Frederik Andersen
Ever since the June 2016 trade that saw the Toronto Maple Leafs acquire their future starting goaltender, no one has started more games or faced more shots against than the Leafs netminder (stats NHL.com).
Previous Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock refused to play any goalie other than Andersen unless it was the second half of a back-to-back. As a result, in Andersen’s first three seasons with the team, he started 66, 66, and 60 games, way too much for any goaltender in today’s NHL. But every regular season, Andersen continued to answer the bell. Take a look at Andersen’s stats from 2016-17 until the 2018-19 season (stats; hockey-reference).
2016-17: 2.67 GAA and .918 SVP
2017-18: 2.81 GAA and .918 SVP
2018-19: 2.77 GAA and .917 SVP
That model of consistency was vital to Toronto’s success due to their leaky defense, however, those excessive amounts of starts caught up to Andersen, where he constantly found himself burned out by the time the playoffs arrived. The squeaky goals the Dane was able to stop during the regular season seemed to fool him by the time the situations become more important.
This past season was Andersen’s first in which he was not able to perform to the normal standards he had previously set out for himself. Those taxing games appeared to have taken a toll on his play, leaving Andersen unable to be the rock in net Toronto desperately needed.
But alas, Freddy was given a four and a half month break in between the Leafs last game against the Lightning and game one against the Blue Jackets, where he showed how dominant he can be with ample time off. Posting a 1.84 GAA and a .936 SVP, Andersen enjoyed his best playoff series as a member of the Blue and White.
With another couple of months until the start of the 2020-21 season, expect Andersen to further rest his body in order to return to full form and dominate Toronto’s crease once again.