David Rittich has been a treat to watch this year for the New York Islanders, as in his last 10 games (as of Dec 29th) he has a .935%, and a 9-4-2 record on the year. As Ilya Sorokin has been deemed day-to-day with a lower body injury, Rittich has been up to take task this year unlike some of his previous years, and he is starting to show that he can play consistent and take over the starter workload like he in Calgary in 2018/19 and 2019/20.
With the upcoming Olympics in February and Czechia having a solid roster of goalies to choose from of NHL starters (Vejmelka, Vladar, Dostal, Dobes), Rittich currently holds the highest save percentage among these goalies, and has definitely sparked some interest for the upcoming roster selection.
NHL Career
David Rittich was an undrafted goalie hailing from Jihlava, Czechia, who didn’t make the jump into the NHL until a few years into his professional career, as he was noticed for his dominance in the top Czech league with a .918% in 48 games with BK Mlada Boleslav. The Calgary Flames brought him over to play for the Stockton Heat in the AHL in 2016/17, where he went 15-11-5 with a .924%, good enough to split the next NHL season for both the Heat and the flames. The Flames gave him over 40 games each season, where he would play alongside both a prime Mike Smith and Cam Talbot. Rittich proved to be a competitor and earned the starter role at points in the season, though only playing one game in relief in the 2020 bubble playoffs.
2021/22 saw Rittich split the bubble season between 15 games for Calgary and 4 games for Toronto, posting below numbers in relation to his previous years. In the offseason, Rittich signed a 1-year deal with the Nashville Predators, playing in 17 games for a median Predators team. With Jussie Saros injured for the playoffs, Rittich started game one of the playoffs against the dominant Colorado Avalanche, even just having a .886% on the year. Rittich started his first NHL playoff game, where he was pulled after letting in 5 goals on 12 shots in the first period, and was replaced by rookie Connor Ingram for the rest of the series.
Again signing a one year deal now with Winnipeg, Rittich served another average year winning 9 games for the Jets in 18 starts.
The next two years saw Rittich sign back to back one year deals with the LA Kings, having a great year with his again counterpart Cam Talbot (Rittich a .921% in 24 games / Talbot a .913% in 54 games) and earning himself two playoff starts in the first round against the Oilers, though both being losses. The second season in Hollywood didn’t fair well for Rittich, as he got his fair share of starts but was out-duelled by a prime Darcy Kuemper, as Kuemper had a Vezina nomination season and Rittch took majority of the losses for the team in the backup role.
At the age of 33 and producing a quality season, we could see Rittich take the throne of a starter again like his time in Calgary. Though like many European goalie, we may only see another couple seasons and see him return to Czechia to play in his hometown for a few years before he retires. Whether it being the Olympics or the World Championships in the summer, I would bet on seeing Rittich in his home country jersey once more before he retires.