Toronto Maple Leafs: 2017-18 Player Profiles – Frederik Andersen
By Alex Hobson
The Toronto Maple Leafs have an exciting season coming up.
Obviously, nobody knows what will happen, but if it’s anything like last season, then Toronto Maple Leafs fans are in for a treat.
Every hockey fan knows that after the first week of July, the rest of the month along with August is very dry. There’s rarely any big news and the next mark on the calendar isn’t until training camp rolls around, which is usually mid-September.
To help you faithful fans pass the time, I’m going to be starting up a series where I profile each player on the Leafs. These will include how they got to Toronto, how they did last season and where we can expect to see them playing next season.
I’ll be going in alphabetical order, so to kick things off, we’re going to be taking a look at one of the candidates for Maple Leafs MVP of last year, Frederik Andersen.
Andersen’s Career
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A native of Herning, Denmark, Andersen actually spent the majority of his NHL career playing locally in the Danish league. He’s represented Denmark internationally on a number of occasions between the World Juniors and the World Championships.
He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2010 draft, 187th overall by the Carolina Hurricanes, but he wouldn’t end up signing with them. He re-entered the draft in 2012 and was selected in the third round at 87th overall by the Anaheim Ducks.
Andersen moved to North America to play in the AHL in 2013, and heading into the following season, the Ducks began to outgrow their tandem of Jonas Hiller and Viktor Fasth, so Andersen began to see more starts.
His most successful season in Anaheim came in 2015-16 where he posted a record of 22-9-7 with a GAA of 2.67 and a save percentage of .918 through 43 games. He would be sharing starts with fellow netminder John Gibson, whom the Ducks seemed to favor at times.
In the playoffs, Andersen was relied on much more heavily and he had a very successful five games, coming out with a GAA of 1.41 and a save percentage of .947.
He and Gibson would go on to win the William M. Jennings trophy for having allowed the least amount of goals.
How He Got To Toronto
Here’s where it gets interesting.
The Leafs needed a goalie badly. Following the 2015-16 season, they were running with Jonathan Bernier and Garrett Sparks as their tandem, and they needed a change. There was some speculation that the Leafs were interested in Andersen, but it was simply brushed off as a rumour.
On June 20th, 2016, the speculation became a reality. Andersen was dealt to the Maple Leafs in exchange for Pittsburgh’s 2016 first round pick (obtained in the Phil Kessel trade) and a second round pick in 2017.
Andersen Last Season
Nobody wanted to get their hopes up. After all, the Leafs weren’t expected to be THAT good in 2016-17. They just finished dead last in the league. Andersen was simply supposed to be a better option than Bernier, who could steal a game every now and then. Obviously, he was capable of doing more than that, but fans didn’t want to get too excited.
Freddie had a rough start through his first few games. He was in a different conference, getting used to facing new teams more often, but this didn’t last for too long.
Andersen would go on to be arguably the Leafs most important player throughout the season. Playing behind a weak defensive core, he would go on to steal a number of games and be heavily relied on for starts, carrying a workload that he wasn’t used to.
He appeared in 66 regular season games for the Leafs and had a record of 33-16-14 with a GAA of 2.67 and a save percentage of .918. He would help the Leafs make the playoffs for the first time in an 82-game season since 2004, and while they were knocked out in the first round, it was a very successful season for Andersen and the Leafs as a team.
Andersen’s Role Next Season: Starting Goalie
There is absolutely no question that the Leafs will use Andersen as their starter once again this season.
The Leafs also brought back Curtis McElhinney to man the backup role. The Leafs and their fans appear to be poised for another great season from Andersen.