Now that it's done are you happy with the goaltending?

[Macallan18]

To be honest gang, I don’t think many teams are “comfortable with their goaltending right now “. Too many new faces on new teams with new systems. Even Varlamov on the Island without Trotz system. Perhaps TB,Rangers,Preds,comfortable but aside from that lots of question marks for all involved. How much does Fluery have left, if Price does make it back how effective can he be? You guys with Murray? I think getting Samsonov was a quality pick-up. Upcoming season is going to be very interesting especially for tenders.

Absolutely correct.
Any signing was a roll of the dice.
If Murray gets injured, he'll go to Robidas Island and the leafs will trade for a decent goalie from some team not playoff bound that is rebuilding.
Just no great options this year.
And no to Campbell for 5x5, he is injury prone, very inconsistent, and not the guy.
Anyways, our real problem is secondary scoring. We don't score enough lately in game 7's.

 

[Nylander88]

I agree that there is a decent risk/value on Samsonov but Murray has already seen his high side and is on the way down and has been a train wreck the last 3 years

Death of his father and injuries have for sure played a roll. And there's no arguing with his last 3 years statistically. But to say a 28 year old goalie is on his way down after two years battling injuries on a bottom feeder.....I think is a bit premature imo

 

[The Management]

I didn't like the options in the free agent pool, but I have to say no. I think one of Samsanov or Murray is fine as a project, but relying on both in a tandem with major consistency and injury issues is worrisome. I didn't like the Murray trade, but I hope to be proven wrong.

 

[Notsince67]

Not happy at all at how goaltending has been managed over the years. That said, I can support these goaltenders if they surprise me and play at a level befitting a stanley cup contending team. Anything less than that is a fail.

 

[notbias]

Not happy at all at how goaltending has been managed over the years. That said, I can support these goaltenders if they surprise me and play at a level befitting a stanley cup contending team. Anything less than that is a fail.

lucky for us that the current level is ~.900sv%

 

[DarkKnight]

Happy? The best you can say is “hopeful” and that’s pretty nervy for the goaltending position. Dubas could hit a home-run but feels like we’re playing craps now to be honest. Lets hope one of them finds their game and stays healthy. Right now we have a .906 and .902 tandem at the most important time of our “window”.

 

[paulhiggins]

You don't gamble on "goaltending". That's the first position you need to get right. Having to sign risky projects represents a complete failure of goaltending drafting and development in Dubas' employment. He should have seen it coming and addressed it long before signing these stopgaps. The league is so watered down by owner greed that it is much more difficult to trade for a good goalie than it used to be so you have to develop your own. Kyle is a slow learner...he's been with the Leafs for 8 years now since July 2014 and still doesn't know how to build a team.

 

[Al14]

I like the Samsonov signing a lot. It's a pretty solid bet on a young goalie that may just need a different situation and/or needs more development. Very aware that it might not work out though and Samsonov might just be a bust.

Murray I'm not a big fan of. I'd get the cap implications but I don't like letting Ottawa off the hook so lightly and the fact that we took a goalie with a pretty big list of injuries.

Exactly, Ottawa should have paid way more to rid themselves of Murray and his contract. If it were the other way around, Dubas would have coughed up a 1st rounder for sure.

Dubas just made Ottawa a better team by taking Murray so cheaply! I fear Ottawa will be much better in goal than our Leafs now!

 

[Jmo89]

I'm cautiously optimistic. I think this duo gets the team out of the first round. I think one of these guys will be able to make a save in OT in the playoffs. Not sure they can do much more than that though. Our sights should be set higher than the first round.

The potential is there, but as others have said it'll depend on health for Murray and Samsonov figuring things out.

The trade was still bad though. Dubas let Ottawa off easy.

 

[A1LeafNation]

HFboards: Leafs so dumb for not signing Campbell to 5x5.

HFboards: One of the worst signings was the Campbell contract.

You can't make this shit up LOL.

 

[Havoc]

Demko - Not a playoff opponent
Helley- Not a playoff opponent
Saros- Potential 4th round playoff opponent but has never been elite at large work loads.
Jarry- He falls into crapshoot territory in the sense you have to wait until the season comes to know if you're getting elite goaltending or just good goaltending from him. Last season was his first season with a large load. He will need to prove it's his norm and not just a peak year he can't replicate.

Tampa and Rangers are the only 2 playoff opponents with goalies that will smoke ours guaranteed. Wasting your time worrying about goaltending otherwise. We are fine. I am very intrigued with Samsonov. He might be next seasons goalie version of Nichushkin, or the next more mentally stable, younger version of Jack Campbell. Or he might not, but that's the point. It's might or might not with majority of our opponents

 

[Advanced stats]

To those complaining, go and rank the goalies in the 5-25 range in the NHL. You can't confidently rank them.

Appart from the top 5 or so,(Vasi, Hellebyuck, Shesterkin, Markstrom, Sorokin, Demko) you can not say who will be significantly better or worse than the other.
So much is dependent on team, structure, playing time and hot streaks.

So in that sense, I'm almost happy we now have 2 guys who have legitimate starter potential.

The downside is the cost of Murray. That will frustrate me for the next 2 years when we're scrapping the barrel for middle 6 left overs.

 

[Havoc]

To those complaining, go and rank the goalies in the 5-25 range in the NHL. You can't confidently rank them.

Appart from the top 5 or so,(Vasi, Hellebyuck, Shesterkin, Markstrom, Sorokin, Demko) you can not say who will be significantly better or worse than the other.
So much is dependent on team, structure, playing time and hot streaks.

So in that sense, I'm almost happy we now have 2 guys who have legitimate starter potential.

The downside is the cost of Murray. That will frustrate me for the next 2 years when we're scrapping the barrel for middle 6 left overs.

Ah true I forgot markstrom, but they lost Gaudreau for nothing so we can safely put them in "not a playoff opponent". Even he's closer to crapshoot than he is elite though.

Sorokin plays for Lou so I already know that team stinks without looking into it

 

[thewave]

HFboards: Leafs so dumb for not signing Campbell to 5x5.

HFboards: One of the worst signings was the Campbell contract.

You can't make this shit up LOL.

Ultimately to be happy about this team, you've got to be high on hopium right now. Dubas left us with no depth and no cap. Skinny Dave Nonis is hard at work to mess us around long term at this point while Shanny sits on his hands letting it happen.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

Djbiyas should have acquired a legitimate number 1 goaltender

Who? Every option that would have been available came with question marks.

There's only about 5 goalies in the league who are consistent and are game changers. Those guys are never available. The rest are all basically average starters.

 

[TheVision]

Two young goalies with plenty to prove, in a platoon situation, is good.

Samsanov has a ton of upside and potential, only 1.8M, AND stays RFA at the end of the season. Risky moves, but likely no more risky than Campbell's new contract. Can't wait to see the next best Russian goalie emerge in Blue & white this October!

 

[Gary Nylund]

Ultimately to be happy about this team, you've got to be high on hopium right now. Dubas left us with no depth and no cap. Skinny Dave Nonis is hard at work to mess us around long term at this point while Shanny sits on his hands letting it happen.

Happy is a relative term. You're one of those who only sees the negative and while granted, all those 1st round exits are nothing to be happy about, the fact remains that we still have one of the top teams in the league and anyone capable of looking at things objectively, will understand that we are one of the favourites to win the cup this season.

 

[81Leafs50]

depends on the results. I dont much care for sexy names. If you told me Leafs 100% win the cup next season but they have to trade away Matthews and Marner to do it, I would be in 100%.

 

[Trapper]

Can’t judge the goaltending until we see it in action. Need a decent sample size beyond just an October run.

 

[Gary Nylund]

The last few years have sucked (obviously) but the news isn't all bad. Maybe it would help some people feel better to look at the current odds to win the cup. This is just from one site of course but I'm sure the odds are similar elsewhere as is usually the case. At the moment, we are favoured to take the East and the second favourites to win it all after Colorado.

GLG!!

 

[Gary Nylund]

Can’t judge the goaltending until we see it in action. Need a decent sample size beyond just an October run.

This is the correct answer. How the hell are we supposed to have an opinion when both guys are potentially very good, but both come with question marks attached? And so true about October, I still feel a little bit queasy when I remember the idiots who were celebrating our "best month ever" after November. I wonder, do they still remember fondly how we crushed it during those mostly meaningless games and consider our season a smashing success?

Time for some playoff success for a change. As I'm fond of saying, this could be the year.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

This tandem is the ultimate definition of high risk/high reward. There is both reasons for optimism and skepticism.

Murray has won 2 cups and when he is on his game, he is a top 10-15 goalie. But he also comes with a list of injuries and inconsistent play the last few years. He seems to be invigorated about coming to play for his childhood team and be reunited with his favorite goalie coach. We also have a new goalie coach in Sanford who seemingly did a great job in Vancouver.

Samsonov I haven't been overly high on but how can you not like this signing at that cap hit for 1 year and the potential upside that comes with it. Former 1st round pick that had some decent hype about him. He is still only 25, which is young for a goalie and he's healthy.

Our offense and Defense is good enough to carry us to the playoffs but it's the goaltending that is going to make or break this season and what will decide Dubas' fate. I feel that I both like this tandem and not feel confident in this tandem. We just need them to be better than Campbell/Mrazek. Ideally we need them both to be above a .910sv%.

 

[deprw]

Happy is a relative term. You're one of those who only sees the negative and while granted, all those 1st round exits are nothing to be happy about, the fact remains that we still have one of the top teams in the league and anyone capable of looking at things objectively, will understand that we are one of the favourites to win the cup this season.

Also it's good to say, that in any case we have every flexibility in the world to fix this thing if needed or if we have to. That Matthews situation is some what looming, but at the same time we don't have any long contracts to holding us back, if we have to retool. We have good young players coming up and some pieces that we can keep and build on in the future. No matter what.

It's great hyperbole to say that we're in the bad spot long term. Short term is the problem now, but still like said we're one of the contenders, so it could be way worse.

If we can resign Matthews next summer we have this ship on course for anyone to take over after Dubas and that Matthews signing is more likely to happen than not.

 

[Mickey Marner]

I hope Curtis Sanford is a really, really, really good goalie coach.

 

[thewave]

Happy is a relative term. You're one of those who only sees the negative and while granted, all those 1st round exits are nothing to be happy about, the fact remains that we still have one of the top teams in the league and anyone capable of looking at things objectively, will understand that we are one of the favourites to win the cup this season.

I think in the last 20 years only two teams have won the cup with a goalie they traded for (the others won with tenders they drafted). One of them was Colorado. Statistically, it would be coming close to impossible that we win with this tandem. I don't know what the Vegas odds or who is doing the calculations but, I don't see it. I am pretty damn sure we missed the boat and there is no sane reason to be holding on to Dubas at this point. New direction is needed right away.

The team is going to need restructuring due to the cap and some serious considerations need made after Johnny G leaving Calgary. I really would hope that you pay attention to US citizens heading home and how it relates to our approach to lockdowns and other things. These are very rational considerations to make under the circumstances. Look what's making rounds in the media regarding Covid lockdowns returning. People are scared, don't want to be stuck away from their family because of closed borders and all sorts of things like that.

We're not in great shape. I wish we were. Matthews is a great player, Marner hasn't really shown up in PO's especially G7s. Nylander isn't my cup of tea but he's had good G7s point wise and pretty fair for his cap hit at this point. JT is aging quick and not worth close to his cap hit.

What would you do?