The Toronto Maple Leafs currently find themselves in somewhat of a bind when it comes to their goaltending depth chart, especially with Ilya Samsonov now on the injured reserve.
In fact, so dire is the situation for the Toronto Maple Leafs, they had to sign and immediately put last year’s Newfoundland Growlers starting goalie in the backup role.
With injuries affecting the nominal starting and backup goalies, Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray and also keeping third-choice Joseph Woll sidelined, the Leafs are relying on Erik Kallgren.
His backup versus the Carolina Hurricanes was the aforementioned, newly signed, Keith Petruzzelli, who has only just inked his first NHL deal.
As such, you have to start wondering whether the team will go hunting for a third-choice to act as the starter that has more experience than Kallgren, who is currently at 19 career NHL games., even though he’s helped lower the temperature lately with some solid play.
Concern was voiced in the summer when the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Matt Murray, whose injury history certainly rang some alarm bells.
Couple that with the loss of Ilya Samsonov, who had been performing strongly prior to exiting the Bruins game and you find the team deep down its’ depth chart.
In years’ gone by, Michael Hutchinson was still on the Toronto Marlies roster and although hardly a great option, he was someone with NHL experience that could be called upon.
The NHL rules are just not conductive to having a solid 3rd option readily available, unless that option is on an entry-level contract that allows movement between league’s without waivers. Kallgren is about as good as it gets for goalies who fit this category.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t want to ride it out with what they have, there are perhaps three genuine options (and a few extra ideas) that seem plausibly available at a price that might be worth the risk: