The Toronto Maple Leafs have a new starting goalie as the Jack Campbell Era officially starts tonight.
Freddie Andersen and Jack Campbell have been interesting storylines ever since Campbell was acquired last year. After never really having a back-up compete for his starting job, Andersen’s position as the Toronto Maple Leafs starting goalie was always safe.
He was the clear No. 1 goalie and this team was going to ride-or-die with him, no matter what.
Now that Campbell has arrived, although he hasn’t been that healthy, he’s been competing at the level of a No. 1 goalie. He’s shown Leafs Nation that he’s ready for a bigger opportunity than the handful of starts he typically gets every season.
Currently sporting a 1.00 GAA and .965 SV%, Campbell looks much better than a back-up. However, he’s only played four games, so those stats are a little deceiving.
Although the sample size is small, every game he’s played in, he’s performed at a high level, so you have to give him props for that. He’s faced 30 or more shots in three of those four games, so it’s not like it’s been a walk in the park every night he’s been in net.
To compare, Toronto has allowed 30 or more shots in nine of Andersen’s starts this season, but he’s given up three or more goals on six occasions. Campbell has yet to give up more than two goals in a game this year, and has two shutouts.
To make things even worse, Andersen’s only allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of his 23 starts this year. That’s not good enough for your starting goalie.
Campbell Era Starts Tonight
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a busy few weeks ahead of them, so they’re going to need Campbell to perform at a high level, while Andersen is out.
Since Andersen is out 7-10 days, expect Campbell to start the following games:
- March 25th vs. Ottawa Senators
- March 27th vs. Edmonton Oilers
- March 29th vs. Edmonton Oilers
- March 31st vs. Winnipeg Jets
- April 2nd vs. Winnipeg Jets
- April 4th vs. Calgary Flames
The Leafs play a back-to-back on April 4th and April 5th against Calgary, so you’d hope that Andersen is healthy enough to return to that. Worst case, Michael Hutchinson starts that game, instead.
Since Toronto is only playing Canadian teams this year, Campbell has already faced Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary (twice), so at least he’s familiar with his opponents.
Campbell hasn’t been given this much runway, since the 2018-19 season with the LA Kings, so it’ll be interesting to see how he does as the starter. He’s clearly shown during his time with Toronto that he deserves a starting position, so these next six games could change the landscape of his career.
If Campbell replicates his stats from his four previous games this year and goes on a winning streak, it’s possible that he steals the net from Andersen moving forward, as the playoffs near.
With a $1.65M cap-hit, the best thing that could happen to Toronto is for Campbell to turn into their No. 1 goalie, so it’ll be incredibly interesting to see what happens over the next 10 days.