Breaking Down Toronto’s Goaltending Conundrum

The Toronto Maple Leafs are almost one year into their “scorched Earth” rebuild. In the middle of last February it was reported that MLSE had approved a top-to-bottom tear down of the team. Since then we’ve seen numerous changes in Toronto, from the Phil Kessel trade to the addition of Mike Babcock behind the bench.

There’s still much work to do for the Maple Leafs despite the shifts that we’ve seen to this point. One area where the team needs some stability is in net.

Heading into 2015-16, the job was Jonathan Bernier’s to lose. And unfortunately, he did. The 27-year-old hasn’t given Toronto reason to believe that he can be “the guy” moving forward, and he’s gone from No. 1 goalie to trade bait over the last five months.

Bernier still has one year left on his contract and carries a $4.15 million cap hit, so it may be difficult for general manager Lou Lamoriello to move him. Still, it doesn’t seem likely that the Maple Leafs will be willing to hand the crease over to Bernier again next season.

With James Reimer set to become an unrestricted free agent — and reportedly asking for a rather large contract — the team will be searching for a goalie soon.

They have a few options to consider in this search. Assuming Reimer isn’t re-signed, they could turn to the free agent market for help. Unfortunately for Lamoriello and Co., the goalie market will be quite thin this summer. Reimer will actually be one of the better options out there, with veterans like Cam Ward and Jonas Hiller also in the mix.

Neither of those names should jump out to the Maple Leafs though. Ward hasn’t been good for a half decade, while Hiller lost his starting job to Karri Ramo in Calgary this year. There are a few other interesting possibilities, including Chad Johnson and Al Montoya, both have been surprisingly good this season, but they represent gambles as well.

Especially if the team is moving on from Reimer.

Given the lack of quality goaltending available, it will also be a seller’s market. These net minders will be able to secure lucrative contracts since there simply aren’t a lot of options available.

There are also a handful of netminders who could be available via trade. Maybe the Detroit Red Wings would be willing to part with Jimmy Howard, but it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to add his large cap hit (roughly $5.3 million) and term (three more years).

And that’s the same scenario the Maple Leafs will run into across the league. No one is going to deal their lights-out starter.

That’s why the team should strongly consider trading for a young, up-and-coming goalie.

That approach didn’t work out with Bernier, but that doesn’t mean it can’t yield results. Consider what Steve Yzerman did after taking over the Tampa Bay Lightning. He recognized that the team needed stronger net minding, and continued to throw noodles at the wall until something stuck. Ben Bishop eventually landed the starting gig, but only after Anders Lindback, Dwayne Roloson and Cedrick Desjardins didn’t pan out.

Toronto has a plethora of 2016 draft picks, and they could potentially put together a package to land someone like Malcolm Subban or Ilya Samsonov. Players of this caliber won’t come cheap, but it makes more sense for the Maple Leafs to try and land a goalie who can match their rebuild curve. Inking a 33-year-old free agent probably wouldn’t do them a lot of good.

Subban and Samsonov stick out as high-end options for an identical reason: both are stuck behind incumbent starters who are playing on lengthy contracts. Tuukka Rask is locked down in Boston until 2021, while Braden Holtby is signed with the Washington Capitals through 2020.

It’s true that it takes goalies a while to develop, but Subban and Samsonov are both far enough along in their development that the Maple Leafs would know exactly what they are getting with either of these players. Subban has been a strong goalie in the AHL for two years now, and at 22 could give Toronto stability in goal for a decade. He’s as blue chip as a netminding prospect can be, but could be a wise play for the Maple Leafs if the deal was right.

They shouldn’t give up a prospect like Mitch Marner or William Nylander, but could someone like Kasperi Kapanen or Jeremy Bracco be enough to entice the Bruins? Boston is ridiculously thin on the right side, and adding a quality prospect at the position could be enough to pry Subban away from the Bruins.

Washington is primed for a Stanley Cup run and has been among the best teams in the NHL this season. Could Toronto figure out a way to send them a few rentals and draft picks in exchange for Samsonov? The 18-year-old netminder is committed to playing in Russia until 2018, but that could work out in the Maple Leafs’ favor.

They could ink a free agent like Johnson for a year or two, giving their prospect goalie more time to develop his game. He might not be ready by the time he’s 20 though, which could be the only hangup for Toronto. Odds are they want to start playing competitive hockey next season, and possibly gun for a playoff spot in 2017-18.

Samsonov will still be in the KHL at that point, meaning that the Maple Leafs would still have a hole to fill in net.

There is another option that Toronto could consider, but it’d be shocking to see them take the route. Lamoriello is about as “good ol’ boy” as they get in the NHL, and it’d be alarming to see him offer a contract to an RFA netminder. It’s tough to ignore the list of names that are available as potential offer sheet targets though. Petr Mrazek, Anton Forsberg, Frederik Andersen, Jack Campbell, Kristers Gudlevskis and Louis Domingue could all be worth a look.

There are numerous options for Lamoriello to consider as the trade deadline approaches. Now is as good a time as any to start working on a long-term solution in goal.

The post Breaking Down Toronto’s Goaltending Conundrum appeared first on Todays SlapShot.