The Toronto Maple Leafs have a new General Manager, and the hope is that he is somewhat like the old General Manager.
Specifically, the Toronto Maple Leafs, under Kyle Dubas, never made the mistake of spending assets and money on goalies.
The reason for that is that NHL goalies tend to be incredibly unpredictable.
Goalie performance varies so much that it just makes better sense to spend money on things you can predict with better accuracy.
Consider this: in any given season, the best goalie is worth more wins than the best player.
The best player is Connor McDavid, and that hasn’t changed for years, and, barring injury, likely won’t change for many more.
But this past season, having Linus Ulmark on your team would have been preferable to even having McDavid.
Having Sergei Bobrovski during his unreal playoff run was preferable, and Florida played for the Cup.
But since you can’t know who the best goalie will be at any given time, and since it could literally be anyone in the NHL, it makes no sense to spend assets on goalies.
That is why I am against any trade that sees the Leafs trade a big name player for a goalie.
But for the right price, obviously, I’d consider it.
Toronto Maple Leafs Should Consider Connor Hellebuyck (For the Right Price)
In the NHL, there are only a few goalies who have been consistently good every single year.
Ilya Sorokin, Andre Vasilevskiy, and Connor Hellebuyck are pretty much it, and until this season you could put Jordan Binnington on that list, but he was awful in 2022-23, and proves that there are no sure things.
For the most part, Connor Hellebuyck is one of the few goalies you can count on. At the peak of his game, he is the best goalie alive.
But you could trade for him and there isn’t even a 50% chance you’ll get a top goalie.
Last year, any team could have had Linus Ulmark and if you guessed right, as Boston ultimately did, you got one of the best players of all-time, for a single season.
But is Ulmark going to be the best goalie next year? Highly doubtful.
The best goalie next year could be anyone. It’s unlikely, but it could even be Matt Murray. That is more likely than it being Ulmark last year.
It could be Joseph Woll.
Or it could be Connor Hellebuyck.
If the Leafs could take his salary and pay a low first or a second, Hellebuyck might be the right choice. But obviously, Mitch Marner doesn’t need to be in involved in a trade for a goalie.