Toronto Maple Leafs: The Back-up Goalie Barely Matters

The Toronto Maple Leafs have Freddie Andersen in net.

And despite whatever garbage lists people make, the Toronto Maple Leafs do indeed have one of the top five to ten goalies in the NHL.

But what about the back-up goalie?

Who cares about a back-up goalie?

It Is Irrelevant

Whenever people don’t like someone, they inevitably find something meaningless to complain about that normal people just scoff at.

Take Kyle Dubas.

Like in anything, when a person attempts to do things different from how they’ve always been done, there is push-back. 

In this case, a guy 20 years younger than your average GM has decided to dedicate his roster to the idea that skill is the only important factor.

He’s also done this in a town that venerates the grinders (Tucker, Domi, Roberts) and disparages their talented superstars who don’t grind (Sundin, Nylander, Kaberle, Gardiner).

The problem, however, is that he’s done a near-perfect job, so people complain about the most minor things.

I.E the back-up goalie.

Any sane person can tell you that if you a GM’s biggest mistake is screwing up his back-up goalie, then he’s probably doing fine.

The irony is that Dubas didn’t even screw up.  When faced with losing a top prospect his organization had spent millions of dollars developing to waivers, in order to keep a 32 year old career back-up, he wisely chose the 25 year old prospect.

MacElhinney flourished while Sparks floundered.  The result was bad, but it is important to recognize that Dubas made the logical choice, and that sometimes the result with a lower probability of happening does happen.

You can’t win them all.

So it’s unfortunate (and embarrassing for them) that his critics can’t let this go.  Illustrating the lunacy of their complaint is the fact that Jordan Binnington, who, until last January, was a lower ranked AHL goalie than Garret Sparks.

Binnington – as goalies will do – came out of nowhere and led the St. Louis Blues from the NHL’s basement to the Stanley Cup.  Garret Sparks stealing the Leafs starting job from Andersen and winning the Cup was a more likely occurrence.

Binnington should serve as an example of how unpredictable the goalie game is.  Sure, Sparks flamed out, but there was an equal likelihood that he performed adequately or better.

And this brings me to my ultimate point: The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t need to worry about their back-up goalie.  Yes, a great back-up can help you.

Thing is though: you don’t know when or if whoever you have in net will be good.  There are about ten goalies on earth who are good to great every single year. The rest of them are a crapshoot.

It sucks, because goalie position has a ridiculously huge effect on the game of hockey, but there isn’t anything you can do.

Given that any back-up can go on a Vezina winning tear, and any started can suddenly become terrible, there really isn’t any upside to spending assets or cap room on a back-up goalie.

The best strategy is what the Toronto Maple Leafs have done: spend the smallest amount of cap space possible, and get a couple of cast-off starters who may or may not be able to handle the job.

A smart GM spends money on predictability, not goalies.   Obviously a great back-up can secure you several extra wins during the regular season.  It helps psychologically to know your season isn’t over if your starting goalies goes down with injury.

But ultimately, since you don’t know what you’re ever going to get with a goalie, the best thing to do is collect a few options on the cheap and deal with it if you have to.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in good position, and no one should care at all about who the back-up goalie is.