Goaltender Curtis McElhinney has re-signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs on a two-year contract with a $850,000 AAV.
While he’s a career .905, the London native is coming off his best 20-plus start season of his career with a .917 save percentage over 21 games split between Columbus and Toronto.
After Toronto claimed him off waivers in January, McElhinney went 6-7-0 in 13 starts with a .914 save percentage, backstopping a couple of key wins over New Jersey and Pittsburgh (in relief of the injured Frederik Andersen) to clinch the team’s first playoff berth since 2013.
McElhinney stepped in and did the job for the Leafs after they struggled to find a fit at the backup position for the first half of the season, with summer signing Jhonas Enroth losing the coaching staff’s trust inside his first five starts and Babcock using Andersen in both games of back-to-back sets.
The Leafs like that McElhinney is a known entity and a high-character individual who embraces the backup role at this stage of his career. The only surprising part here is that the Leafs handed out the extra year of term; however, if McElhinney proves he’s unable to provide competent starts at any point in the next two years, the cap hit ($850,000) can be buried in full in the AHL. The new threshold for salary cap relief on players demoted to the AHL is $1.025 million as of the 2017-18 season.
The Leafs also announced a new two-year contract for the third-string netminder Garret Sparks, who will return as the starting goalie for the Marlies to begin 2016-17.
The first year of Garret Sparks' #leafs extension is a two-way (AHL/NHL) deal. Year 2 is one-way at $700,000.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 1, 2017
