Confirmed with Link: [TOR/FLA] TOR acquires G Michael Hutchinson for 2020 5th Round Pick

[The Best Leafs Ever]

I wouldn't have thought this was necessary, but at least people can stop complaining about Dubas not addressing our goaltending situation. More depth there is only a good thing I suppose

He shouldn’t have kept fart over McBackup in the first place.

 

[Cleetus]

The most exciting thing is that he is a southpaw. Love seeing those rare breeds tending the net.

yup I remember watching Tom Barrasso what a beast!

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

He shouldn’t have kept fart over McBackup in the first place.

Macs .918 Sv% would result in only 2 goals saved over Sparks given the same workload. If you apply them to either loss you still lose the Boston game and only gain 1 point on Detroit.

Should be noted that the chance of both happening in the same game is about 1.6% or a 98.4% chance of not happening so we would virtually be in the exact same spot in the standings with a lottery ticket away from having 1 more point. Still 2nd in the Atlantic. Still 2nd in the league.

You keep the guy thays 10 years younger with some upside 100%

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

It was a 100% necessary as we needed a goalie with real NHL experience in the event of an injury. Losing both goalies who had this to waivers on the same day made this inevitable.

The cost is a 5th pick and some cap space.

Hutch doesn't strike me as a goalie who can contribute reliably at the NHL level though. he's worse than Sparks and we know how people feel about him. But I guess the Marlies did badly need a goalie, so it's still a good move at the end of the day. and maybe he'll rebound in a surprising way on a good team like Toronto

 

[Mr Hockey]

knowing this fanbase/poster as I do, I bet the above has never seen play or heard of the said player before and still gives out a very uninformed opinion.

 

[therealkoho]

He shouldn’t have kept fart over McBackup in the first place.

awww what a cute nickname, it's really so Will Farrell

 

[DarkKnight]

Hutchinson has a career .907 and 2.70 in 106 NHL games, saying he is worse than Sparks at this point is absurd. Just saying, he's played 38, 30, 28 games in a season.

Decent NHL backup plan and significant upgrade for the Marlies. Those kids deserve support down there, he should provide that.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

If Andersen is really "day-to-day", it is a weird move.

Makes me think it might me more serious than that. Those "groin injuries" to goalies can be quite tricky.

No kidding. I've been dealing with a groin strain since September 19th. Just finally got back to playing a couple weeks ago after doing physio and still have some tightness after playing

 

[Boutette]

Hes the best goalie on the Marlies.

Probably the best goalie in the AHL right now. He did have a .935 save percentage for the Moose last year.

 

[Boutette]

Hutchinson has a career .907 and 2.70 in 106 NHL games, saying he is worse than Sparks at this point is absurd. Just saying, he's played 38, 30, 28 games in a season.

Decent NHL backup plan and significant upgrade for the Marlies. Those kids deserve support down there, he should provide that.

Considering what he did for the Moose last year, they may be back to being Calder contenders again.

 

[Zybalto]

Great move that will 100% help the Marlies and provide some needed goaltending depth.

 

[DarkKnight]

Probably the best goalie in the AHL right now. He did have a .935 save percentage for the Moose last year.

Should be a big boost to the Marlies.

 

[Boutette]

Hutch doesn't strike me as a goalie who can contribute reliably at the NHL level though. he's worse than Sparks and we know how people feel about him. But I guess the Marlies did badly need a goalie, so it's still a good move at the end of the day. and maybe he'll rebound in a surprising way on a good team like Toronto

He'll be great for the Marlies, and is as about as realiable as McBackup was before we got him. Definitely a major step up on the team's other options, though

 

[ottomaddox]

Are we all sure this has to do the Marlies?

Did anyone see Sparks tonight?

 

[Cor]

From Barrie, ON, former Barrie Colt and London Knight.

Love this pick up. It might be just until the end of the year, but I think the Marlies will be a good fit for Hutch to get his game back on track.

 

[tokyoite]

dump sparks.

 

[deletethis]

There's a little bit of relief from this deal. Now there's at least an acceptable AHL goalie for roster depth. But as far as I'm concerned I think the Leafs should take advantage of this current emergency recall scenario and give him a start or two. Can he be an acceptable backup if Sparks falters as many of us believe he might? Does Dubas need to continue shopping for further goalie depth before the trade deadline? And by shopping I mean mostly monitoring the waiver wire.

 

[GodEmperor]

I met with, watched him in Barrie and trained with Hutch for a little while.

1.He is an awesome dude and although I was just a rep goalie, when we were on the ice, he never had a bad attitude towards me or even any noobie goalies, great teacher and great person

2.When he was at Barrie, I was amazed at his style, fast and massive with a great glove hand

3.He has played on God awful teams and done relatively well (up until this year, but how much can we blame him on the Trashthers?)

He's also a good ol torona boy, I hope he gets his shot, he absolutely deserves it and way more than that absolute joke of a goalie Sparks. All I know is that he is WAY more fundamentally sound than Sparks and has had WAY more success in the NHL on WAY lesser NHL teams.

 

[Coachcorner]

I met with, watched him in Barrie and trained with Hutch for a little while.

1.He is an awesome dude and although I was just a rep goalie, when we were on the ice, he never had a bad attitude towards me or even any noobie goalies, great teacher and great person

2.When he was at Barrie, I was amazed at his style, fast and massive with a great glove hand

3.He has played on God awful teams and done relatively well (up until this year, but how much can we blame him on the Trashthers?)

He's also a good ol torona boy, I hope he gets his shot, he absolutely deserves it and way more than that absolute joke of a goalie Sparks. All I know is that he is WAY more fundamentally sound than Sparks and has had WAY more success in the NHL on WAY lesser NHL teams.

But does y'all thank he gon play upstairs if Andersen is out more than a week? Glad we ain't got but two games next week amigos. But now we have them two amigos who can do that dirt there. Hutchison the detective and sparks garreth the cartoon character. It's fun.

 

[Boutette]

Did anyone see Sparks tonight?

Yes. He's to blame on exactly 2 goals. The other two were deflections, including the almost-every-game puck bounces off Zaitsev one. How many goals does it take to win a game, because 0 goals does not win you a game in any league. Doesn't matter how good your goalie is if you can't score on the other guys.

 

[Boutette]

3.He has played on God awful teams and done relatively well (up until this year, but how much can we blame him on the Trashthers?)

Given that both Reimer and Luongo are having down years, the blame has to be squarely on the Trashther's defensive strategy. Hutch is probably about par with Sparks (just look at his numbers in the AHL last year). He's about a magnitude better than any other option in the org, so yeah, a necessity and good odds he plays for the Leafs sometime this year if not as early as next week.

 

[GodEmperor]

Given that both Reimer and Luongo are having down years, the blame has to be squarely on the Trashther's defensive strategy. Hutch is probably about par with Sparks (just look at his numbers in the AHL last year). He's about a magnitude better than any other option in the org, so yeah, a necessity and good odds he plays for the Leafs sometime this year if not as early as next week.

Imo Sparks is one of the worst goalies to play in the NHL if not the worst from a fundamental standpoint probably since the lockout. I don't think Hutch will be worse, as a matter of fact, I think this is something that'll be difficult to accomplish, Sparks is completely propped up by an amazing team, other top 5 backups:

Copley, 2.6 gaa and 915sv%
Domingue, 3 gaa and 905sv%
Brossoit, 2.1 gaa and 940sv%
Smith, 3gaa and 890sv%
Dell, 2.7gaa and 900sv%

All of them have played more than Sparks who was literally put in the best position to succeed, yet he is even falling below the 910sv% average for backups on the best teams in the league. Sparks is really really bad and I'd honestly at least rather a goalie who played the same as his mediocre results but didn't look like a fish out of water in the net.

 

[Boutette]

Imo Sparks is one of the worst goalies to play in the NHL if not the worst from a fundamental standpoint probably since the lockout. I don't think Hutch will be worse, as a matter of fact, I think this is something that'll be difficult to accomplish, Sparks is completely propped up by an amazing team, other top 5 backups:

Copley, 2.6 gaa and 915sv%
Domingue, 3 gaa and 905sv%
Brossoit, 2.1 gaa and 940sv%
Smith, 3gaa and 890sv%
Dell, 2.7gaa and 900sv%

All of them have played more than Sparks who was literally put in the best position to succeed, yet he is even falling below the 910sv% average for backups on the best teams in the league. Sparks is really really bad and I'd honestly at least rather a goalie who played the same as his mediocre results but didn't look like a fish out of water in the net.

Your amazing team scored exactly 0 goals tonight, FYI. How does that put Sparks in best position to succeed?

 

[thewave]

Imo Sparks is one of the worst goalies to play in the NHL if not the worst from a fundamental standpoint probably since the lockout. I don't think Hutch will be worse, as a matter of fact, I think this is something that'll be difficult to accomplish, Sparks is completely propped up by an amazing team, other top 5 backups:

Copley, 2.6 gaa and 915sv%
Domingue, 3 gaa and 905sv%
Brossoit, 2.1 gaa and 940sv%
Smith, 3gaa and 890sv%
Dell, 2.7gaa and 900sv%

All of them have played more than Sparks who was literally put in the best position to succeed, yet he is even falling below the 910sv% average for backups on the best teams in the league. Sparks is really really bad and I'd honestly at least rather a goalie who played the same as his mediocre results but didn't look like a fish out of water in the net.

Someone that understands the position. Good posts. Agreed

 

[Bluelines]

Macs .918 Sv% would result in only 2 goals saved over Sparks given the same workload. If you apply them to either loss you still lose the Boston game and only gain 1 point on Detroit.

Should be noted that the chance of both happening in the same game is about 1.6% or a 98.4% chance of not happening so we would virtually be in the exact same spot in the standings with a lottery ticket away from having 1 more point. Still 2nd in the Atlantic. Still 2nd in the league.

You keep the guy thays 10 years younger with some upside 100%

Dude the saying cant see the forest for the trees has never been a more apt response to your post. If you got a guy like Sparks behind you, as a skater you think you have to be finer with your shots , finer with your d play, finer in every aspect , cause you know he is not a good goalie. The end result is you start griping your stick harder, taking shots you wouldn't normally take, make mistakes you might not normally make , cause you are thinking the game too much vs playing the game instinctively.

The Raycroft effect is real and we are about to experience it again. Sparks poor goaltending is an invasive hockey disease that affects everyone on the team.. Ask Philly what crappy goaltending can do to a team, ask last years Flames what crappy goaltending can do to a team. Ask the LA Kings what crappy goaltending can do to a team, ask Chicago what crappy goaltending can do to a team. It;s an invasive rust like disease that eats away at the team from the inside out.

I've liked what Dubas has done so far but not getting a reliable back up is going to be the goat horns he wears if this comes back to bite us.