Trio of Leafs goaltenders have all put up absurd 5-on-5 numbers this season
Back in August, a month after the Leafs signed Ilya Samsonov and traded for Matt Murray, TSN's Travis Yost rated each team's goaltending and placed them in 5 tiers, with tier 5 being the worst. He listed Toronto in his 4th tier, listed under his probable underperformers and this is what he had to say about Murray and Samsonov at the time.
We are now 25 games into the season, the Leafs are 15-5-5, second in the Atlantic, third in the Eastern Conference and tied for third overall while using three different goaltenders and missing half of their regular defense corps. Not only are the Leafs seventh in the league in team defense, but Murray, Samsonov and Erik Kallgren are all in the top 15 in Save Percentage at 5v5 among goalies with at least 300 5v5 minutes this season - (Murray: .925, Samsonov: .941, Kallgren: .931).
For all the question marks surrounding Samsonov and Murray at the start of the season and then Kallgren once Murray and then Samsonov were injured, all three have given the Leafs more than adequate goaltending. For context, the previous three goalies for the Leafs - Jack Campbell, Petr Mrazek and Freddy Andersen rank 53rd, 49th and 31st.
The current trio of Leafs goalies are ranked even higher in goals against average at 5v5 with Samsonov third (1.61), Kallgren sixth (1.83) and Murray thirteenth (2.18). Given the injuries that the Leafs have dealt with collectively, and the fact that their goaltending was written off as soon as Samsonov and Murray were acquired, the trio has certainly made a lot of media members and fans eat their words, so to speak, so far. If the Leafs can continue to play as well as they have been defensively and continue to get the goaltending that they have through 25 games, there is no reason they can't win the Atlantic Division, followed by their first playoff round in almost two decades.
Yost article at TSN.ca
