

Where to begin with Karri Ramo? This season could not have been any more bizarre for a goaltender trying to secure the top goal tending spot and be in the final year of his contract. Ramo started the season as the "#1" goalie after a very solid performance in the 2014-15 Stanley Cup playoffs and then came the month of October. 0-3 and 12 goals given up in that time frame. He was put on waivers, cleared waivers, sent to Stockton and then bused back in time for Halloween when Jonas Hiller was injured. How's that for just one month into the season? From Halloween on Ramo turned into a quality keeper for Calgary while Hiller rehabbed and bombed and Ortio tried to find his footing. After that disastrous start he rebounded to finish the season 17-15-1 and probably would have kept the Flames in better playoff shape if he hadn't torn his ACL in a 6-5 win over the San Jose Sharks on February 11th. While Ramo's 2015-16 will never be confused with the great goalie seasons of all time, it's also not the train wreck it gets portrayed as by some. Ramo is a free agent and it's doubtful he will get a chance to suit up for the Flames again.

BizzleJ  - C -

It's no secret that the Calgary Flames goaltending is a hot and debatable topic these days. Asking me to rate Karri Ramo is like asking me to rate a baked potato. No matter where you go, a potato is still a potato, and it still gets baked in an oven. It's average and doesn't change a whole lot. Ramo is the same, in fact if you look at his last 3 seasons, it is scary how much alike they are. The only thing that changed dramatically was how many shots he faced and as a result how many saves he made. Sure he made some beauty saves, but so did the 42 year old Backstrom. Due to Ramo being consistently average and now injury-prone, I actually changed my grade from originally a B, to now a C.

FlamesMM- C

When compared to the other goaltenders around the league, Ramo is the literal definition of average. He was good enough that I'd be comfortable with him in net, but still worried when he'd get a lot of shots. Prior to his season ending injury against the Sharks, I felt that Ramo was the best goalie the Flames and had and at least would've given the Flames an extra week or so of playoff contention. Pretty much every night he's not going to be outstanding but he's going to be good. But good enough doesn't always cut it in today's NHL. He's about as average as you can get, that's why he gets the most average grade you can get. C

samwell9 - C+

What a rough season for Ramo. I have always been a supporter of having him in the organization, but it has gotten to the point where we just cannot expect him to be the starter for this team. On top of his average to below average stats, he appears to be a little injury prone. When he was between the pipes, Ramo provided what we have come to expect from him by now, some absolute gems of starts alongside some real rough outings. Kudos to him for bouncing back so well after a tough start to his season, it was unfortunate his season and likely tenure with the Flames had to end so abruptly. I would be happy to see him return in a backup role, but I do not see it happening. For such an up and down season, I am giving Ramo a C+.

MattyFranchise - C

For starters, the three headed goalie monster to start the season was terrible for everyone, nobody performed well. Once Ramo settled into his massive string of starts after his recall he performed, by eye, much better. For this reason I'm going to divide Ramo's season into two parts: From the start of the season to his demotion and after his call up until his season ending injury. By the end of October, Ramo managed to put together, in his 2 whole games, a 5v5 SV% of 85.7 and an Adjusted SV% of 84.12. To put this in perspective, League average for both numbers was above 90%. He was the odd man out when the music stopped and got sent down. Two bad games was all it took. He played 20 minutes of hockey in the AHL, Hiller was injured, and Ramo was promptly recalled on the 28th of October and given almost all of the starts until he was injured on February 11th against the Sharks.

For the season minus October he managed a 5v5 SV% of 92.46 and and adjusted SV% of 92.49 over 34 games. To put this in perspective, of all goalies playing a minimum of 1000 minutes during that same time frame he ranked 20th out of 29 qualifying goaltenders in 5v5 SV% and 21st in adjusted 5v5 SV%. You know who else has similar numbers during that same time? Jonathan Quick and Stanley Cup Finalist Martin Jones.

While I'm solely looking at his 5v5 numbers here, showing that if he wants to he can be capable, in other parts of his game, particularly on the PK, he needs to be more.  He was the best goaltender on the Flames this season so he gets the highest grade that I am willing to award to whatever it was that the Flames had in net this season: C

HockeyGoalieEh - D+

Goalies:  The easiest position on the ice to judge, the hardest to evaluate moving forward.  Goalies can basically be evaluated with a single statistic - What was their adjusted 5v5 save percentage?  For Ramo, it was a little bit worse than mediocre; out of the top 70 goalies in shots faced in 5v5 situations, he came in at 49th.  He was the starter, but he played like a sub-par backup.

There's really not much more that needs to be said on Mr. Ramo.  Yes, he was arguably better than the rest of the Flames goalies, but that's not an important measure in evaluating a netminder.  He was one of the litany of goalies that Calgary put forth only to watch them play in absolutely putrid fashion.  Fortunately he's an unrestricted free agent.  As a guy with next to no potential for development coming off such a horrid season, here's hoping that he just goes away.