Confirmed with Link: Leafs acquire Pickard

[Guy Boucher]

Ok, you got me, we should go with the guy with worse carer numbers not the guy with better career numbers who had a good one last year. What was I thinking?

Pickards career sv% is .914 while McElhinney's career sv% is .905, so not quite sure what you're yapping about.

Put another way, Pickard's WORST season was as good as McElhinney's career average.

Maybe McElhinney has turned the corner late in his career and has become great but that's a dumb thing to bet on.

 

[BlueBaron]

No I look at his entire career and last year he's been garbage by NHL standards, and yes age does factor in and at 34 chances are Mcbackup is not doing it again there is a reason is called a career year.

Picard did have a bad season last year but his 2 previous seasons he was fantastic and yes at 25 there is reason to believe he's closer to the goalie he showed in 14-15 and 15-16 than the one that was on a team that did not try at all last year.

Ok. I get that you like his upside, I'm sure we all do but you are going on a sample size of 86 NHL games of which 50 were all in one season in which he had a 2.98 904 save % so using your entire body of work system you are favoring 36 games out of his whole career and ignoring thee bulk of it. They call that cherry picking and you are obviously not really looking at their careers.

By any metric McBackup is the safer bet but again, Pickard has more upside. At this point McBackup has earned his job here. Isn't hockey about earning jobs? Pickard will steal his job soon enough, but he will have to earn it.

 

[BlueBaron]

Pickards career sv% is .914 while McElhinney's career sv% is .905, so not quite sure what you're yapping about.

Put another way, Pickard's WORST season was as good as McElhinney's career average.

Maybe McElhinney has turned the corner late in his career and has become great but that's a dumb thing to bet on.

That is an oversimplification, see above.

 

[ITM]

Like the deal.

Jack Campbell was waived by the Kings...Wonder why that wasn't an option? Seemed to have a great year with Ontario - and he's a former 11th overall pick.

But, yeah...More competition at a shallow position is great.

 

[Zybalto]

Whats going to happen with the Marlies keeper situation now? Getting crowded?

 

[Jarqui]

Nice trade

How good are these goalie rankings?
Andersen 8th, Pickard 34th, Kaskisuo 76th,
McElhinney & Sparks not on the list
Top 100 Keeper League Goalies - Sept 2017 - GoaliePost.com

http://goaliepost.com/default.php?page=articles&season=1819&id=189

Originally done by Dobber?

 

[ITM]

I think 34th is a little generous given some of the names below him. But Pickard has certainly showed flashes of being a good NHL goalie.

 

[FreeBird]

Whats going to happen with the Marlies keeper situation now? Getting crowded?

Sparks isn't going to like it, how does a team let a guy go through waivers and then pay a draft pick and a prospect the next day.

 

[Menzinger]

Pickards career sv% is .914 while McElhinney's career sv% is .905, so not quite sure what you're yapping about.

Put another way, Pickard's WORST season was as good as McElhinney's career average.

Maybe McElhinney has turned the corner late in his career and has become great but that's a dumb thing to bet on.

He's definitely a step above McBackup, who while fine last season, his play then was more an outlier when placed within the context of his career which has ranged from terrible to almost average

 

[Trapper]

I think the Marlies are going to have a very good team and (currently) a Pickard/Sparks tandem is superior to the old we had.
Winning at all levels is important as well as development. Having Dermott/Lily/Kappy/Timo/Brooks/Goat and all in the hunt for (and possibly win) the Calder Cup would be the cherry on top. Then a lot of these guys bringing that to camp again next year.
The key is management is still working behind the current team we are enjoying. Identify deficiencies and turn them into strengths. We need more D? Enter Borgman/Rosen. Draft Lily. Already drafted Dermott. Need goaltending, deal from strength (the wings). For now Pickard will get a great opportunity to get used to the organization first, the system and some of the future. It might not work but it can't really fail.
The goal is to have an endless pipeline of replenish. Like those teams we used to admire that could bring anyone up and they look good.

 

[mix1home]

Countless times I heard on main boards that Leafs are Andersen injury away from bottom 5. Even though it's not even true, but now habofans et all will have nothing to hang their hats on. Lou - BOOM - area of concern is addressed and for small token. I think Pickard has upper ceiling of 1B NHL goalie and I for one feel much better about that hopefully never happening moment of Andersen injury.

 

[Zybalto]

Sparks isn't going to like it, how does a team let a guy go through waivers and then pay a draft pick and a prospect the next day.

A combination of the 50 contract limit and the ability to send him directly to the AHL. Still might be more moves to go too.

 

[4thline]

Trying not to be tooo happy with this move.
Fantastic buy low move on a goalie that (situationally) has just as good of track record as the guys moved recently for 1st round picks at similar ages (Jones and Lehner)

 

[BlueBaron]

A combination of the 50 contract limit and the ability to send him directly to the AHL. Still might be more moves to go too.

We're at 48 contracts.

If Lou had traded for Pickard and then sent him down and lost him he would have looked like a fool. A 6th round pick and a guy not in our plans is a small price to pay for goaltending insurance and a guy who could maybe grow into more. We would have claimed him off waivers if we were confident he was an upgrade on McBackup but this way we hedge our bets at a low price. The cost is not even worth talking about.

 

[Warden of the North]

Sparks isn't going to like it, how does a team let a guy go through waivers and then pay a draft pick and a prospect the next day.

So that he can be assigned directly to the Marlies

 

[Zybalto]

Fun Stat: Pickard had a better GAA and save % than Varlamov all 3 years he played in Colorado.

Another interesting number: After 40 games played last year, Pickard had a .911 save % and may have tired down the stretch. (not a surprise on that team)

 

[4thline]

Fun Stat: Pickard had a better GAA and save % than Varlamov all 3 years he played in Colorado.

Another interesting number: After 40 games played last year, Pickard had a .911 save % and may have tired down the stretch. (not a surprise on that team)

Follow Up Fun stats- Save % in year preceding trade for 1st round pick
Jones- .906 (Starter .918, team- 95 points and 205 goals against
Lehner.905 (Starter .923 , team- 99 points and 215 goals against

 

[BlueBaron]

Like the deal.

Jack Campbell was waived by the Kings...Wonder why that wasn't an option? Seemed to have a great year with Ontario - and he's a former 11th overall pick.

But, yeah...More competition at a shallow position is great.

I suspect that once he cleared they wanted to keep him. Vegas was kind of uniquely situated to do this, you could argue they sold low.

 

[SniperOnTheWing]

I don't follow the AHL much at all... Is there any team that can compete with the Marlies this season? Our depth is insane and adding Pickard only stacks the Marlies that much more.

 

[Jozay]

He's a better goalie than McBackup, but its still Mcbackups job to lose. Once he has a couple bad games, I think they'll waive him and bring up Pickard.

 

[Trapper]

This deal is worth it just for the fact that I can say we have Pickard and the Borg(man).
Now we just need a big RHD named Worf.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

HockeyDB stats

 

[diceman934]

Sparks isn't going to like it, how does a team let a guy go through waivers and then pay a draft pick and a prospect the next day.

He would have to be on the Leafs roster if we claimed him, now we can have him in the Minors and call him up when and if we needed him.

I love this trade insurance was needed and if we needed a goalie no team can hold us ransom now. He is better then our current back up and can be a starter in the NHL if needed, not to mention a player we could trade and get more than we paid for him.

 

[dimi78]

He's a better goalie than McBackup, but its still Mcbackups job to lose. Once he has a couple bad games, I think they'll waive him and bring up Pickard.

As a starter I would agree but as a backup? Not so sure. 2 different things starter vs backup. Some starters couldn't do the Backup gig mentally don't know enough about Pickard at this point to say either or. Reimer sucked as backup big time but as a starter he was passable even really good at times as Leaf just as an example.

Pickard is definitely better than what is on the Marlies and the only reason why this trade happens is because he cleared wavers so they could keep him as injury depth in case of injury. They didn't trade for him to replace McBackup

 

[diceman934]

Then I ask... is an AHL goaltender really worth a good prospect and 6th when we already have a solid and potentially better goaltender in Sparks?

Sparks is not better in any way shape or form. Sparks was out go to guy when we wanted to tank, he was exceptional at losing when we wanted to.