Ranking Every Toronto Maple Leafs Starting Goalie Since the 90s
1990-91 Toronto Maple Leafs Goalies
In 1990 the Leafs used four goalies.
Damien Rhodes played one game, Peter Ing played 56, Jeff Reece played 30 and Allan Bester played six.
I remember Allan Bester because when I was eight years old he refused to give me his autograph. Guess who won’t be making the top ten?
1991-92
In 1991 the Leafs once again used four goalies.
Grant Fuhr played 65, while Rick Wamsely and Jeff Reece each played eight games. Felix the Cat Potvin made his debut and played four games.
This was a big year in my childhood because I remember it being an extremely big deal when the Leafs got Fuhr, while eventually Felix Potvin would become my personal hero and #1 road hockey stand-in.
1992-93
Another year, another four goalies sharing the crease.
Fuhr got into 29 games, while Potvin established himself with 48. Wamsely played in three and Darren Puppa played eight. The Leafs made it to the Conference Finals this year.
1993-94
The Toronto Maple Leafs only used two goalies in this season. Felix Potvin played in an astonishing 66 games, while Damien Rhodes played in 22. For the second straight season, the Leafs made it to the Conference Finals and lost.
1994-95
In Mats Sundin’s first year, it was a lockout shortened season and the Leafs once again only used two goalies – Potvin and Rhodes.
1995-96
Once again Felix Potvin was the starter, and once again Damian Rhodes was his backup. However this year saw the addition of Don Beaupre for eight games and a spectacular 0-5 record. I still like him better than Allan Bester, however.
1996-97
Things were really cooking for Potvin this year, as he got into 74 games. I forgot that goalies used to play that much and it seems crazy. Donny B played in three games, while some guy named Marcel Cousineau, who I do not remember at all, played 13 times.
1997-98
Potvin had a really long reign as the Leafs #1 and this year he played in 67 games, while Cousineau played in two. Glen Healy brought his bagpipes to 21 games as well.
1998-99
Potvin only played in 5 games, while Healy played in 9 and Jeff Reece for some reason came back to play twice, but it was UFA signing Curtis Joseph who played the most. With Joseph, the Toronto Maple Leafs kick-started a decent era of success that while it wouldn’t culminate in a championship, was still a memorable and fun era in the team’s history.
This, the first season with Joseph, is the Leafs third of four Conference Finals appearance since the 90s.
1999-2000
Just two goalies used as the team hunkered down to protect themselves from Y2K – Curtis Joseph and Glen Healy.
2000-01
Once again, it was just Cujo and Glhe manning the crease. Try as he might, Healy could never get people to call him Glhe.
2001-02
Curtis Joseph played most of the games, Corey Schwab played 30 and recent Hall of Famer Tom Barrasso played four games, while Sebastian Centomo, of the “North-West” Centomos played in a single game. This was the fourth time the Leafs made the Conference Finals, i.e The Final Four, and lost since the 90s.
2002-03
It was a good run for Cujo, but he was replaced by Ed Belfour before the 2002 season. Backing up Eddie the Eagle were Trevor Kidd and Mikhail Tellqvist.
2003-04
The same exact three guys. As you can see, that’s been pretty rare.
2004-05
Greed sucks, kids.
2005-06
And so did the ’05 Leafs. Belfour and Tellqvist were joined by Jean Sebastian Aubin whose 9-0-2 run couldn’t have been good for the eventual draft pick. The Leafs didn’t make the playoffs this year, and they wouldn’t for a while. Welcome to the Leafs Dark Years.
2006-07
Desperate to have not lost the Tukka Rask trade, the Leafs played Andrew Raycroft in 72 games. Tellqvist played one game and Aubin played 20. It was either a long season or the goalies stunk! Or both.
2007-08
Vesa Toskala makes his Toronto Maple Leafs debut. Raycroft is here too, and Good Old Scottie Clemonson gets into 3 games.
2008-09
Brian Burke took over this year, and things were optimistic.
But Vesa Toskala was still the starter, and after a six-season hiatus, Curtis Joseph returned for 21 games of pure nostalgia. And nostalgia was all we were getting because once again, this team was brutal. We also saw Martin Gerber play a few games, while Justin Pogge himself played seven times.
2009-10
Retrospectively, I can see how the Leafs failed to make the playoffs with Jonas Gustavsson playing 42 times. At the time I was pretty exciting about the new Phil Kessel era. Vesa Toskala, Joey McDonald and Jean-Sebastian Gigure split the rest of the games.
2010-11
Jean Sebastian G. and Jonas G. were joined by James Reimer. Big surprise they missed the playoffs again with this set of jokers.
2011-12
Again, it’s not hard to see where the Leafs went wrong in the Burke years. Again we have Jonas Gustavsson playing half the games. Jussi Rynas played 2, Ben Scrivens 12 and James Reimer played 34 times.
2012-13
Another lockout, another crap Leafs team led by brutal goalies. This one actually did make the playoffs, but you know they didn’t win any rounds. Again it’s Reimer, Scrivens, and Rynas.
2013-14
The Leafs picked up noted intellectual Jonathan Bernier for this season, and despite not knowing who Nelson Mandela was, he was still smarter than Reimer, who was still here. Also Drew McIntyre played two games.
2014-15
The rare instance of getting through the season with two goalies occurred here for the first time since the 2001-02 series. Bernier and Reimer played every game, and unsurprisingly, the Leafs missed the playoffs.
2015-16
James Reimer, Jon Bernier, Garrett Sparks. Huzza!
2016-17
For the first time in over a decade, the Leafs employ an actual goalie – welcome to Toronto Mr. Freddie Andersen, and in retrospect we shoulda never let you go.
Antoine Bibeau, Curtis McElhinney and Jonas Entroth filled out the lineup.
2017-18
Joining Andersen and McElhinney this year was Calvin Pickard (for one game).
2018-19
Andersen was joined by our old friend Michael Hutchinson, and after a two-year hiatus, Garrett Sparks played 20 games.
2019-20
It was Freddie Andersen was joined by Jack Campbell, and Michael Hutchinson, as well as Kasimir Kaskisuo.
2020-21
Once again, it was Freddie, Jack, and Michael H. This time joined by David Rittich for four games.
2021-22
Jack Campbell was joined by Peter Mrazek. In addition, Joseph Woll, Erik Kalggren and Michael Hutchinson all played games too.
2022-23
You remember this year as the year the Leafs finally won a series in the playoffs. Also, it was just a month ago!!!!
Ilya Samsonov, Matt Murray, Joseph Woll, Erik Kallgren were joined by emergency goalie Jett Alexander, who as far as I can tell, is the only emergency goalie to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs since 1990.
Toronto Maple Leafs Goalies Fun Facts:
Only 5 x in the last 33 years did the Leafs make it through the season with just two goalies.
Only 3 x in the 33 years did the Leafs use the same goalies for two straight seasons. Once with Rhodes/Potvin, once with Joseph/Healy and once with Belfour/Kidd/Tellqvist.
In each of the last two seasons, the Leafs used 5 x goalies, something that didn’t happen once between 1990-91 and 2021-22.
Sparks, Rhodes, Reece, and Joseph all made return runs after one or most seasons away. All year-to-year info and stats from hockeydb.com.
The Leafs had 11 GMs over this 33 season period, including Cliff Fletcher twice.
They had 12 coaches over the same period.
They used 48 goalies.
Four of those goalies (Potvin, Joseph, Reimer, Andersen) stuck around for four years or more, but only three of them were starters. Overall, the Toronto Maple Leafs have lacked stability in net for the past 33 years.
Home-grown goalies are a rarity: Jeff Reece, Allan Bester, Peter Ing, Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes, Mikael Tellqvist, Antoine Bibeau, James Reimer and Joseph Woll were all drafted by the Leafs. That is 9 of the 48 goalies total, but only Reimer and Potvin made any impact in the NHL.
Drafting two (three if Woll has a career) good NHL goalies in 33 years is pathetic.
Three of the 48 goalies (Belfour, Barrasso, Fuhr) are in the Hall of Fame.
One of those goalies, Curtis Joseph, should be.
They made the playoffs 18/33 times. Including the last seven in a row.
Only 8 out of those 48 goalies have a playoff victory. (Woll, Samsonov, Potvin, Joseph, Andersen, Campbell, Belfour, Reimer)
Only four of those goalies (Potvin, Joseph, Belfour, Samsonov) have a playoff series victory.
# 10. Vesa Toskala
That fact that Vesa Toskala is on this list is a testament to how badly the Leafs have had it over the last 33 years.
I mean, sure, if they’d had stability in net and each key starter had gone on a long run, maybe there wouldn’t be so many options and you’d be fine adding in Toskala.
But that isn’t the case.
The Leafs have had 48 goalies since the 1990 season, and only Felix Potvin and Freddie Andersen stuck around longer than four years, so Toskala making the cut is just because the Leafs were a bad team for the vast majority of the time since this list starts.
The trade that sent Toskala to the Leafs was, in typical Leafs fashion, a huge loser.
On June 22 2007, the Leafs sent a first, second and a fourth round pick to the Sharks for Toskala and Mark Bell.
Bell played 35 games for the Leafs, while the Blues eventually used the Leafs pick to select Lars Eller. I don’t know this for sure, but I doubt any team has historically wasted more first rounders than the Leafs.
Anyways, Toskala played parts of three forgettable seasons in Toronto, and he stunk. His combined GAA for the three years he played here was over 3.00 and his save percentage was under .900.
The Leafs did not make the playoffs or win a game while he was here. The only reason he makes this list is because Glen Healy, Damian Rhodes and Jonathan Bernier were the other main contenders for the last spot.
# 9. Joseph Woll
The fact that we are forced to put Joseph Woll on this list is pathetic, but don’t blame me, blame the combined work of Cliff Fletcher, Ken Dryden, Mike Smith, Bill Watters, Pat Quinn, John Ferguson Jr, Brian Burke, Dave Nonis, Lou Lamoriello, Kyle Dubas, and Brendan Shanahan.
Joseph Woll is one of just eight goalies in the last 33 years to pick up a win in the playoffs, and that’s good enough to get him on this list.
This past year when Ilya Samsonov went down to injury, Woll was forced to play three playoff games (he played four in total, coming in in relief against TB in game 1).
Woll took the loss when he subbed for the injured Sammy after the first period in game 3, but that’s hardly on him.
He shined in game four, posting a .960 and looking unbeatable in the Leafs only round-two victory. Woll was also fantastic in the deciding 5th game, and would have had his second win had his teammates picked him up with a couple of goals.
Overall, Woll’s future looks bright and he could be the first legitimate starting goalie the Leafs developed since Felix Potvin, however goalies are fairly unpredictable, so who knows?
The facts are that he has an incredible 2022-23 in both the AHL and NHL, and if there is any fairness in this world he’ll get a shot to be the starter next year and try to climb these rankings.
On a normal team there is no way he’d make this list, but the Toronto Maple Leafs have had limited success since 1990 and as one of only eight goalies to pick up a playoff win, he’s got to be here.
# 8. Grant Fuhr
Grant Furh is 12th in all-time goalie wins, and third in all-time Playoff Goalie Wins (all-time ranking stats quanthockey.com).
He only played on the Toronto Maple Leafs for two seasons 1991-92 and 92-93.
He amassed a record of 38-42-9 and both years he played for them their team was fairly bad.
Fuhr was only the starter for one year, then Felix Potvin stole the crease and Fuhr was traded at the next season’s trade deadline.
Fuhr was acquired in a trade with Edmonton that saw the Leafs send Vincent Damphouse, Peter Ing, Luke Richardson and Scott Thornton to the Oilers for Fuhr, Glenn Anderson and Craig Berube.
This trade was terrible, as Damphouse would go on to multiple 90 point seasons and a 1200 point career. This was three top-ten picks of players in their early 20s for a bunch of old dudes to join a crap team.
However, despite Fletcher blowing it with his first big trade, he redeemed himself by sending Fuhr and a 5th to the Sabres for Dave Andreychuck, Darren Puppa and a 1st.
This trade led to the Leafs making the Final Four in back-to-back years. As you know, in the last 33 years, the Leafs have made it to the Final Four 4x, and so even though he didn’t actually help the Leafs get their personally, Fuhr, by way of Andreychuck, was instrumental in half of those.
That is why despite his bad stats and limited number of games in a Leafs uniform, we still chose to rank Fuhr 8th.
#7 James Reimer
I was personally disgusted by Remier’s behavior earlier this year when he wouldn’t wear the Pride Jersey for the San Jose Sharks, but be that is it may, he is still one of the best goalies the Toronto Maple Leafs have had in recent years.
The fact that he barely qualifies as a starter, and never really did win the net only makes this list worse.
Believe it or not, however, James Reimer is 10th in all-time Leafs wins. (Keep in mind he played in the era of no ties).
Reimer stuck around for parts of six seasons, which makes him second only to Felix Potvin for longevity among Leafs goalies.
He was a essentially a 1B with Jonas Gustavsson for two years, then he started the majority of the games in the lockout shortened 2012 season, after which the Leafs added Jonathan Bernier.
The reason why Reimer makes this list, other than longevity, and the fact that he’s one of the only goalies the Leafs have drafted to make an NHL impact, is that he was the only Leafs goalie to get them into the playoffs in the 11 seasons between 2006 and 2016.
You might recall that series. I don’t. I have permanently blocked it out.
An Original Six team made the playoffs once in 11 seasons and they did it with a career back-up. That isn’t good.
But that is why James Reimer comes in at #8 on the best Toronto Maple Leafs goalies since 1990.
# 6. Jack Campbell
Jack Campbell only played in 77 games for the Leafs.
To be honest, when I started writing this, I was shocked to learn that Campbell played such few games for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Perhaps because he was acquired just before Covid when the season was cancelled, then backed up Freddie Andersen when the season restarted five months later, then was the starter during the shortened 56 game season.
That time is permanently etched into our memories and looms large in the way that tragedies and assassinations also do.
So maybe it’s natural to feel like Jack Campbell was the Leafs goalie for a long time when it was only really parts of three seasons.
He was the goalie for two playoff seasons and in both of those years he lost.
However, that isn’t to say it was his fault. The Leafs deserved to beat Montreal and their loss was a complete fluke that probably had a million to one shot of actually happening.
Then again, Jack Campbell did let in a knuckle-puck from 80 feet away when his team was outshooting their opponent 12-0 in overtime. That alone keeps him from legend status.
The subsequent Tampa series was a solid series for Campbell, but ultimately the refs, as well as Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andre Vasilevskiy, prevented him from becoming the first Leafs goalie since Eddie Belfour to win a playoff round.
Campbell couldn’t get it done, and when his contract came up there were offers too good for him to turn down (and which never should have been offered, as we clearly stated at the time).
He left the Leafs to go play for the Oilers and it worked out for the Leafs because they then were able to sign the next goalie on our list. And no, I’m not talking about Matt Murray!
# 5. Ilya Samsonov
The Toronto Maple Leafs ex-General Manager Kyle Dubas made a great play in the summer of 2022.
Faced with the option of overpaying Jack Campbell or making a value bet on a couple of down-on-their-luck former starters, Dubas chose the later.
It was a creative move that worked well.
Dubas leveraged the Ottawa Senators cap situation to his own advantage and received multiple draft picks to take on the last two years of Matt Murray’s contract. Murray had a decent season but was injured frequently, which allowed the Leafs to use his cap-hit elsewhere, eliminating the only risk of trading for him in the first place.
Since the Leafs had Joseph Woll and Erik Karllgren who were both able to go back and forth from the AHL to the NHL without waivers, there was really no risk that they’d be short a goalie, as long as he signed someone to work in tandem with Murray.
Enter Ilya Samsonov, ex-first round pick and starting goalie of the Washington Capitals. It was a low-risk move that paid big dividends as Samsonov had a career season leading the league in high-danger 5v5 save percentage.
Samsonov went on to win a playoff series when the Leafs beat the Lightning, and he was cemented as a true legend and stokelord supreme.
Since 1990, only Felix Potvin, Curtis Joseph, Eddie Belfour and Ilya Samsonov have won a playoff series. That makes him the 5th best goalie since 1990, with a possibility of climbing the list if he sticks around.
#4. Ed Belfour
Ed Belfour is a hall of famer, and while, as of yet, no one ahead of him on this list is, the majority of his NHL success came before he was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Belfour began his career in Chicago one year before this list begins. In fact, though it doesn’t seem like he was playing for the Leafs all that long ago, he’s actually over 20 years older than Jack Campbell.
Belfour was a sure-fire hall of famer before he left Chicago for Dallas (via a brief stopover in San Jose), and he joined the Leafs in 2002 after the club let Curtis Joseph go.
Belfour was an adequate replacement and the Leafs were a contender with him in net, but they couldn’t really do anything come playoff time.
In Eddie the Eagle’s first year with the Leafs they were eliminated in the first round and in his second year they were knocked out in round two.
Belfour at least won a round, which is more than most Leafs goalies for the last 30+ years can say, but ultimately the teams he was on in Toronto fell well short of expectations.
Belfour’s third season was cancelled due to unconscionable greed, and when play resumed in 2005-06 the Leafs were a tired, old team with no clue how to manage the new salary cap.
Ed Belfour climbed to 9th all-time in Leafs wins and is the fourth best goalie they’ve had in the last 33 years. His 17 shut-outs are the most out of an Toronto Maple Leafs goalie born after 1940. (He is tied with Joseph but played less games).
#3 Freddie Andersen
The third best goalie since 1990 to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs is Freddie Andersen.
The only shame here is that he isn’t first, but the Leafs just could not get anything done in the playoffs.
Andersen was acquired for a couple of picks back when the Leafs shouldn’t have been trading picks, but it worked out for the best because he was so awesome.
He finished his Leafs career 6th in all-time games played, 4th in wins, 8th in save-percentage, and he was the Leafs starting goalie for five straight years.
Outside of Felix Potvin, that’s the longest run anyone has had in 33 years of Leafs hockey.
In retrospect, Andersen probably should have been re-signed two years ago, but the Leafs went cheap with Jack “Big Baby” Campbell and Freddie went to Carolina.
In Carolina, despite their being a great team, he’s only played nine playoff games. They were all this year, where he won the decisive game against the Islanders, then won all four against the Devils, leading the Hurricanes to the Conference Finals.
Andersen has won two rounds now with Carolina, which, unfortunately, is two more than he won with the Leafs. Despite that, I ranked him ahead of both Belfour and Samsonov because of his longevity, and the fact that it’s not like it was his fault they didn’t advance.
Andersen is a free-agent this year and I would love it if the Leafs brought him back, as he’s one of my all-time favourite Toronto Maple Leafs players.
I’m fine with a Samsonov/Woll combo, but the excitement around bringing back the beloved Andersen would be amazing, and he’s only 33 which isn’t too old for a goalie.
#2 Curtis Joseph
For a brief time at the turn of the century, Curtis Joseph was the face of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After the twin Final Four appearances of 93 and 94, the Leafs had a surprising inability to turn what should have been the magic of double hall of famer #1 centres into anything tangible.
Eventually frustrations would rise so high that Cliff Fletcher and Pat Burns would be fired, and Wendel Clark traded to Long Island and Doug Gilmour traded to New Jersey.
The Leafs were rejuvenated with Sandin, Sergei Berezin (38 goals), Tomas Kaberle, Brian Bedard and Curtis Joseph. After missing the playoffs twice in a row, the Leafs went to the Final Four, only to lose to Buffalo.
For the third time in seven years, the Leafs lost in the Conference Finals, though this time in the East.
The Toronto Maple Leafs would lose in round two in each of the next two seasons, but then, in Curtis Joseph’s last year, they once again went to the Final Four, this time losing to the New Jersey Devils.
Joseph took the Leafs to the playoffs in every single year he was the starter. In addition, he won a series every year, and six overall, by far the most of any goalie on this list.
As previously mentioned, Joseph is tied with Beldour for 7th all-time in Leafs Franchise History with 17 shutouts. He’s 15th in save-percentage, 9th in GAA, 5th in games played, and 5th in wins.
He is 3rd all-time in franchise playoff games played and wins.
He is in competition for being the best Leafs goalie ever, along with Turk Broda and Johnny Bower.
Curtis Joseph should be in the hall of fame, as he is one of the best players to ever dress for an original six team. He is an absolute legend in the city of Toronto and the fact he wasn’t able to win a cup here is perhaps equal only to Mats Sundin not winning one.
An argument can be made that Joseph should be at the top of this list, and really, both he and the next guy (who should be pretty obvious by now anyways) are equaly deserving of the title of Best Toronto Maple Leafs Goalie Since 1990.
#1 Felix “the Cat” Potvin
The best goalie that I’ve ever seen in my life, a childhood hero and still one of my favorite players ever, is Felix Potvin.
The blue pads and the mask were iconic. The Fleer Ultra (or was it Leaf?) Masked Men Sub-Set was so hot once upon a time that you would trade even your Jason Arnott rookie card to land one.
Potvin was the man. More than any player other than maybe Wendel Clark, Leafs fans were unanimous in their love for the French Canadian home-grown goalie.
Potvin was a Leaf for eight seasons, six of them as the starter. That kind of longevity stands alone on this 48 goalie, 33 season list. Only Frederick Anderson, at five years, is close.
Only Curtis Joseph won more playoff series. Both Joseph and Potvin lead the Leafs to a pair of Conference Finals, but Potvin did it with a much worse team in 1993.
When it comes to all-time franchise stats, Potvin is third in wins, and first among those born post 1925.
Potvin is 3rd in games played, and one of only 3 Leafs to ever play in over 300 games as a goalie (Broda and Bower are the others). Potvin is 12th in shut-outs and 2nd in total saves.
He is 4th all-time in playoff games played, as well as 4th in wins.
The reason he is ranked ahead of Curtis Joseph is not only the longevity, but also because Potvin was a home-grown goalie, drafted in the second round, 31st overall, in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. Only Woll and Reimer can also say they made this list and were drafted by the Leafs.
It’s crazy to think that in 33 years the Leafs could only draft and develop a single star goalie. Still, what a star he was. For a generation of Ontario kids, it was an honour to pretend to be Felix Potvin in road hockey and get a tennis ball shot directly into your groin on a freezing cold winter afternoon.
Next. The Leafs Top 10 Prospects. dark
Joseph might have an overall edge in stats, but Potvin is the most beloved. Here’s hoping Joseph Woll can climb this list and be the new Potvin.