Toronto Maple Leafs: Comparing Freddie Andersen and Petr Mrazek
By Jeff Borsuk
This summer the Toronto Maple Leafs said goodbye to longtime starting goalie Frederik Andersen.
It’s official. There’s a new goalie in town who is expected to share duties with Jack Campbell. On the opening day of free agency, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost their longtime netminder Freddie Andersen and signed Petr Mrazek to take his place.
Even though both goalies switched teams through free-agency, the Leafs and Hurricanes sort of bizarrely ended up trading goalies
Let’s break down everything we know of both the outgoing and incoming goaltenders. That way Leafs fans will know what to expect from their new stopper.
Backgrounds
Andersen was a pioneer in the NHL. He was the league’s first-ever goaltender to come from Denmark. He hails from Herning, a city in Central Denmark that, according to Statistics Denmark, has a population of 50,531 (Jan 2021).
Andersen comes by his goaltending skills honestly. His father, Ernst, played goal in the Metal Ligaen, the top tier of Danish hockey. He played for the Herning Blue Fox. While his father played the same position professionally, the rest of Andersen’s family took to hockey as well but as blueliners.
Andersen’s brother, Sebastian, also played for the Blue Fox. Instead of in the crease, he plays in front of it. Their sister, Amalie, is also a defenseman. She has played professionally in both Demark and in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League. Currently, she competes for the University of Maine in the NCAA. Andersen’s mother, Charlotte, even played defense for Herning in the women’s league.
Mrazek doesn’t come from a well-decorated hockey family. The 29-year-old was born on Valentine’s Day 1992 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He developed his hockey acumen through the Czech system. He represented the country internationally and played in Czechoslovakia until he transferred to North America to compete in Major Junior hockey.
Mrazek joined the Ottawa 67s in the OHL and played a pair of seasons for them before he was selected in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. In his first year as a pro, he split time between the ECHL, AHL, and NHL. It wasn’t until Mrazek’s fourth year that he became a full-time NHL goaltender.