Jack Campbell's Price has Been Revealed and His Days as a Toronto Maple Leaf Are Numbered

PUBLICATION

William
June 2, 2022 (0:11)

SHARE THIS STORY

Chris Johnston from sportsnet.ca was on TSN1050 and reported that Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell wants a three-year, $5 million AAV as a new contract.

Campbell is an unrestricted free agent and had been earning $1.65 million over the last two seasons.

His statistics show he can certainly do well on the free agent market. He collected an excellent 31-9-6 record with a .914 SV%, and a 2.64 GAA.

The issue, of course for him staying in Toronto is the Leafs's ever pressing cap space issues. They do have about $7.8 million in cap space, but need to sign four restricted free agents, as well as three other unrestricted free agents besides Campbell.

The RFA's include Pierre Engvall, Ondrej Kase, Timothy Liljegren, and Rasmus Sandin. The UFA list includes Colin Blackwell, Ilya Mikheyev, and Ilya Lyubushkin.

As usual, general manager Kyle Dubas will have some tough decisions to make as to which players he can keep and not keep to balance the books.

The Toronto goalie situation could become rather sticky if Campbell seeks another place of employment and Dubas attempts to rid himself of Petr Mrazek's $3.8 million contract through next season.

Certainly, if Mrazek is gone via a buyout or trade, that would give Dubas some breathing room.

Dubas did recently re-sign Erik Kallgren to a two-year for a reasonable $750,000 AAV, but he is hardly the goalie the Leafs want to feel secure with going forward. He only had a 8-4-1 record this season with a less than impressive .888 SV% and a 3.31 GAA.

So, it becomes evident that if Campbell's camp wants $5M over three years, Dubas may seek another option. He could certainly consider UFA Ville Husso who had a terrific season. He posted a 25-7-6 record with a .919 SV% and a 2.56 GAA. The thing is he really didn't perform well in the playoffs. He had just a 2-5 record and carried a .890 SV% with a 3.67 GAA.

If Dubas loses Campbell to free agency, as it appears... Husso could be a reasonable alternative since he had just a $750,000 contract this season. He deserves a raise, but would still be cheaper than Campbell's contract demands.