Oilers Once Again Sign Old Toronto Maple Leafs For Too Much Money

The Edmonton Oilers have signed former Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jack Campbell to a five-year deal at $5M AAV.

For the third consecutive season, the Edmonton Oilers have signed one of the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest UFA’s.

It started with Tyson Barrie in 2020, Zach Hyman in 2021, and now Campbell in 2022. All three of those players are fine, but they shouldn’t be eating up $15M of your cap-space and that’s why the Leafs let them all walk in free agency.

If you include Cody Ceci in this trend as well, then that’s now $18.25M worth of former Leafs on the Oilers team, which is hilarious to see.

Campbell is 30-years-old, which isn’t old for a starting netminder, but a five-year deal worth $5M AAV is still a risk for the Oilers and it makes sense why the Leafs didn’t want to sign him. Since being drafted in 2010, Campbell has only played in 135 career NHL games and the most starts he’s ever made is 49, which was last year.

Oilers Sign Former Toronto Maple Leafs For Too Much Money

Campbell was an NHL All-Star last year, but the wear and tear of being a starting goalie got to him.

After being great for the first few months of the season, his game began to falter and he was unreliable in net. His GAA dropped to 2.64 from 2.15 in the previous season and his SV% went from .921% to .914% (stats: capfriendly.com).

The most disappointing part of Campbell’s play in Toronto is that his playoff stats decreased dramatically. He went from 1.81 GAA to 3.15 GAA and then a .934 SV% to a .897 SV % from the series against the Montreal Canadiens to Tampa Bay Lightning.

It’s quite possible that Campbell is, at best, a 1B goalie and not a legitimate starter. Banking on him to play 50-60 games per season seems like a terrible decision and the Toronto Maple Leafs understood this and moved on. It’s one thing to run it back for one-to-two years at $5M AAV, but to commit to another five years of an unproven goalie is a tough decision.

Instead, the Leafs took the approach of short-time goalies with high upside. They recently hired Curtis Sanford, who’s arguably one of the best goalie coaches in the world, so they’re hoping that he can mold Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov into an unreal 1A/1B combo instead of relying on Campbell by himself.

At $6.5M, I’d rather have a combination of Murray and Samsonov over Campbell and Samsonov at $6.8M because at least Matt Murray has proven that he can win in the past. With 50 career playoff starts and two Stanley Cup ring’s, Murray is a legitimate winner, compared to Campbell, who seems to falter in the biggest moment’s.

It’s definitely a risky situation to “hope” for good goaltending, when you’re in win-now mode, but there’s a ton of value with Murray and Samsonov and the Edmonton Oilers are going to regret giving Jack Campbell a five-year deal, when it’s all set and done.