When the Flames brought in Mike Smith during the offseason, in my mind he looked to be a decent stopgap until prospects Jon Gillies and Tyler Parsons were ready to make the jump to the NHL.
David Rittich seemed to be somewhat of an afterthought, perhaps he had NHL backup potential but I didn’t expect to see him in Calgary with Eddie Lack also being brought in.
Fast forward to the 2018 All Star break, and Smith is providing Vezina-calibre goaltending while David Rittich has been one of the better backups in the league, albeit over a small sample size.