Too early to say what the Maple Leafs goaltending tandem will look like next season
James Mirtle of The Athletic: (mailbag) It’s too early to say what the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending situation is going to look like next season. Jack Campbell is under contract and will be back, but it’s not known if he’ll be a starter or in a tandem role. Unless Frederik Andersen goes off on a playoff run, he’s not coming back. David Rittich hasn’t played much for the Leafs and hasn’t been overly impressive in the games he’s played.
Sources are saying that the Seattle Kraken have an eye on Florida Panthers goaltender Chris Driedger.
Pending unrestricted free agent goalies include Andersen, Philipp Grubauer, Driedger, James Reimer, Tuukka Rask, Jonathan Bernier, Jaroslav Halak, Linus Ullmark, Antti Raanta, Mike Smith and Devan Dubnyk.
If the Maple Leafs are able to re-sign Zach Hyman at say $4.5 million and bring back/in depth options on deals between $750,000 and $1 million, they still should be able to sign a higher-end tandem goalie.
Where will Schwartz’s next deal end up?
Jeremy Rutherford and Shayna Goldman of The Athletic: The St. Loius Blues and pending UFA forward Jaden Schwartz appear to be good with playing the season out. The flat salary and 29-year olds inconsistencies will make things interesting.
“I don’t want to get into specifics,” Armstrong said after the trade deadline. “But Jaden is a player who we talked about earlier that is a primary player for us that we’d like to keep here. Nothing has changed since then, or until the day that we hopefully get him signed.”
The Blues have $64.4 million committed next season to 15 players.
Dom Luszczyszyn’s salary projection model has Schwartz at around $4.8 million on a six-year deal. Top comparables could be Josh Bailey ($5 million and six years), Brendan Gallagher ($6.5 million and six years) and Tyler Toffoli ($4.25 million and four years).
Evolving-Hockey projects a three-year at $4.7 million per.
Would expect given his inconsistent play and the flat cap, a multi-year deal just shy of $5 million.