Toronto Maple Leafs

Gustavsson Visits Shark Tank

In stop number 2 of the international Jonas Gustavsson tour, San Jose has made a pitch to entice the young Swedish netminder to slot in as backup behind Evgeni Nabokov.  It’s probably fairly enticing to contemplate playing for the President’s Trophy winners from last season.  He could be the guy that gets them over the hump? Wins them a Stanley Cup?  Are these the sorts of things that Doug Wilson is whispering in his ear in an effort to sign him?

If those ARE the kinds of things the Sharks are saying to him, you have to seriously wonder what their motivation is.  They have a Vezina trophy finalist as their starter currently, a guy that was named to the NHL’s first all-star team quite recently.  Evgeni Nabokov’s shadow is likely to be a big one.  I guess that’s the point though, as Nabokov has yet to experience much in the way of playoff success with the Sharks, and he was at his best in the playoffs when he was playing around 55 or 60 games a year, not 65+.  Perhaps this is just an attempt on the part of the Sharks to return to the good old days when their backups were NHL capable netminders.

Ahhhh nostalgia.  See the thing is, Gustavsson wants to be an NHL starter… but going to San Jose means entering yet another situation where he’ll start as the backup with very little clarity on where the team is heading in a year or two.  He might be the starter… he might not be.  The coaching staff is all relatively new, and there are questions surrounding the leadership of the team.  Joe Thornton has yet to win a Cup, and Patrick Marleau is in the same boat… if you lose one of those guys, what happens to the chemistry of the club?

It’s not that dissimilar to the situation presented in Dallas, where there’s an incumbent starter who is a former All-Star, with playoff questions on management’s mind.  The Stars made the conference finals two seasons ago, but now they’re considering a rookie netminder from Sweden?  That’s both a lot to expect, and an awkward situation to place the kid in.

See if the team he goes to in San Jose or Dallas is super successful with the incumbent goalie, then why would they hand the reins over to Gustavsson?  It’s like he’s banking on the team NOT being that good in front of the other guy, and it makes you wonder whether he’s just being used to push the goalies that San Jose and Dallas are already invested in.

In Toronto, the team was atrocious last year, and was only moderately superior the year before.  The main reason for that has been goaltending.  Injuries and inconsistent play have plagued the Leafs in net, and there’s virtually no chance of the team contending next season.  If Gustavsson enters the Leafs dressing room, he’s just one of a number of young kids fitting into a system and a plan for the future.  There’s nothing in the way of a power struggle or old guard to contend with because the old guard hasn’t done much of anything noteworthy for the Leafs.  In San Jose or Dallas he might very well find a level of animosity from the starting goalie who thinks the kid gunning for his job has a lot to prove.

We’ll see how all of this pans out but it is interesting to me how the media in both the stops so far have had virtually zero contact with Gustavsson through the course of his “tour stops”.  Makes one wonder how he’d handle the pressure cooker that is Toronto.

Based on his itinerary so far, it looks like he’s likely to be in Dallas in a day or so, before heading on to finish up his trip in Toronto towards the weekend.  If he likes the night life, this weekend is as good as any in Toronto.  Between the North By North East music festival, the Queen’s Plate, and any number of other local events, it’s probably a fun time to be in town as a 24 year old.  Hopefully the rain holds off and he gets to see the city and the fine confines of the ACC at their best.