Call me crazy, but if I was the Leafs, I wouldn't take this approach. The Leafs are not winning the cup this year. They need to set themselves up to try and win one next year once JT's money is off the books and Matthews/Nylander contracts have an opportunity to age a bit.
You look at some of the names out there:
- Markstrom - Held by Calgary, unlikely to do business with Treliving.
- Saros - 1 year left before he walks as a UFA or signs what will almost certainly be a terrible contract... not worth it.
- Ullmark - Similar problem to Saros with respect to 1 year remaining, probably wouldn't come to Toronto, and even if he would, how are you going to make that deal with Boston??
- Gibson - Hasn't been good in 5 years, and especially bad the last 2. Has 3 years left at $6.4m. If Anaheim's retaining close to 50%, then maybe it's worth the risk to see if the change of scenery helps, and getting rid of him with 2 years at $3.2m is probably not that difficult.
- Binnington - Is a loose cannon mentally -- not neccessarily a great recipe for success in Toronto's crease. St. Louis not overly eager to part with him.
- Merzlikins - Of his 5 seasons in the NHL, only his first 2 would be considered good.... his 3rd OK, and his last 2, pretty poor... seems like a fair bit of risk there.
To me, the target should be Cam Talbot. Coming off a really solid year, likely to be cheap. Good mentor for Woll... kick the can down the road a bit hoping to find a better fit in goal.
Don't get me wrong, there are some good goalies on this list... especially the top 3... but there's too many "artificial" factors in the way based on the teams that currently hold them (Calgary/Boston), and the timing of Saros' new deal just doesn't work with the Leafs timeline.
