Maple Leafs’ goalie situation remains a mystery ahead of Lightning game

So, who’s in goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs? That’s the question of the moment surrounding the club ahead of Tuesday night’s game in Tampa Bay against the Lightning.

As Elliotte Friedman discussed on The Jeff Marek Show, no one seems to know, with the clock ticking down toward game-time, and the club running out of options.

It’s situation worthy of Abbott and Costello’s timeless “Who’s On First?” routine.

The cap-tied Leafs have used a pair of non-NHLers as backups their last two games: Owen Sound Attack OHL goalie Nick Chenard put pen to paper on an amateur tryout contract for their road game against the Florida Panthers on Monday — and didn’t play. That came a little under 48 hours after University of Toronto ‘keeper Jett Alexander sat on the Leafs bench as an emergency back-up, ultimately playing 1:10 in Toronto’s 7-1 rout of the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

The Leafs’ front office had already been told by the NHL that the team wasn’t in an emergency situation for its Monday game against the Panthers because they had cap space and could have called up goalie Joseph Woll from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies as an injury-replacement for Matt Murray. Murray remains out with a head injury and did not travel with the team.

Instead, the Leafs used that cap space to sign top prospect Matthew Knies to an entry-level contract. Knies, the team’s second-round pick from 2021, made his NHL debut in Florida on Monday.

But Chenard’s availability was limited to just the one game, according to Friedman, who said the Leafs had five goalies at their Sunday practice, and “a bunch of them were guys that no one really knew.”

Ilya Samsonov, who is the only healthy NHL goalie the Leafs have and is their projected starter for next week’s playoff opener against the Lightning, started Saturday and Monday. The consensus is that there is no logic in starting him Tuesday night, in the second game of a back-to-back.

“I’m wondering if in preparation for this we get ‘The Mystery Goalie’ tonight,” said Friedman.

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