It was an exciting summer in 2016 when the Leafs had selected Auston Matthews first overall and made a trade with the Anaheim Ducks for goaltender Frederik Andersen.

Everyone assumed great things would come from Matthews, but I don’t think anyone realistically thought he was going to score 40 goals as a rookie on a team that just finished dead last the season before. Frederik Andersen on the other hand had been part of a 1A/1B tandem in Anaheim where he and John Gibson basically split the duties (injuries played a part for both).

Andersen logged 28 starts in 2013-14, 54 starts in 2014-15 and 43 in 2015-16 with the Ducks and each season he put up solid numbers. He also got some ever so important playoff experience along the way and after six starts with the Maple Leafs last season versus the Capitals, Andersen has 34 career playoff game starts.

Frederik is now 27 years of age and is a big boy as we know coming in at 230 pounds and is 6’4”. He’s a big athletic goaltender who plays a confident game and will always put forth a lot of effort, I particularly like that he is good at making desperation saves when needed.

Last season was Andersen’s first in the blue and white and he started things off on the wrong foot. He was injured in a pre-Olympic qualifying game for Denmark and was supposed to be out 3-4 weeks. Andersen was to be one of the starter’s for team Europe which took place in Toronto.

Unfortunately Andersen not only got hurt, but he missed a good chunk of practice/game time to get warmed up and prepared for his first season with the Maple Leafs. Andersen and the Leafs had a tough start to the season and if perhaps Andersen was truly 100% and feeling fully confident in his game after he and the Leafs may have squeezed out an extra win or two in the first dozen games or so. If you can recall, there was a lot of games last season this young Leafs team had a commanding lead heading into the third period and would fizzle away their lead and end up coughing up a point or sometimes two to the opposition.

I think with a healthy Frederik Andersen to start this season with an improved defensive core and more experience up front the Leafs are going to have one hell of a season. Domination? Perhaps.

A record I predict that will be broken this season is most goaltender wins in a season. As of now Ed Belfour “The Eagle” and Andrew Raycroft “Razor” both share the record with 37 wins. I feel Andersen should be able to secure 40 wins if he can stay healthy and the team continues to excel as they did down the stretch last season. The Leafs truly were electric in the second half of last season and I expect them to be more than prepared to get out the gates flying this season and never look back.

What do you think? Will Andersen smash the goaltending record this season?

Thanks for reading, have a great week.

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