Recalled/Assigned: Hutchinson Back Up, Kaskisuo Sent Down

[JT AM da real deal]

I think Sparks would and could have been an adequate backup ...

Babs did not give him time to learn. He is a very athletic goalie but his positioning and technique is not the correct butterfly Elkins/Grecs technique. He looked awkward.

 

[StreetHawk]

It also sends a bad message. You can do everything we ask of you for 7 years, win every major award you can possibly win without playing in the NHL, ride the bus for an AHL salary for most of a decade, and we'll still give a 35 year old journeyman who had one good season the job instead of you. That flies in the face of everything that the Leafs have said about their development process as an organization.

The problem was not adequately fixing the backup position once it was clear Sparks couldn't handle it. But even then, the odds of both McBackup and Pickard getting claimed on waivers at a time when most rosters are pretty set were low, we should have come out of that situation with at least one of them on the Marlies. Sometimes things just line up that way.

McBackup signed with TB on July 1 for $1.3 mill per over 2 years. He was available. But, Dubas already knew that he couldn't afford more than $900K on a backup goalie. Couldn't come up with an extra $400K or so to sign a legit backup.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

It was obvious though, that Sparks was done here. Him staying, wasn't an option. I have no idea what happened exactly, but it was obvious he was out.

He called the players out for a lack of emotion.

 

[Daisy Jane]

This is just some serious revisionist history lol. There's a fairly strong track record of goalies who performed similar to Sparks at the same age that went on to become at least solid back-ups and in some cases very good starters as well. The AHL has also come a long way over the last decade in terms of talent and skill so Sparks performing how he did was pretty impressive and statistically he had some of the best seasons ever for an AHL goalie especially at his age. You also don't have to go to the extreme and say we should only keep him if "he's for sure taking over Freddy's position in a few years", we can just say "hey this guy looks like he could be a pretty solid goalie let's see what we have" and that's fair enough on it's own. And yeah his training camp performance wasn't great but neither's was McElhinney's and goalies can have very rough stretches in small sample sizes; just look at Carter Hart so far and all the ups and downs he's gone through already in a short time and how people have flip flopped between him being a bust and a good goalie.

It was a calculated risk that the hindsight police will come and claim that they saw it coming from the beginning but there are times where you take a risk on your homegrown talent to see what you have, unfortunately in this case it didn't work out. Sparks had proven everything there was to prove in the AHL.

Like @ER89 said though, there's a good chance the same people complaining that this bad from the beginning would probably also complain if Sparks was let go and did well elsewhere. And like he also said, if you want to complain about the backup situation because Dubas blew contract negotiations and can't afford a backup that costs anything more than league minimum, then that's a much more reasonable and better argument and one that I would probably side with you on too.

what do you mean we don't have to go to that extreme?
that's the point.

Everyone was all "We can't lose Sparks!"
Why? Was he the heir apparent to Fred? If yes - well then that's poor talent evaluation because he sucked.
If not. then it wouldn't have mattered if we lost him because we had a good backup goaltender anyway.

i've been saying this since like day one so it's not revisionist history, and i quite frankly, would have been fine if Sparks had left and he did perform well because again unlike most people in this thread -that stuff doesn't bother me. because sometimes you have to lose prospects and stuff. but you shouldn't hurt YOUR team in order to keeep someone who MIGHT be good.

so i mean i'm sorry. i respect the people who feel this was a good decision, I quite frankly think it was a dumb one, and it hurt the team. (and. yeah. also also, Dubas sucked with the contracts and it also hurt us, but that's another horse of a different colour).

 

[Stephen]

You have to think about this from a hockey department philosophy point of view. Ignoring the fact that Sparks fell on his face and became an NHL bust, you have to give credit to the team for choosing the homegrown asset and younger player vs the veteran because too many times the Leafs have been on the other side of that coin and it's burned us.

An organization that chooses a Curtis McElhinney over a Garrett Sparks is the same kind that chooses a Dimitri Khristich over a Steve Sullivan, a Sylvain Cote over a Jason Smith. It's one that values the veteran over youth and development.

 

[ManosArriba]

Its weird that Keefe isnt giving Kaskisuo more of a look, the organization has invested years developing him while Hutch brought in last year as a bandaid solution and wasnt even good enough to be the starter in the AHL.

 

[Ashdown2]

Its weird that Keefe isnt giving Kaskisuo more of a look, the organization has invested years developing him while Hutch brought in last year as a bandaid solution and wasnt even good enough to be the starter in the AHL.

because his stats were pretty damn good last year in the nhl (for a backup)
and he is clearly too good for the AHL.

You have to think about this from a hockey department philosophy point of view. Ignoring the fact that Sparks fell on his face and became an NHL bust, you have to give credit to the team for choosing the homegrown asset and younger player vs the veteran because too many times the Leafs have been on the other side of that coin and it's burned us.

An organization that chooses a Curtis McElhinney over a Garrett Sparks is the same kind that chooses a Dimitri Khristich over a Steve Sullivan, a Sylvain Cote over a Jason Smith. It's one that values the veteran over youth and development.

exactly ... also goalie always develop much slower than any other position. I wouldnt be surprised if he gets another nhl chance soon and plays great. his stats this year are phenomenal. maybe he just wasnt ready last year.

 

[IceColdOx]

A wise friend of mine said that goalies are voodoo. You don't know how they'll develop. People wrote off Jordan Binnington and he's played well the last season and a half.

 

[ShaneFalco]

A wise friend of mine said that goalies are voodoo. You don't know how they'll develop. People wrote off Jordan Binnington and he's played well the last season and a half.

Truth! And it would really suck to give up assets for someone who may not be much better than Hutch. But realizing it's a need

 

[SeaOfBlue]

because his stats were pretty damn good last year in the nhl (for a backup)
and he is clearly too good for the AHL.

Hutch was one of the NHL's worst backups last year... IDK why Dubas thought he needed to pay a 5th for him but I guess you get desperate when you lost all of your depth to waivers... And he was good once upon a time. He had 2 games all year, and they were against Vancouver and New Jersey... Hardly tough teams to beat. He had another win after coming in mid-game against Washington, and he was okay there too.

However, he sucked against 4 non-playoff teams and two-playoff teams in his other 6 starts. In this 6 starts he had a stat-line worse than the one he is currently sporting, and he is one of the worst backups this year too.

Hutch is not too good for the AHL. The same issues that plague him in the NHL exist in the AHL. He's just lucky they don't burn him as much against weaker competition.

 

[Teeder Keon]

A wise friend of mine said that goalies are voodoo. You don't know how they'll develop. People wrote off Jordan Binnington and he's played well the last season and a half.

Was this the wise old friend that told you ?

 

[SeaOfBlue]

exactly ... also goalie always develop much slower than any other position. I wouldnt be surprised if he gets another nhl chance soon and plays great. his stats this year are phenomenal. maybe he just wasnt ready last year.

He was good enough. Wasn't spectacular but more than good enough to hold a job as a 750k backup on a competing team.

The problem was the Leafs were awful in front of him, especially after February. They were 2-7-0 in front of him after February, and the Leafs didn't deserve to win at least 5 of those losses... Like they were not even close to being good enough, even if Andersen was in net.

Unfortunately instead of Babcock fixing the issues, they decided to exile Sparks (which is a known tactic of Babcock) and bring in more personnel. When that only made things worse, they finally got rid of the real problem and are now slowly seeing some improvements.

 

[Teeder Keon]

He was good enough. Wasn't spectacular but more than good enough to hold a job as a 750k backup on a competing team.

The problem was the Leafs were awful in front of him, especially after February. They were 2-7-0 in front of him after February, and the Leafs didn't deserve to win at least 5 of those losses... Like they were not even close to being good enough, even if Andersen was in net.

Unfortunately instead of Babcock fixing the issues, they decided to exile Sparks (which is a known tactic of Babcock) and bring in more personnel. When that only made things worse, they finally got rid of the real problem and are now slowly seeing some improvements.

Another one of those Babcockian crazy shite things
I’m convinced that Sparks could have become a adequate back up that was homegrown

 

[Ashdown2]

Hutch was one of the NHL's worst backups last year... IDK why Dubas thought he needed to pay a 5th for him but I guess you get desperate when you lost all of your depth to waivers... And he was good once upon a time. He had 2 games all year, and they were against Vancouver and New Jersey... Hardly tough teams to beat. He had another win after coming in mid-game against Washington, and he was okay there too.

However, he sucked against 4 non-playoff teams and two-playoff teams in his other 6 starts. In this 6 starts he had a stat-line worse than the one he is currently sporting, and he is one of the worst backups this year too.

Hutch is not too good for the AHL. The same issues that plague him in the NHL exist in the AHL. He's just lucky they don't burn him as much against weaker competition.

what are you talking about

do you want to know his career AHL numbers ? here ill help you out.
hes a .923 SV% goalie in the AHL playing over 100 games. ...... and these arnt stats for 10 years ago , his best season playing the most games was 2 years ago playing 26 games and posting .935 sav percentage. .... yeah hes kind of too good for the AHL .

as for last year he posted a .914 playing 6 games. Sure not a large sample size but clearly they liked what he showed and gave him a chance this year.

im not defending the guy this year. He has been below average but clearly you havnt watched the game with this roster playing in front of him. The team is GARBAGE, they must lead the league in allowing odd man rushes by a large amount. their back checking is horrendous and d zone coverage abysmal.

Just because he have miracle freddie or have miracle mcbackup over the past 3 years people expect more from the goalies. New flash any backup in the league would have barely a better sv pct as hutch playing on this team . Also babcock is alot ot blame for breaking his confidence. What a f***en dumbass playing him every time against the better more rested team and giving freddie the much easy first game, Its backwards logic.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

what are you talking about

do you want to know his career AHL numbers ? here ill help you out.
hes a .923 SV% goalie in the AHL playing over 100 games. ...... and these arnt stats for 10 years ago , his best season playing the most games was 2 years ago playing 26 games and posting .935 sav percentage. .... yeah hes kind of too good for the AHL .

as for last year he posted a .914 playing 6 games. Sure not a large sample size but clearly they liked what he showed and gave him a chance this year.

im not defending the guy this year. He has been below average but clearly you havnt watched the game with this roster playing in front of him. The team is GARBAGE, they must lead the league in allowing odd man rushes by a large amount. their back checking is horrendous and d zone coverage abysmal.

Just because he have miracle freddie or have miracle mcbackup over the past 3 years people expect more from the goalies. New flash any backup in the league would have barely a better sv pct as hutch playing on this team . Also babcock is alot ot blame for breaking his confidence. What a ****en dumbass playing him every time against the better more rested team and giving freddie the much easy first game, Its backwards logic.

I know his career numbers. I watched the guy when he played against the Marlies when he was with St. John's and again when he was with Manitoba. Both years, he was one of the AHL's top goalies. Doesn't mean he is too good for the AHL. If you actually watch him play, like I have for much of the past 3 years in the AHL, you can tell he has major technical flaws that DO NOT make him too good for the AHL. He has great numbers, and is a high end AHL goalie, because those technical flaws don't cost him nearly as much in the AHL as they do in the NHL. But high end AHL goalie =/= too good for the AHL, because any goalie too good for the AHL would have been able to win more games than he has this year, poor defensive effort or not.

The guy wasn't even a starting goalie for much of the past 2 years in the AHL. He lost his starting job to Kaskisuo last year and was the backup to Eric Comrie before that. I guess that means Kaskisuo and Comrie are too good for the AHL as well?

I have watched him play this year too. The defense is not perfect, but Sparks was given much worse and still managed to put up a respectable save percentage. Even in the crappy 2-7-0 stretch he had an .890 save percentage... Hutch can't even hit .880. Hutch's awfulness is on him. A mediocre backup could have won at least half of the games Hutch lost. Hutch simply doesn't have the skill to play in the NHL.

Hutch had a crap save percentage inflated by two good games. He had a .960 in two games against Vancouver and New Jersey, which were the only games he started and won. He lost the rest against a mix of playoff and non-playoff teams, having a 0-4-2 record with an .860 .SVV percentage and a GAA over 4... That's awful. That would make him arguably the worst goalie in the NHL. The Leafs took a chance on him because he was cheap and they were desperate, so they were hoping that he could have regained his form from like 3+ years ago with Winnipeg... In fact, they were counting on not having to use him at all, because they were hoping that Neuvirth was going to be good enough but unfortunately that did not work out.

I expect our backups to win games. At least half of them. Sparks was chewed to shreads for being a league average backup who won half of his games despite given far worse team efforts than Hutch has been given. Literally any NHL caliber backup goalie could have done more than Hutch, even ones who are well below average... It's just Hutch is literally the bottom of the barrel when it comes to NHL backups right now. Hutch has no excuses... Not even our play in front of our backups.