The Unfortunate History of Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltending Decisions

The Toronto Maple Leafs have shipped another backup goaltender out of town. The team doesn’t have a positive history of goalie decisions.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made three individual goaltending moves this offseason. The team signed Michal Neuvirth to a professional tryout and Michael Hutchinson to a one-year contract. They also traded Garret Sparks to the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The moves will culminate in Neuvirth and Hutchinson battling for the backup position.

The hope is that sending Sparks to the desert in exchange for David Clarkson for the benefit of cap space, has not set the team back. The Leafs have an unfortunate history of poor decisions when it comes to roster decisions with their goaltenders.

By moving Sparks with such a limited return, it means that the Leafs have determined that he was not going to ascend to be anointed as the team’s starter of the future. It’s a calculated gamble that has been made in the past and failed.

The timing is curious because Sparks was the man that management chose to remain with the Maple Leafs. In doing so, they allowed Curtis McElhinney to be claimed off waivers. McElhinney went on to have a great year with the Carolina Hurricanes and leveraged that to sign a two-year contract with the Lightning.

In retrospect, the Toronto Maple Leafs decision to keep Sparks over McElhinney did not work out, but it’s hard to fault them for choosing the 25 year old reigning AHL goalie of the year over the aging career back-up.

Sparks owned a 3.15 goals against average and a save percentage of 0.902. McElhinney won 20 of the 33 games he played. He had a 2.58 goals against average and a 0.912 save percentage. (Hockeydb.com)

Perhaps this latest set of goaltender transactions works out. It has been a long time since the Leafs guessed correctly with their goalies. We will look back on some of the Leafs biggest blunders.