Leafs attempting to try and replicate what the Carolina Hurricanes did last summer in net and the comparisons are eerily close
Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek are out and Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov are officially in as the Leafs goaltending tandem for the upcoming season. Last season, like the Leafs currently, the Hurricanes were questioned with their decision to go with Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta after both Petr Mrazek and Alex Nedeljkovic had excellent seasons for them. In the end both departed, as Ned was dealt to Detroit and Mrazek signed with the Leafs as a UFA to back up Soup.
Despite having so much on the line, they added two goalies who were coming off of a weak season. Frederik Andersen (.895 Sv%) was given a two-year deal at a $4.5M cap hit after playing just 24 games. Antti Raanta (.905 Sv% in 12 games) was given a two-year deal at a $2M cap hit. Andersen had a pretty decent track-record, but was coming off of a terrible season and had injury concerns. Raanta had upside, but was a major risk due to his injuries and recent play. Carolina chose to roll the dice instead of handing out massive money and term to top-tier free agents like Phillip Grubauer. It ended up working out pretty well for the Hurricanes.
Carolina won the Jennings trophy this past season with Andersen and Raanta while Mrazek and Nedeljkovic struggled greatly. Could the Leafs be correct in their assessment that both Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov could absolutely pop off this year? For a comparison, look at how close Andersen and Raanta's numbers are to Murray and Samsonov's coming into this season.
CAR:
-Goalies coming off .895 & .905
-Two year deals
-$6.5M cap hit (8% of cap)
-Gave up no picks, added a 3rd
TOR:
-Goalies coming off .896 & .906
-Two years for Murray, 1 + RFA rights for Samsonov
-$6.4875M cap hit (7.9% of cap)
-Gave up no picks, added a 3rd + 7th
The Leafs are clearly attempting to duplicate Carolina's success and have a great shot at doing so as long as Murray and Samsonov stay healthy. The Leafs don't need exceptional goaltending to win games. All they need is average goaltending. Though it is a bit of an outlier, it's worth noting that Colorado just won the cup with Kuemper posting a very pedestrian .902 save percentage. As long as Murray and Samsonov give the Leafs average goaltending, they will be fine. If they come out and produce the way Andersen and Raanta did this year, the Leafs have a shot to do some real damage in 2022-23.
