The Toronto Maple Leafs need a goalie, and while we don’t know who that will eventually be, we do know at least one thing:
The Toronto Maple Leafs have absolutely zero interest in John Gibson, and the fact that an actual human wrote that the Leafs should trade one of their franchise players for him tells you all you need to know about where we are at in the calendar – smack dab in crazy season where the Leafs are eliminated and there are no roster moves to distract us from getting out of control.
Nylander for Gibson may be, hands-down, the dumbest idea anyone has ever had, but it’s not the only silly idea being floated out there.
Other people have suggested that the Leafs cap issues and the lack of available goalies means they will look for a cheap option like they found in Jack Campbell.
Only thing is: the Leafs are in no position to make such a bet, they actually have a great salary cap situation, and no one has any clue which goalies are and are not available – teams make surprise moves all the time.
What the Toronto Maple Leafs Will Do
The Leafs have almost eight million in cap space right now, then there is about ten million in Simmonds, Clifford, Kerfoot, Mrazek and Holl. On top of that there is $5.5 from Muzzin and another $5 from Brodie if they really want to get crazy.
The main thing is that with lots of space potentially available and no bad contracts, the Leafs are in great shape to find a goalie. And they do have to find a goalie, as Jack Campbell does not inspire confidence and any contract they give him will be a bad one.
They also have a ton of assets and prospects that they can trade.
And so they are only limited by their own creativity and other teams refusal to part with their best goalie.
The Leafs have the means, motive and opportunity to trade for an elite goalie, and that is what they are going to do.
There is just no utility in taking a flyer on another cheap goalie – it may usually be the right play, but this team needs a confident goalie they can rely on in the playoffs. The psychological make up of this team is going to be put to the text next April in the first round of the playoffs, when all the baggage this team carries gets brought back up, and it will be vital to have a goalie who inspires confidence and who has never been a part of the previous failures.
The list of potential goalies is short – Ilya Sorokin, Jordan Binnington, Darcy Kuemper (as a potential UFA), Connor Hellebuyck, maybe a couple others. Carey Price, with 50% retained, is an idea that jumps to the front of one’s mind, but I don’t really know where he’s at after missing all of last season – it might be too much of a risk.
Whle we don’t know yet what the Toronto Maple Leafs will eventually do in net, we do know that they are probably not bringing back Campbell, they aren’t trading for Gibson and it would be silly to risk it all on a cheap goalie. The play for them is to go big and bring in a top goalie.