3 UFA Goalies Toronto Maple Leafs Should Pursue

Free agency starts at noon on July 28 and the Toronto Maple Leafs could desperately use another goaltender.

Jack Campbell should be the Toronto Maple Leafs starting goaltender next year, but the team needs to find his back-up in free agency. Since Campbell is only making $1.65M this year, the team can afford a decent price-tag for a second netminder.

As the Leafs get set for free agency, they have $9.3M to spend. Although that doesn’t sound like a lot, they don’t need to sign too many people, so they should be able to improve the roster without having to trade anyone.

Alex Kerfoot is still the Leafs biggest trade-chip so it wouldn’t be shocking to see him moved, but the Leafs could still spend wisely on a top-six forward, bottom-pairing defenseman and back-up goalie for $9.3M, without losing him.

Toronto would be smart to spend as little money as they can on a back-up goalie, because the Jack Campbell deal is one of the best contracts in all of hockey. There are barely any other teams that have a starting goalie making less than $2M, so the Leafs need to capitalize on that this season.

There are a few different options that Toronto can do this offseason. They could sign a veteran who’s a legitimate back-up to Campbell, or they could sign a netminder to compete for the starting position. Instead of having a No. 1 and No. 2, the team could go with a 1A and 1B type of situation, to help increase competition and workload.

Campbell deserves to be the starting goalie, but he has a small sample size, so last year could have been more of a fluke than what he normally is. Personally, I think the 1A/1B situation is better, because it’ll keep both goalies engaged all season, compared to having a veteran back-up who’s not expected to win every start he makes.

Here are three goalies the Toronto Maple Leafs should pursue in free agency.