Leafs lose both Pickard and McElhinney on waivers

With the Leafs deciding that Garret Sparks will be the permanent backup goaltender to Frederik Andersen, they had to place both Calvin Pickard and Curtis McElhinney on waivers yesterday. Both were claimed and now belong to other teams.

The Philadelphia Flyers claimed the 26-year-old goaltender Pickard off waivers. He will now be joining the injury-prone tandem of Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth.

Pickard played the majority of his last season with the Marlies – appearing in 33 games for the Calder Cup Champions, sporting a .918 sv% for them. He cleared waivers for the Vegas Golden Knights last year and was then traded to the Leafs for a 2018 6th-round pick and Tobias Lindberg.

Just like the Flyers, the Carolina Hurricanes are notorious for not having good goaltending. They claimed the 35-year old Curtis McElhinney to ensure a small amount of stability in goal. Petr Mrazek and Scott Darling are largely unproven, but now they have an old veteran to help them.

As Bobby Mac points out, since teams don’t like to carry three goaltenders, there is a good chance that these two will be back on waivers once their new team’s regular starters become healthy again. If that happens and the Leafs are the ones to claim them, they can go down to the AHL without having to pass through waivers again.

Let’s hope that Garret Sparks can bring some of that AHL dominance up to the NHL because he’s now all we got behind Andersen.