While the organization was right to bet on Garret Sparks last season, the fact is it just didn’t work out.
Sparks was coming off an AHL championship, and a year in which he was the best goalie in the AHL and arguably the best one not in the NHL. He was 25. You just don’t give that away to keep a 33 year-old career back-up.
So as great as Curtis McElhinney was last year, the Leafs did make the correct decision. The results just weren’t there.
So this year, it appears they are going in a different direction.