Toronto Maple Leafs: Does Latest Trade Spell the End for Andersen?

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired their seventeenth goalie of the season late last night.

After making three straight deals with the Blue Jackets, the Toronto Maple Leafs swung a deal for Calgary goalie David Rittich in exchange for a 2022 third-round pick.

This is a pretty high price to pay for an insurance goalie, so you’ve really got to ask if the Leafs also plan on moving Freddie Andersen today and getting out of his $5 million cap hit.

Rittich is a 28 year-old Czech who has played 130 games for the Flames over the last five years.  His stats don’t jump out at you, but he is among the league leaders in goals saved above expected over the last several years.

Then again, so is Jonathan Bernier.

Riitich is a pending UFA who makes just under $3 million per season.

Toronto Maple Leafs and David Rittich

The Leafs started the year with Michael Hutchinson as their fourth string goalie after signing Aaron Dell in the summer.  Unfortunately, Dell was claimed on waivers and Hutchinson has played in eight games – and played well.

The Leafs also acquired a goalie from Columbus in exchange for Mikko Lehtonen earlier this year, Veini Vehvilainen, whose name is so impossible to spell I almost hope he never gets called up.

So with four quality goalies on the roster, and no real need for another one, why trade for Rittich? A third round pick for a 3rd string goalie, when you’ve got two perfectly fine #3 and #4 options already is an extremely weird move.

There is such a thing as paying too much for insurance.

So obviously, there must be another shoe to drop, right?

The Leafs may have made this move with an eye towards trading Freddie Andersen and clearing up $5 million in cap space.  If that isn’t the plan, then this is a very expensive, unnecessary move.

Andersen has been injured a lot and when he’s healthy he hasn’t been very good anyways.  Jack Campbell has taken the net and if Andersen is healthy, he’s now the NHL’s most expensive back-up goalie (and this includes the ridiculous amount of their cap Montreal is wasting on Jack Allen).

Andersen also has a situation where almost all of his salary has already been paid in the form of a signing bonus, so trading him shouldn’t be difficult. If this is the end for Freddie in Toronto, he’s had a good run.

David Rittich is a perfectly good back-up and it will be interesting to see what the Toronto Maple Leafs do before 3PM.