In early August, Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving surprised fans by signing veteran Martin Jones to a one-way contract.
The 33-year old had a bit of a resurrection of his career in 2022-23 after finishing with 27 wins and a 2.95 GAA, however the Toronto Maple Leafs were pretty set with their one-two tandem as Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll had those spots.
Jones would have to show he was a Vezina Trophy candidate to force the organization to place Woll on waivers in order to make room for the veteran goaltender.
The second way Jones were to make the team was if one of those goaltenders were to get injured in camp.
Woll has already started in training camp, while Samsonov is expected to start one of the two games this weekend and also stated he is in better shape this year.
Martin Jones Is Unlikely To Remain With Toronto Maple Leafs
The likely hope that the Toronto Maple Leafs organization had was that both Samsonov and Woll remained healthy; and the team would to try and sneak Jones through waivers.
That doesn’t seem to be the case at all anymore, as news came down Thursday that Tampa Bay Lightning star goaltender Andre Vasilevskiy will miss the first portion of the season due to the injury.
Chris Johnston tweeted out on Thursday that the two-time First Team All Star sustained an injury to his back and was expected to miss the first two months of the regular season.
Tampa Bay does have five other goalies in their training camp, however only one has more than 20 minutes of career playing time in the NHL. Jonas Johansson was projected to be the understudy to Vasilevskiy for this upcoming season, however, even the 6’5″ Swede does not have much NHL experience.
Johansson played in just three games in the NHL last season, all with the Colorado Avalanche and he has never played in more than 15 games in one year.
The only other goalie in their camp with NHL experience is a second Swedish goalie Hugo Alnefelt who has played a grand total of 20 minutes, which came two season ago.
There was a good chance before the Vasilevskiy injury that the Tampa Bay Lightning may have put a waiver claim in on Jones had Johansson struggled in training camp, but it appears all but assured now that they will.
A better thought is, would the Maple Leafs be able to recoup an asset for Jones and make a trade (preferably not to the Lighnting), instead of losing him on waivers for nothing?