That didn’t take long after the Maple Leafs picked up Curtis McElhinney from Columbus they trade Jhonas Enroth to Anaheim for a pick in 2018.
Enroth’s start in Toronto couldn’t have gone any worse, he allowed many soft goals and couldn’t find his footing playing behind a young defense core. He struggled early and often in games that took the team out of games before the game was even 10 minutes old.
Then quickly after that he lost the support of Mike Babcock, Enroth was then sent down to the Marlies and still struggled to gain any confidence or success.
The Leafs now have Curtis McElhinney (2.39 goals against average, .924 save percentage this season). McElhinney had his own struggles recently in Columbus after his terrible outing against the New York Rangers, he was placed on waivers. Considering McElhinney played behind a terrible Columbus team the past couple of years his stats aren’t all bad for the limited games he played as back up. He is a big body goalie, which appears to be Mike Babcock’s preference for his goalies.
From the Leafs perspective this is a low risk move, if they turn McKinney into serviceable back up who can ease some of Andersen’s work load while stealing a couple of wins for the Leafs this could be what gets the Leafs into the playoffs as games tighten in the second half of the year. If not, his salary is off the books after this season and the Leafs can look for a better option in the off season.
However if the Leafs and Frederik Andersen plan to continue to grow and have success the backup goalie situation needs to be solidified because the team and Andersen can ill afford going the rest of the season with one goalie.
Centre Of Leafs Nation 