I don't understand this. All McBackup did was win the games we needed him to win last year to put us in the playoffs when Andersen went down. If we have a guy who's cheap and shown he's capable of doing this, what is the advantage of making this move? Pickard hasn't done anything in the league but collect losses in Colorado and then lose his backup job in Las Vegas to a guy they plucked off waivers. There's no reason at all to think he's more capable of being the backup for this team. I understand the concept of why you like the move, the Leafs don't have any good young goalies in the system and Pickard has the cache of being a first round pick not too long ago. But that doesn't mean anything, just ask Bernier. This Leafs team needs somebody who is dependable, not somebody who might be dependable some day.
Well first of all, let's go by this with bullet points.
1- All he did was win games when we needed him to? He had 6 wins and 7 losses with us. He didn't put us in the playoffs at all. He played pretty well overall for sure but the Leafs couldn't wait to get Andersen back in net.
2- Pickard played for one of the worst teams in NHL history and still put up respectable numbers, which were better than Vezina trophy winner Varlamov. He was getting destroyed in nets with shots game in and out. He had really good 5on5 numbers despite playing for that bad team. He also was one of the MVPs for Team Canada this past World Championships. Saying he only collected losses in Colorado is like saying Matt Duchene is a bad player because of his -34 last season.
3- Are you forgetting how we got McBackup in the first place? Waivers. And from of the best teams in the league at the time because they wanted a more consistent, younger and better backup. Sounds familiar? Plenty of people are completely puzzled as to why they think Subban can do better because nothing shows that he can.
4- Pickard is more dependable now and very likely moving forward.
I see a chance to improve our team, I do it. I like McBackup though and he's a cheap and fine veteran option. I can only hope he will hold the fort and we don't have to rely on him for more than 25 games. I don't think it's fair to only look at Pickard and his stats from last year and disregard his body of work since entering the league. I don't want to make a big deal out of this though because I'm fine with McBackup either way.