Certainly, this wasn’t the preferred outcome from Leafs management’s perspective, but losing two of their four waiver-eligible NHL goaltenders was always a possibility. Carrying three was not an idea the Leafs management, coaching and development staffs were fond of, based on other roster pressures and Kyle Dubas’ comment about the inconvenience of splitting the practice net between two backups.
Knowing that, the Leafs were always going to risk losing two of three on waivers. It’s just a question of which two they were going to expose:
- The experienced backup who is a known quantity, put up the best backup numbers in the league last season, and looked sharp in camp for the most part (Curtis McElhinney).