The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired 25-year-old goaltender Calvin Pickard from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a sixth-round pick and prospect Tobias Lindberg.
Vegas passing Pickard through waivers yesterday enables the Leafs to start him with the Marlies, as opposed to acquiring him, having three goaltenders on the NHL roster and needing to waive one of Curtis McElhinney or Pickard. The fact that he was available “for free” yesterday is misleading in that any team that wanted to claim Pickard would’ve needed a vacant goalie spot on the roster — which most clubs don’t have at this time of year — or else the acquiring team would be in the position of giving up assets for Pickard only to expose him to waivers shortly thereafter.
It was known that McElhinney, signed to a two-year deal on July 1, wasn’t the team’s first choice for backup this year based on the reports that the club made a play on free agent Mike Condon (who signed with the Senators after Ottawa upped their offer to three years) over the summer. If Pickard were to surpass him on the depth chart at some point, McElhinney could be sent to the AHL with no cap impact as he is below the $1.05 million threshold in salary. Likewise, Pickard’s $1 million salary (signed for one more season, before he becomes an RFA) will have no effect on the team’s cap while he’s in the minors.
Pickard provides a third-string/insurance option if the Leafs feel McElhinney isn’t getting the job done in his relief of Frederik Andersen this season (or, worst case, should one need to carry the mail if injury was to strike). At the expense of a sixth-round pick and a prospect that was in tough for playing time on a deep Marlies roster (Lindberg), this is a cheap and wise insurance policy to take out at a position where the Leafs lacked quality depth. Pickard has superior career numbers (.914 vs. 905) and more upside than the veteran journeyman in McElhinney, and needless to say, the leash will be short for McElhinney this season.
Before his down year amid tirefire that was the 2016-17 Avalanche season, Pickard posted a .932 save percentage in 16 games in 2014-15 and a .922 in 20 appearances in 2015-16. The 6’1, 200-pound New Brunswick native played a career-high 50 games last year, carrying the load when Semyon Varlamov went down with injury, and posted his worst season statistically (.904) on a historically bad team. Nonetheless, there were no shortage of fans and pundits surprised that the Avalance opted to expose Pickard in the expansion draft instead of Varlamov (and his $5.9 million salary) based on the upside Pickard had shown in his first two years in the league.
As for the Marlies, it looks likely that they’ll begin the season by carrying three goaltenders in Garret Sparks, Pickard, and Kasimir Kaskisuo.
