The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best goaltenders in the NHL in Frederik Andersen.
Andersen continues to be a dynamo in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs. This season, he’s started 66 games in net. In those 66 games, he has a 2.81 GAA, .918 SV%, 5 shutouts and 38 wins. In addition, his shutouts and win statistics are both career highs for him.
Toronto Maple Leafs fans might look at his GAA and react badly to it, but I wouldn’t. If any goalie plays more than 60 games per season, you’d have to expect that his GAA wouldn’t be low. In fact, the league leaders in GAA have played a lot less games that Andersen. For example, Carter Hutton of the St. Louis Blues has the lowest GAA in the league, but he’s only played in 32 games. The second lowest GAA belongs to Antti Raanta of the Arizona Coyotes who has appeared in 47 games. So, I urge you not throw Andersen under the bus for his GAA when he plays night after night unlike a lot of other net-minders. It’s also not even really a good stat because it’s so team dependent. The Leafs allow a ton of shots – more than most teams – and so Andersen’s numbers could potentially be better on a team that played better defense, even if he himself played worse.
All-in-all, the Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best goalies in the NHL. Leafs Nation has waited a while to hear that. Since the days of Eddie Belfour and Curtis Joseph, Maple Leafs fans have been waiting to get a strong net-minder in net. There were a lot of painful nights.
In this post, we’ll take a look at his top ten saves of the season. Before we continue, I’ll admit Andersen has made so many stellar saves that it’s incredibly hard to rank them. I did my best!