The Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to resolve the goal post crisis before Monday’s NHL hockey transfer deadline, but not a single move succeeded. He still has to work with Petr Mrázek, who is denounced by the overseas media.
In the summer of last year, Mrázek signed a three-year contract in Toronto with a very decent annual mass of $ 3.8 million (about 85 million crowns). He was to form a strong goalie tandem with American Jack Campbell.
But he doesn’t succeed at all. Of the seven Czech goalkeepers who jumped into the basic part of the NHL, he has the worst success rate of interventions – 88.4 percent. The crisis has gone so far that Mrázek’s own fans roared in one of the failed matches.
The club bosses also feel that the Czech goalkeeper is far behind expectations. That’s why they wanted to replace him. The media leaked to the news that Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas planned to get masked veteran Marc-Andre Fleury and promising shooter Brandon Hagel from Chicago.
Mrázek, university talent Matthew Knies and at least one selection in the first round of the draft were to travel in the opposite direction.
The rosada didn’t work out – Fleury ended up in Minnesota and Hagel ended up in Tampa. Dubas bet on the wild card. In Russia, Novosibirsk, he found 32-year-old Harri Säteri, who recently caught Finland’s first Olympic gold, but never made a name for himself in the NHL.
Säteri signed a modest one-year contract, but did not reach Toronto in the end. Arizona withdrew him from the list of free agents he had to go through. The signed a three-year contract with Karl Vejmelka and another goalkeeper, Scott Wedgewood, exchanged for Dallas. She needed a replacement, and Säteri came in handy.
Toronto is in a difficult situation. Before the transfer deadline, she caught star defender Mark Giordano, but did not find a masked lifeguard between the poles.
Team number one Campbell is still marred by the ribs and especially after a great start he performed. In addition to Mrázek, who caught 17 matches, the Maple Leafs tried three more goalkeepers. Swede Erik Källgren shone the most, but as a newcomer he doesn’t count much on the playoffs.
Before the transfer deadline, Mrázek headed for the list of free players, from which, unlike the aforementioned Säteri, no one downloaded it. He still has a chance to “iron” it at Toronto.
“We hope that Petr will continue to work hard and eventually find his game. He hasn’t caught up well yet. I think he realizes it himself,” said Canadian club coach Sheldon Keefe.
Manager Dubas tried to be more positive. “The most impressive thing about Peter is that no matter what people say and what the situation is, they always trust each other a lot,” he said. “It’s just a matter of keeping working and being found. No one cares more than Peter himself.”
However, the North American media are not lenient with Mrázek.
“The Leafs talk about him as if he’s been a goalie who has caught up well for years, but suddenly fails mysteriously in the first year of the three-year contract. In fact, his career is accompanied by mediocrity. someone who has only just started to worry, “wrote the Toronto Sun.
“Mrázek just wasn’t good at all,” said Jonas Siegel from The Athletic, a goalkeeper with Maple Leafs. “Being average is one thing, but he wasn’t either. He got goals from shots that could hardly be called a chance, which left the Leafs expensive.”
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