In a 10-part series, we look back at the 10-year anniversary of the 2008-09 season, the start of the Blackhawks dynasty.
Every Stanley Cup contender needs to have strong goaltending. You simply can't win without it. The Blackhawks shored up that position when they signed Nikolai Khabibulin to a four-year deal in 2005, but didn't have the surrounding parts to go with it. And by the time they did, he was in his mid-30s.
So the Blackhawks went out and signed Cristobal Huet to a four-year, $22.4 million contract on July 1, 2008, to help provide a quality 1-2 punch between the pipes for a young team that had the pieces up front and on the back end to complement them.
Huet and Khabibulin each started in 40 games during the 2008-09 campaign, but Khabibulin was the clear No. 1 after going 25-8-7 with a 2.33 goals against average, .919 save percentage and three shutouts, guiding Chicago to its first playoff appearance since 2001-02.
The Blackhawks reached the Conference Final against the Detroit Red Wings before Khabibulin was injured in Game 3 and missed the rest of the series, forcing Huet into a starter's role. He stopped all six shots in relief as the Blackhawks won 4-3 in overtime to pull the series within 2-1, but allowed five goals on 26 shots in the first 44 minutes of Game 4, leading Joel Quenneville to put in rookie Corey Crawford for the remainder of the third period.
While Huet bounced back with a terrific 44-save performance in Game 5, it wasn't enough as the Red Wings eliminated the Blackhawks and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final with a 2-1 overtime win.
The Blackhawks let Khabibulin walk the following year and handed the keys to Huet, but it didn't go as well as they'd hoped. Huet's save percentage dipped to .895 by season's end and eventually lost his starting job to Antti Niemi, who had a .917 percentage in 39 appearances, including seven shutouts, which was tied for third among all goaltenders.
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Niemi started in all 22 postseason contests and made timely save after timely save in many of them, manning the crease for the Blackhawks in Game 6 of their Stanley Cup-clinching victory against the Philadelphia Flyers that snapped a 49-year championship drought.
From Khabibulin to Huet to Niemi to Crawford, the Blackhawks were absolutely loaded in goal and it's a huge reason why they've been able to have sustained success over the last decade.