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Anton Forsberg: A potential goalie trade target who could help the Maple Leafs this season & beyond – Maple Leafs Hot Stove

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The Maple Leafs may be in the market for a goaltender over the next two weeks.

Jack Campbell, who has an .883 save percentage since the start of the new year, has given up four or more goals in eight of those 16 games. Petr Mrazek has posted an .894 save percentage during that time period, and unlike Campbell, he wasn’t great in the first half of the season, either. Even if Mrazek heats up, it’s difficult to count on him staying healthy over an extended playoff run.

There aren’t many good goalies available on the trade market. Marc-Andre Fleury, who could end up costing an acquiring team a first-round pick, is a 37-year-old who has had his own struggles as of late with a save percentage of just .904 in the new year. Giving up six goals to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

The Leafs‘ goaltending need also extends beyond this season. Toronto spent less than $6 million in cap space on their goalie tandem for this season, and their budget for next season probably isn’t much bigger. Every additional dollar they spend in the net comes out of the forward and defense budget, so the Leafs might not be able to sign Fleury to an extension even if they did trade for him. They’ll need to acquire at least one cheap option, especially if they plan to move Mrazek and his $3.8 million cap hit at some point.

One goalie who could be a terrific target is Anton Forsberg of the Ottawa Senators. The 29-year old isn’t exactly a household name, but he’s been playing outstanding as of late. He carries a .920 save percentage in 26 games this season, including a .932 save percentage in 13 starts since the start of the new year. He practically stood on his head recently against top teams like Vegas, Florida, Minnesota, Boston, and Washington.

Forsberg is a pending unrestricted free agent, and Ottawa is already paying Matt Murray a $6.25 million cap hit over the next two seasons. Perhaps the Sens could extend Forsberg, but Murray was playing well before his recent injury, and they could use picks or prospects to help their rebuild. Forsberg would certainly cost far less to acquire than Fleury.

Getting To Know Anton Forsberg


Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA Today Sports

AHL Track Record

Forsberg, a seventh-round pick back in the 2011 NHL draft, is about 11 months younger than Jack Campbell. After playing in Sweden for two seasons, he made his AHL debut for Columbus’ affiliate in Springfield, where he immediately posted good numbers. He excelled in his six-game AHL tryout in 2014 and followed that up by posting a .927 save percentage in 30 games in 2014-15.

His AHL save percentage was strong year after year. He posted a .914 save percentage in 2015-16 and then led his team to a Calder Cup Championship, going 9-0 with a .949 save percentage, including a 1-0 shutout victory in the clinching game. You would think that would have been enough to earn him a NHL job, but he played just one game for the Blue Jackets the following year, returning to the AHL to post a .926 save percentage over 51 games.

Forsberg finally received a legitimate NHL opportunity in the 2017-18 season, when he was included in the Artemi Panarin-Brandon Saad trade. He played 35 games for Chicago and posted a respectable .908 save percentage, although he was a little bit below average by Evolving Hockey’s Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA). After he was demoted to Rockford the following season, he was again a top-flight AHL goaltender over 32 games.

He spent the pandemic shortened 2019-20 season with Carolina’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte, where he posted a mediocre .905 save percentage in 27 games. I’m not entirely sure what happened that season, but it was the first time that he hadn’t excelled at the AHL level. He’s played just one minor-league game since then. All told, he boasts a career save percentage of .920 at the AHL level over close to 200 games.

NHL Track Record

Prior to his time in Ottawa, Forsberg’s one season with Chicago made up the bulk of his NHL experience. Other than that, his career-high in NHL games played was five. While he did struggle in the majority of his NHL opportunities, we’re talking about a few three-to-five game auditions in which one bad start can crater his numbers. Given his performance at the AHL level, it’s surprising he didn’t receive more NHL opportunities prior to joining the Senators.

In eight games for Ottawa last season, Forsberg performed okay, posting a .909 save percentage and grading out slightly above average by GSAA. He’s finally gotten another extended opportunity this year in what is the second time in his career that he’s played more than 10 NHL games in a season. His .920 save percentage in 26 games is equal to his career numbers at the AHL level, and he ranks 12th out of 59 goalies in GSAA.

If you look at GSAA over a per-minute basis, Forsberg ranks eighth of 59 goalies behind only Igor Shesterkin, Ville Husso, Frederik Andersen, Jeremy Swayman, Juuse Saros, and Jacob Markstrom. He’s about tied with Andrei Vasilevskiy. Having watched him play against the Florida Panthers on March 3rd, he was the sole reason that the Senators kept it close in that game. The Panthers held a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes despite owning a 37-11 shots on goal advantage, and the only goal against Forsberg came when his own player pushed a Panthers forward into him.

I also went and watched every goal that he’s allowed in 2022. He’s allowed just 27 goals since then, and the vast majority have been next to impossible to stop. The Senators are giving up over 40 shots quite often — including in his last three starts — and he’s been hung out to dry a few times. For context, Campbell has given up 27 goals in his last seven starts.

Forsberg’s Goals Allowed in 2022

Opponent Goal # Description Soft?
Vegas 1 Breakaway. No
Vegas 2 Eichel scores on PP from Ovechkin spot after good puck movement. No, not really.
Florida 1 Goalie interference, but own player pushed him in. Not on him. No
Florida 2 3rd chance goes in, puck bouncing around as team can’t clear rebound. No
Florida 3 Saves high danger chance, but it squeeks through him. A bit
Minnesota 1 Nice shot after good puck movement. He had little chance. No
Minnesota 2 Spurgeon jumps into rush and snipes. No
Minnesota 3 Perfect shot- picks corner. No
Boston 1 Debrusk bats it out of mid air- no chance. No
Boston 2 Weird bounce off Sens defencemen, puck goes right to Carlo. No
Boston 3 Pastrnak perfect shot- no chance. No
Buffalo 1 Breakaway. No
Washington 1 Stops Ovechkin on power play, Backstrom gets rebound. No
Carolina 1 Second rebound goes in. No, not really.
Carolina 2 Point shot well placed, tons of traffic- never saw it. No
Carolina 3 Trocheck picks top corner with extra skater on ice. Maybe could have had. A bit
NY Islanders 1 Power play – puck bouncing everywhere. He was standing on his head prior. Meh
NY Islanders 2 Point shot tipped in. No
NY Islanders 3 Barzal one-timer well placed. Maybe could have had. Meh
NY Islanders 4 Nice goal, nice cross-ice pass in front, nice move. No
Anaheim 1 Rakell dekes around, sneaks through Forsberg’s pads. Yes
Anaheim 2 Terry walks in and picks the corner. No, not really.
Columbus 1 A+ puck movement, no chance. No
Pittsburgh 1 Simon scores off post and in, perfect shot. No
Pittsburgh 2 Point shot gets redirected, saved, but Malkin on the doorstep. No, not really.
Buffalo 1 Soft Yes
Buffalo 2 Breakaway. Great move. No

There haven’t been many soft goals, especially as of late, but that’s probably what we expected given that he owns a .932 save percentage in the new year.  There’s little question that he’s on a great run right now with the 370 saves he’s made over this stretch.

Like Campbell prior to his time with the Leafs, we don’t have much of an NHL track record to go off of. The Leafs would be acquiring a goalie who has been hot as of late with the hope that his recent success will continue. He posted a .926 save percentage in seven games in December as well, so we’re looking at an excellent 20-game stretch here.

Anton Forsberg’s Fit in Toronto


Photo: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Since Forsberg’s cap hit is just $900k this season, the Leafs would have plenty of options here. They could choose to keep Mrazek and have three goalies on the NHL roster, rotate them in, and go with whoever plays the best. It would give them added insurance if someone fell injured, and having three goalies who could potentially heat up is better than two. Unlike Campbell and Mrazek, Forsberg has actually had a fair amount of success in 2022, so there are plenty of reasons for optimism right now.

The Leafs could also choose to trade Mrazek in order to open up some cap space for other moves. If they’re planning on giving up picks or prospects to secure salary retention in other deals, perhaps trading Mrazek saves them from doing that. I think there’s a real chance that the Leafs trade Mrazek this offseason to create cap room; doing it now could help them get started on creating extra space for this offseason.

Given his short track record, it shouldn’t be overly expensive to extend Forsberg. Chris Driedger earned himself a three-year deal at $3.5 million per season last offseason, but he posted terrific numbers in 38 games to that point, and it hasn’t exactly worked out well in Seattle. You might be able to extend Forsberg for a reasonable cap hit right now, and if so, I’d be interested in doing that.

If Forsberg keeps up this level of play, he could provide excellent value over the next few years. If he struggles, he might end up as a fairly-paid backup that fits in Toronto’s price range. If he’s completely terrible, they can bury just over $1.1 million of his cap hit in the AHL; they should be able to get out of that deal for a Nick Ritchie type of trade.

There’s little risk and plenty of potential reward here. If Forsberg struggles, the Leafs can simply run Campbell or Mrazek in the playoffs, which is exactly what they’re doing as of today.  Unless Fleury is available for a reasonable price, there aren’t many other quality options — not to mention Forsberg has outplayed Fleury by a significant margin as of late.

A mid-tier prospect plus a third-round pick might be enough to bring Forsberg to Toronto. He might even be worth a second when we consider the low cap hit implications and the possibility of extending him to a team-friendly contract.

Forsberg is a 6’3″ goalie who looks awfully composed in the net right now. Watching him stand on his head against top teams as of late has piqued my interest. Perhaps this will end up being the best 20-game stretch of his career in hindsight, but he’s been all over the highlight reels as of late for much different reasons than Toronto’s current goaltending options.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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