Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 UFA Goalies to Replace Freddie Andersen
Jack Campbell will be the starting goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs next season, but who will back him up?
The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a devastating loss this postseason, but it wasn’t because of their goaltending. For the first time during the Auston Matthews Era, the goaltending was spectacular and Jack Campbell gave the team every opportunity to win.
In seven games, Campbell had a .934 SV% and 1.81 GAA (stats: hockeyreference.com), which included one shutout. After averaging 3.3 goals per game during the regular season, the Leafs couldn’t live up to that mark in the playoffs and it cost them the possibility of advancing to the second round.
Losing in the first round stings, especially when it’s not your goalie’s fault.
The Leafs offense was their biggest skillset so it was very disappointing that they couldn’t help out Campbell during the playoffs. Let’s hope that Campbell’s run wasn’t just a flash in the pan and he can provide similar stats next year, as there’s no way that the Leafs offense can run dry three years in a row.
Well, at least, let’s hope not.
Heading into the 2020-21 season, Freddie Andersen was the starter, and Campbell was the back-up. However, after Campbell had such a great season and Andersen is a UFA, it makes zero sense to bring him back, especially since he’ll be asking for a lot of money.
Since Campbell is their starter and only makes $1.65M, it’ll free up a lot of cap-space to bring in a veteran back-up or someone who can split time 50/50 with him. Campbell still hasn’t proven that he can be a starting goalie during an 82-game season, and also battled injury concerns, so it would make sense to sign a goalie who can at least start 40 percent of the games.
Ideally, you’d love to see Campbell play a maximum of 50 games next year, so that he’s rested and prepared for the playoffs, while your back-up can still win you a ton of games.
As such, here are three goaltenders the Toronto Maple Leafs should sign this offseason.
No. 1: Linus Ullmark
The Toronto Maple Leafs should spend a little money on their back-up goaltender, but they should free up some space to add their forward depth. As a result, Ullmark could be a perfect price to add, without worrying about the cap.
The 27-year-old netminder is coming off a $2.6M contract and has only started 117 career games in the past six seasons. Although he has potential, there probably isn’t a team in the NHL that would sign him to be their starting goalie, so any team should be able to get him relatively cheap.
Even if Toronto signed him to a $3M per year contract, that would still be $2M cheaper than what they paid Andersen last year, so it’ll free up a good amount of money to acquire another forward.
Ullmark has had two great years, despite playing for the Buffalo Sabres. In limited action, Ullmark had a .916 SV% and 2.66 GAA in his previous two seasons.
Those stats are very similar to Freddie Andersen, but Ullmark provided those stats on one of the worst teams in the NHL. If he played in Toronto, with a much improved defense, it’s realistic to assume that his SV% would increase and GAA would decrease.
Ullmark would be a great back-up to Campbell, because he could fill in if he ever got hurt, but he’s also good enough that it would create some competition in net, which clearly helped Campbell this season.
No. 2: David Rittich
After trading a third-round pick to Calgary for Rittich last trade deadline, it would feel a lot better if they re-signed him, rather than let him walk in free agency. (It would feel better, but it wouldn’t actually matter due to the sunk cost fallacy).
Rittich only appeared in four games with Toronto this year, and although it wasn’t pretty, that shouldn’t scare anyone away from re-signing him to be the back-up. Over his career, Rittich has proven that he can be a starting goaltender, but is clearly better suited as a back-up.
With a career .907 SV% and 2.82 GAA (stats: hockeydb.com), Rittich could be a cheap back-up to Campbell. With an offseason to adjust to the system and get climatized, he should have a much better performance in a full year, than he did in the four games he appeared in this year.
In order to make their overall team better, the Leafs need to be able to sign a back-up goaltender to as cheap of a deal as possible, without it hurting the team’s chances at winning. Rittich is a veteran and can be relied upon to win games as a back-up, so the team should have faith in him to relieve Campbell, while not hurting the salary cap.
I know that his game in Vancouver this year was one of the worst goalie performances we’ve ever seen, but bringing him back at a contract between $2-3M (or hopefully less) would be great value.
No. 3: Chris Driedger
Driedger is the most interesting goaltender of these three and the most uncertain. It’s quite possible that he turns into a huge valued addition, or a bust if the Leafs signed him.
If you look through the 27-year-old’s hockeydb.com page, it’s quite extensive. Jumping from the ECHL, AHL and NHL, Dreidger is your typical hockey journeyman, as he looks to try to find a permeant home in the NHL.
After finding a secure spot with the Florida Panthers, he ended up getting stuck as the third-string goalie, thanks to Spencer Knight and Sergei Bobrovsky. With both of those goalies signed in Florida for a while, he’ll most likely be on the outside looking in, once again.
In his previous two seasons with the Panthers, here are his stats:
- 2019-20 season:
- 7-2-1 record
- 2.05 GAA
- .938 SV%
- 2020-21 season:
- 14-6-3 record
- 2.07 GAA
- .927 SV%
Although it’s limited action, those numbers are very impressive, so it’ll be interesting to see what type of contract teams offer him this offseason.
If Dreidger is looking for a starting job somewhere, Toronto unfortunately will not be able to provide him that, but they could give him a great opportunity, with an explosive team in front.
Next. 4 Players Leafs Could Lose in Expansion Draft. dark
Dreidger still hasn’t shown enough of sample size to be given a starter job, in my opinion, so being that 1B goalie in a tandem seems like a great next step for him, which is what Toronto can offer. If the price is right, Dreidger could be worth taking a risk on as the back-up to Campbell.