Fantasy Impact: Toronto Goes With Mrazek – Campbell Goalie Duo
Dobber
2021-07-28
The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed goalie Petr Mrazek to a three-year deal at $3.8M per.
The Leafs Get: a goaltender who has often teased with his tremendous potential, but it seems that every time he starts getting any momentum he gets injured. His track record:
2021 – 6 games (LBI)
2021 – 31 games (thumb surgery)
2020 – 6 games (concussion)
2019 – 2 games (LBI)
2018 – 9 games (LBI)
It's not the length of time missed, it's the fact that when he returned, all the momentum was gone and he often struggled. It's like James Reimer 2.0. Plenty of upside, but they need him healthy.
Fantasy Players Impacted: Obviously this impacts Jack Campbell, who is coming off a very strong season in which he stole the starting job for what turned out to be a short playoff run. We knew the Leafs would sign a goalie, but we didn't know which way they'd go. Sign a proven starter and Campbell becomes a backup again. Sign a proven backup and Campbell gets the nod as the undisputed starter. Sign a goalie who has been both, for middling money, and we have ourselves a good ol' fashioned split-starts scenario. A Goalie 1A and Goalie 1B thing. A situation where, come March, we still don't know which one will be the starter in the playoffs. And since starting goalies aren't acquired at trade deadlines (that I can remember), this is it. This will be the duo.
Mrazek's best season was in 2015-16 when he had 54 starts for Detroit and put up a 0.921 SV%. His next year, which could almost be considered his sophomore year (i.e. the jinx), he had 50 starts and a 0.901 SV%. Since then, it's been changing teams and getting hurt, not playing more than 40 games in a season in four years. But in limited action last year he was 6-2-3 with a 0.923 SV%, hinting that he may have turned the corner. He's still only 29.
Campbell, also 29, was a ridiculous 17-3-2 last season with a 0.921 SV%. At the NHL level he has never played more than 31 games in a season. But in the AHL he once played 52.
Click here for the Goalie Comparable Page – Campbell versus Mrazek
I get the sense that one of these two are going to emerge as a legit starter. Given Mrazek's recent injury history, I can't help but feel like it will be Campbell, a goalie who I never liked as a prospect but am starting to warm up to (it's hard not to when the guy was 17-3-2).