Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning Emerge as Perfect Trade Partners
A crazy set of circumstances this training camp has led to the Tampa Bay Lightning's star goaltender requiring back surgery that will keep the "Big Cat" out of the crease for eight to 10 weeks.
The Maple Leafs signed Martin Jones this off-season as a third goaltender, mainly for insurance, as there is no guarantee Ilya Samsonov can stay healthy considering his history.
Is Martin Jones a Great Add for Tampa?
Martin Jones arguably saved the Seattle Kraken's season last year, as he went 27-13-3 with starting goalie Phillip Grubauer sidelined with injury.
However, he may have won the games for Seattle, yet Jones did so with a 0.887 save percentage. Those numbers indicate Jones did not make a lot of saves, but he made the saves that count.
In the preseason so far, Martin Jones stood out for the Maple Leafs on Saturday as Toronto beat Montreal 3-1, and Jones stopped 33 of 34 shots.
Jones also stood out on September 25th against Ottawa, saving 16 of 17 shots and playing in around half of the game.
Does Tampa Bay Even Need an Extra Goalie?
The Tampa Bay Lightning are in unknown territory with Andrei Vasilevskiy out for over eight weeks, as the team has never not had him in net for this long since he has officially become the starter.
After the Lightning announced the surgery, Jonas Johansson was named the starter for the next preseason game September 29th against the Carolina Hurricanes. He posted a shutout, stopping 42 of 42 shots, as the Lightning won 4-0 and were outplayed all game.
The next day against the Nashville Predators, the Tampa Bay Lightning started Matt Tomkins. They ended up winning 5-4 and were outshot 47 to 27.
Again, the goalie was the start for Tampa Bay as they were outplayed, leading many to ask if they even need to trade for a goalie.
However, if a trade were to come up, Martin Jones' contract could fit within Tampa Bay's limited cap space.
As Read On Maple Leafs Daily -
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs are ideal trade partners at the moment
| POLL | ||
Will the Lightning trade for a goalie or pluck one off waivers? | ||
| Trade | 217 | 41.1 % |
| Waivers | 311 | 58.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
