The Lightning may be preparing to throw a wrench into the Leafs' plans after Vasilevskiy announcement
In a surprising announcement on Thursday, the Tampa Bay Lightning revealed that top goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy underwent back surgery and will be out a minimum of 8 to 10 weeks. Without Vasilevskiy between the pipes for the next few months, the Lightning are left with AHL goalies Hugo Alnefelt and Matt Tomkins as well as Vasilevskiy's backup, Jonas Johansson. Naturally, this very likely means that the Bolts will enter the goalie market, whether it be by trade, free agency or waiver acquisition.
There are a handful of UFA goalies available, like former Lightning goaltender Brian Elliott, but given the Lightning may not even need to dip into the UFA market. They are likely going to look at the waiver wire, which is where the Leafs come in.
The Leafs signed Martin Jones to a 1-year, $875K deal a few weeks prior to training camp to add some veteran experience and depth behind Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll. The Leafs were likely going to place Jones on waivers when the time came, hoping to sneak him through. Now, it seems highly unlikely that he makes it through waivers.
With Tampa needing an experienced goalie to play a number of games until Vasilevskiy returns, Jones is absolutely a viable option for them. Jones was a workhorse for Seattle last season when Philipp Grubauer was out with injury, playing 48 games for the Kraken. The Leafs will be hopeful that Tampa chooses to go with a different goalie that is placed on waivers or that they scour the free agent or trade markets for their solution. If not, the Lightning will be in a good position to be able to reduce some of the Leafs' goaltending depth by claiming Jones off of the waiver wire and it could be the Leafs that are looking for a 3rd goalie once again.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 29 | 184 ANSWERS The Lightning may be preparing to throw a wrench into the Leafs' plans after Vasilevskiy announcement Will the Lightning end up claiming Martin Jones off of waivers? | ||
| Yes | 107 | 58.2 % |
| No | 29 | 15.8 % |
| They'll solve their issue before Jones is waived | 48 | 26.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
