Rumors have swirled about the Toronto Maple Leafs acquiring a goaltender to replace Freddie Andersen via trade or free agency.
It’s no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs would like to upgrade their goaltending position.
Throughout the playoffs, teams with goaltending-duo’s have been very successful. Of the four teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs right now, three of the four teams have used multiple goaltenders throughout the post-season.
Vegas Golden Knights have had Marc-Andre Fluery and Robin Lehner. Dallas Stars have seen action from both Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin, while the New York Islanders have had Thomas Greiss and Semyon Varlamov in net.
The luxury of having multiple goaltenders start a playoff game is so important. All of those goalies listed above have not only started a playoff game for their team this post-season, but they’ve actually got the win as well.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a tricky situation right now when it comes to their goaltending. As we’ve discussed multiple times on this forum, there are many question marks around Freddie Andersen. With one year left until he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent, does it make sense to sign him long-term, keep him with the assumption he’ll walk or trade him for another asset?
There are multiple ways to go far in the playoffs when it comes to goaltending. You can pay a number-one goalie like Tampa Bay did with Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9.5M cap-hit) or you can have a goaltending-duo that makes a combined $8.4 million like Vegas has done.
The Leafs don’t have the luxury of signing a yearly Vezina Trophy candidate like Vasilevskiy, so they’ll most likely have to go with the duo to stay under the cap. Andersen at $5M for one more season is good value, but after that it get’s tricky, so it may be time to move on from him when you have a great asset.
Here are 10 goaltenders who could replace Andersen via trade or free agency.