*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.*******
The Toronto Maple Leafs put forth a much better two-way effort, snapping their two-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory over the Dallas Stars at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday, as rookie Erik Kallgren won and registered a shutout his first NHL start.
Rasmus Sandin, John Tavares, Ondrej Kase, and Ilya Mikheyev scored for Toronto, who played the first of two games without leading scorer Auston Matthews, and Kallgren made 35 saves for the shutout.
“He was great, he just continued where he left off in terms of not trying to do too much in the net. He was solid, pucks came to him and for the most part, stuck to him.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “Probably the toughest save he had was the first one, right away in the game there was a 2-on-1 with a clear shooter and he stands his ground and makes that save and I thought from there he was just solid with a lot of the saves were stuff from the perimeter and stuff like that but he made sure to settle our team down so it was impressive.”
Other positives on the night were good performances from the tandem of Sandin and Timothy Liljegren, who were moved down to the bottom pairing and benefited from their familiarity with each other, and a solid outing from Ilya Lyubushkin, who played the right side with Morgan Rielly.
Keefe indicated after practice on Wednesday that Kallgren will make the start against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, but this does not mean that Toronto has found the solution to their goaltending issues in the 25-year-old Swede. GM Kyle Dubas could still be looking for an upgrade or options between the pipes before the March 21st trade deadline, although it is a longshot that the Leafs are in on Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury.
*******
With five days to go until the NHL trade deadline, the Leafs continue to be linked to defensive names like Montreal’s Ben Chiarot, but The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reports that another potential option is San Jose blueliner Jacob Middleton.
The 26-year-old defenseman is big (6’3”, 210 lb), physical (62 penalty minutes in 42 games), has played top-four minutes and in a penalty-killing role with the Sharks this season, has a low cap hit ($725,000) and is two years away from unrestricted free agency (if he plays enough games to avoid Group 6 UFA status.
LeBrun believes the asking price for Middleton will be a second-round pick and a prospect and that Atlantic Division foes Toronto, Tampa, and Boston have checked in on his potential availability.
In discussing Middleton with sources in San Jose, the chatter may be more about teams up against the cap inquiring about him rather than the Sharks being anxious to move him, but a team willing to pay the price may be able to pull off a deal.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»