The Petr Mrazek experiment failed and the Toronto Maple Leafs should use this opportunity to trade his contract.
If the regular season started tomorrow, Petr Mrazek would technically be the starting goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, if this team seriously thinks they’re a Stanley Cup contender, that can’t happen.
Injuries were a huge factor as to why Mrazek’s first year in Toronto went south, but you can’t use that as an excuse. If this was Mrazek’s first injury-prone season in 10 years, we could run it back, but this is unfortunately his mantra as an NHL goaltender.
It’s been six seasons since Mrazek’s started 50 or more games, so relying on him as a starting goaltender seems like a terrible decision.
Even getting 30 games out of him right now is a stretch and at $3.8M, you can’t hope that he’s healthy. Instead, the team needs to trade him and recoup some assets for him.
Although he’s injury-prone and hasn’t shown he can be a legitimate starter in a few years, he does have 295 career starts under his belt and another team is going to take a chance on him. Management is going to say “when healthy” this player is a starter and can help us win games, and he’ll be traded easily.
As a result, there are a few suitors out there that could fit for Mrazek and some intriguing hypothetical trades that could also help Toronto.
Here are three hypothetical trades involving the Toronto Maple Leafs and Petr Mrazek.