Leafs linked to Vezina Trophy winner
The common narrative through much of the season has been that the Toronto Maple Leafs stood on the shoulders of Jack Campbell and called themselves giants through the first few months of the 2021-22 season. Now that Campbell has come back down to Earth, the Leafs have had some trouble winning games - and that's a pretty big concern with the playoffs approaching.
Backup Petr Mrazek performed very well on Friday, limiting Kirill Kaprizov and the always dangerous Minnesota Wild to just one lone goal on 30 shots, making several timely saves along the way. While Mrazek put up a strong rebound performance, he was also very shaky against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, allowing 5 goals on 24 shots in a 5-2 loss.
The pair of Leafs netminders have combined for the 2nd worst 5v5 save percentage since December 1st, which has led to some speculation over whether the Leafs will pursue some goaltending help at or ahead of the trade deadline. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman is among those who are wondering about the Leafs possibly bringing in a goaltender.
In addition, Sportsnet's Mark Spector added some fuel to the fire when he suggested that the Leafs might be in on Chicago Blackhawks goaltender and reigning Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury.
Whatever the Leafs plans might be, they certainly revolve around the health status of Jake Muzzin, who landed on LTIR earlier this week after suffering his second concussion in a six week span in Montreal on Monday.
With just a little over 3 weeks remaining until the trade deadline, the performance of the Leafs' current tandem could be very telling.
Campbell returns to the crease on Saturday night in Detroit. He'll need to rebound in a big way after his last outing, a disappointing one, in Columbus on Tuesday.
| POLL | ||
25 FEVRIER | 275 ANSWERS Leafs linked to Vezina Trophy winner Would you like to see Fleury in Toronto? | ||
| Absolutely! We need an upgrade in net | 110 | 40 % |
| We don't need him | 63 | 22.9 % |
| We need him but can't afford him | 102 | 37.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
