The Toronto Maple Leafs spent the offseason making a lot of moves. Some of them made sense. Some of them look like a gamble. None of them feels bigger than handing Sergei Bobrovsky a three-year, $21 million contract.
Bobrovsky just turned 37. He just came off the worst season of his career — a 3.07 goals against average and an .877 save percentage with the Florida Panthers. And now he’s supposed to be the answer in net for a team that couldn’t find a reliable goalie all last season.
Let’s back up. Bobrovsky was incredible for Florida. He backstopped them to back-to-back Stanley Cups and three straight Finals appearances. That’s Hall of Fame stuff. But last season, the wheels came off. The Panthers dealt with a ton of injuries. They went from champions to missing the playoffs entirely. Bobrovsky wasn’t the only problem, but his numbers were brutal. Hard to blame everything on the guys in front of him when your save percentage drops below .880.
Toronto’s new general manager John Chayka is the one who made this call. He’s been busy since taking over. The Leafs won the draft lottery and grabbed Gavin McKenna with the No. 1 pick, which was huge. They added forwards like Jack Roslovic, Nick Paul, Brandon Duhaime, Teddy Blueger and Colton Sissons. The idea is to get faster and more physical in the bottom six, which got bullied last year. But all of that is secondary if the goaltending is a mess again.
Last season, the Leafs ran through five goalies. Joseph Woll was the main guy — 39 starts, a 15-16-7 record, 3.34 GAA, .899 save percentage. Anthony Stolarz wasn’t any better. Dennis Hildeby actually had the best numbers, and he was a rookie. That tells you everything about how shaky things were in net. Coach Craig Berube never knew what he was getting on any given night. New coach Jim Hiller has to hope Bobrovsky can stabilize that.
But can he? Bobrovsky has taken a lot of shots over 17 NHL seasons. Reflexes don’t get better at 37. If he’s lost even a half-step, the numbers could get ugly fast in Toronto, where the defense isn’t the Panthers’ shutdown unit. The risk is obvious. Chayka is betting that last season was an outlier driven by Florida’s injuries, not the start of a decline.
There’s a decent chance this works out. Bobrovsky is a competitor. He’s won before. But there’s also a chance Chayka just handed $21 million to a goalie who’s cooked. The pressure is on both of them from day one. The Leafs have the talent up front with Auston Matthews and John Tavares to be a contender. If Bobrovsky is even average, they might be dangerous. If he’s not, this franchise is going to have a long season.
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