The acquisition of Doug Gilmour from the Calgary Flames was the main reason why the Toronto Maple Leafs made consecutive Conference Final appearances in 1993 and 1994, but a contributing factor to the club’s success was a rookie goaltender named Felix Potvin.
The 21-year-old netminder was selected out of Chicoutimi 31st overall in the 1990 Draft and played well enough as a rookie two years later to allow Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher to trade veteran Grant Fuhr to Buffalo for winger Dave Andreychuk, which gave Gilmour a much needed trigger man.
Since Potvin, Toronto has gone through a string of goalies acquired through free agency(Curtis Joseph, Ed Belfour, Jonas Gustavsson) and trades(Andrew Raycroft, Vesa Toskala, J-S Giguere, Jonathan Bernier) with varying degrees of success, but James Reimer is the only homegrown product who can be considered a viable NHL backstop.
26 years later, the Leafs have the 31st pick and 11 other selections at the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo, NY. GM Lou Lamoriello and Director of Player Personnel Mark Hunter can only hope that they pick the next Felix “The Cat”, but the question is which one of the top goaltending prospects do they want to hitch their wagon to.
The consensus top three goalies among draft aficionados are Filip Gustavsson, Carter Hart and Tyler Parsons.
Red Line Report’s Kyle Woodlief believes that Gustavsson(the top ranked European goalie by NHL Central Scouting) and Hart are the best that this class has to offer.
Gustavsson played understudy to Islanders prospect Felix Soderstrom at the 2016 IIHF World Junior in Helsinki last January and is thought by some to be the only netminder capable of breaking into the bottom of the first round.
Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek projects that the Leafs will take the Swedish netminder will be the Leafs pick at #30.
Hart fell to 2nd behind Sherbrooke’s Evan Fitzpatrick in Central Scouting’s Final Rankings, in spite of a 35-23-4 record, 2.14 GAA, .918 save percentage in 63 games with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips last season.
According to Woodlief, Hart is “a confident butterfly goalie with a lightning-quick glove who sometimes relies too much on his remarkable reflexes, and will need to clean up some technique flaws.”
Parsons had 17 straight post-season victories en route to a Memorial Cup championship with London and was brought to the Knights by Hunter prior to joining the Leafs. The Michigan native climbed from sixth to third in NHL CS’s North American goalie rankings, but projections have him going anywhere from the early 2nd to the 3rd round.
An interesting aspect of the Leafs draft next weekend will be to see if Hunter’s familiarity with Parsons puts him ahead of Gustavsson and Hart on Toronto’s draft list.
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The Maple Leafs are set to return to the Maritimes for training camp this September.
After holding their rookie tournament at Budweiser Gardens in London, ON from September 16-18, the Leafs will open training camp in Halifax, Nova Scotia as they did last season. According to
Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun, Toronto will open their preseason schedule against the Ottawa Senators on September 26, which is necessary since the World Cup of Hockey is being played at Air Canada Center from September 17 to October 1.
Details regarding the 2016-17 regular season schedule began to emerge on Monday. The Leafs home opener will be against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, October 15 and according to TSN's
Kristen Shilton, Toronto will open the season in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 12.
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Listen to the latest episode of "Off The Post" with myself, Russ Cohen and Anthony Mingioni, as we discuss the upcoming draft and where some guy named Stamkos will go:
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