It’s probably been a minute or two since anyone in the hockey world referenced goalie Antoine Bibeau, so I might as well be the guy to remind everyone that he’s still playing. Bibeau looked like he had the courage to potentially step into an NHL role at some point after posting a 2-1-0 record in four games split between Toronto and Colorado, and his save percentage of 2.52 GAA and .907 were a reflection of his ability to stop pucks at the NHL level. This might be why I’m not an NHL scout, because he bounced around the AHL the past two seasons before landing in Sweden and Finland, and he’s back on the road after another NHL team released him from his PTO contract.
Bibeau played in Finland in the SM-Liiga with KooKoo Kouvola last season, helping them reach sixth place in the 16-team league before falling to Sport Vaasa in the opening round of the Finnish League play-offs. It was clearly not how Kouvola wanted to finish the season, but Bibeau had a solid season as he posted a 20-13-0 record in 35 games on a 2.60 GAA and a .905 save percentage. As we’ve seen for most of his career, these would be solid AHL numbers, but teams should view him as a potential option as a cheap, experienced backup netminder.
One team took a flier on this netminder when the Dallas Stars invited Antoine Bibeau to training camp on a professional tryout contract, and Bibeau was unsure if he would be with the Dallas Stars, the AHL Texas Stars, or another team once training camp ended. He told Robert Tiffin of StarsThoughts.com about his invitation to camp,
“I just thought this was a good opportunity for me. My wife is pregnant, I’m getting older and I had more patience this season as to where I was going to play next season. I thought it was a good opportunity to give myself a chance to come back.”
“I’ve always said that if something happened in North America that I thought made sense and that I was excited about, I was open to coming back. When Dallas came up with the PTO, I thought it was a great opportunity for me.”
Fast forward to September 28, where Bibeau was released from his PTO contract, making him a free agent again. With a number of leagues in Europe already preparing to start their seasons, Bibeau’s options for returning to any of those leagues may have been limited. For a 31-year-old netminder with a growing family, he and his agent needed to find a place where he could land quickly!
Stop wondering where Antoine Bibeau will land as he has accepted a deal to join EHC Red Bull Munich at the Penny DEL in Germany! Bibeau will be one of four goaltenders on Munich’s roster as he joins Mathias Niederberger, Simon Wolf and Matthias Bittner in the blue paint, and he may be needed as Munich currently sits eighth in the 14-team DEL with a 4-5-0-0 record. They’ve also given up the second-most goals against so far, so it seems clear they need some help keeping the pucks out of the net.
Mathias Niederberger has logged the most ice time of the three current netminders in Munich, but he and Simon Wolf share the same inflated numbers. Through six games, Niederberger has a GAA of 3.71 and a save percentage of .848, while Simon, through three games, has a GAA of 3.71 and a save percentage of .851. Simon is 24th overall in save percentage, while Niederberger is 25th overall, so Munich is looking for someone who can stop pucks with regularity.
In his defense, Bibeau’s AHL numbers give him a 2.79 GAA and a .906 save percentage in 225 games, and it looks like Munich will be looking for those kinds of puck-stopping skills when he finally plays for Team Red Bull. That .906 save percentage would put Bibeau at eleventh overall in the DEL, while his 2.79 GAA would put him at twelfth. That’s clearly a big increase over Niederberger and Wolf.
Bibeau’s passport is starting to look like a stamp book as he moves to his fifth country and league to stop pucks in the past five years. He clearly has the skills to be a solid netminder on a number of teams, but he will be taking his talents to Germany in the near future as he looks to help Munich climb the Penny DEL standings this season.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
#Passport #stamps