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Toronto Maple Leafs: 2015-2016 Goaltending Preview

By Tim Chiasson

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While the Toronto Maple Leafs wait to finalize the remaining roster cuts, the goaltending situation has been set since camp opened.

Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer will again lead the Toronto Maple Leafs into the regular season, but there’s a little to be concerned about.

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Bernier has posted a .885 save percentage and Reimer comes in at .910 for the pre-season so far. Neither of those totals are going to give the team in front of them a chance to win hockey games. A low save percentage can be blamed, in majority, on the player between the pipes. A high goals against average with a high save percentage can be tossed, in majority, on the players in front of the cage guardian.

Going into tonight’s game against Detroit, Bernier and Reimer have combined for one win in seven appearances. Garret Sparks has credit for the other two Toronto Maple Leafs pre-season wins.

Coming off a forgettable season there was hope that Bernier and Reimer could bounce back but early indications don’t exactly build on that previous hope.

The named starter is likely to be Jonathan Bernier but if he continues his pre-season play into the regular season that won’t last for long.

Here’s what Bernier and Reimer looked like last year, including pre and post collapse numbers.

(numbers from war-on-ice.com)

When the team decided they were going to drive the team bus off of a cliff, Bernier stayed on board but Reimer had one leg out the door.

Reimer actually got better when the team fell apart. Bernier flew right off the rails. Even though the team struggled to score and generate many scoring chances, Bernier can definitely be handed a significant portion of the fault for the post-Christmas play of the Toronto Maple Leafs. When you’re goaltender is only stopping such a low percentage of shots, you’re doomed.

What To Expect This Season

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As it stands now, I’d be shocked if Bernier didn’t see a huge portion of the games as the starting goaltender. You don’t pay a guy that much money to ride the pine. That being said, if he keeps up his pre-season play then Mike Babcock will be forced to have an expensive bench warmer.

Taking into account Bernier’s previous numebers from his first season in Toronto, and the pre-Christmas numbers, I find it hard to believe he’ll be as terrible as he was for the second half of last season. It’s more probable than not that he will at least trend toward his old numbers and not stay at the low level he finished with last year.

For Reimer, he’s going to have to make the most of his opportunities in goal. He needs to continue his play from the last half of last season and not trend back toward the regular season numbers he had before Christmas. Reimer is playing for a chance elsewhere after teh 2015-2016 season, unless he wants to take a pay-cut to remain Bernier’s backup. That chance in another city is going to come off of a strong performance this year.

I expect both goaltenders to be better, overall, than they were last year. It probably won’t help the Toronto Maple Leafs in the grand scheme of things for 2015-2016, but it will put them to ease in the goaltending position for the next few years and allow them to continue to focus on building the youth movement.

Next: Babcock Mulling Decisions?

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