Toronto Maple Leafs Make a Very Surprising Signing

The Toronto Maple Leafs have brought back goalie Michael Hutchinson.

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced the signing of goalie Michael Hutchinson Friday morning in on of the more surprising moves they have made this off-season.

Hutchinson, you may remember, was the Leafs goalie last year for a spell and things did not work out well at all. In fact, the Leafs, who finished 13th overall (8th after they took my advice and fired Mike Babcock!) were competing for a President’s Trophy in games in which Hutchinson didn’t start. 

So what you have here is the Leafs re-signing their worst player from a year ago; the player who was the biggest reason they didn’t finish higher in the standings.

So what gives?

Toronto Maple Leafs and Michael Hutchinson

To say the least, this move is surprising. (The Following quote is from the previously linked article)

Michael Hutchinson had a record of 4-9-1 with the Leafs this year.  That is a points percentage of 0.321 which compared to the regular season standings, would put the Leafs in 30th place, below Ottawa and above Detroit.So just so we are clear:  In games where Hutchinson was the goalie of record, the Toronto Maple Leafs were the equivalent of a 30th place team, while getting 32% of all possible points

In games in which either Andersen or Campbell was the starting goalie, the Toronto Maple Leafs got 64% of the available points, which ties them with Tampa and puts them ahead of Las Vegas.  No one catching Boston (ridiculous 5v5 save percentage) but that isn’t the point.  The Leafs were competing for first overall in games where Hutchinson didn’t start, and that includes the Babcock games.

So why bring him back?

https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1322184087684173825

It’s simple: Any goalie capable of making the NHL is capable of going on a run and being (for a short time) a top goalie. Hutchinson started four games for the Avalanche in these past playoffs, and in the first two of them he was unreal.

This led people to further criticizer the Leafs defense, but it was, in reality, just a random thing that happened.  The Leafs defense didn’t cause Hutchinson to be terrible – no defense at the NHL level could explain what he did in the Leafs net this year.

The fact is, goalies in the NHL are susceptible to a wide range of volatility in their performance and no one can ever predict what will happen.  Had Hutchinson performed at his career average, the Leafs easily get a by past the play-in round.

The reason the Leafs are willing to forget how badly he played last year is because of their committment to analytics, they know that Hutchinson’s terrible play was just an outlier.

Additionally, they have now have four goalies in the system (Andersen, Campbell, Dell, Hutchinson) and (we assume) Hutchinson is #4.  That is a lot different than having him as the only other NHL goalie available.

The Leafs now have very admirable depth, and though Hutchinson will likely start in the AHL (or even on the Newfoundland Growlers) this is a very good signing.