When the Toronto Maple Leafs chose to walk away from Jack Campbell this summer, the decision was met with a significant amount of criticism. Campbell, who just a couple short seasons ago set an NHL record for consecutive wins to start a season (11), was viewed by some to be the long-term answer for the Leafs in goal. However, an injury-riddled and inconsistent 2021-22 season gave the Leafs pause and they went a different way, trading for two-time Stanley Cup winner Matt Murray and signed former top goaltending prospect Ilya Samsonov.
While Murray has the better track record of winning when it matters most, Leafs Nation still views him as an unproven commodity, given his struggles in recent years to both post competitive numbers and to remain healthy. These are certainly fair concerns, but it's also important to note that Campbell, too, struggled in those areas last season and had the same question marks.
Be that as it may, one Sportsnet analyst is putting all of his eggs in Jack Campbell's basket for the upcoming season. Campbell is Sportsnet's Anthony Stewart's pick to win the Vezina Trophy this season in Edmonton. Stewart is known for some of his odd takes, for sure.. but this one might take the cake. Not only is Edmonton worse than the Leafs are defensively, but Campbell himself has never played more than 50 games in a single season in his career. In fact, before last season in Toronto (49 games), his career high was 31 games back in 2018-19 with the LA Kings.
Listen.. even if Campbell has a ridiculous season in his first year as an Oiler, placing him ahead of Igor Shesterkin, Juuse Saros, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, Jacob Markstrom and, to a lesser extent, Frederik Andersen is just flat out crazy. All of these goaltenders are likely to start 60 or more games this season and have a long, proven track record of sustained success over long stretches. Put it this way - Vasilevskiy won 10 less games (39) than Campbell APPEARED in last season. All due respect to Jack, but he's simply not in the same league as the NHL's top goaltenders, so to speak.
