Kyle Dubas couldn’t wait any longer.
About an hour after his team had another two points get away, largely because of more ineffective goaltending from Michael Hutchinson, Dubas sprung into action on a hopeful solution. Just before midnight on Wednesday night, the Leafs acquired 28-year-old Jack Campbell from the L.A. Kings, along with big, heavy depth forward Kyle Clifford. Trevor Moore and two third-round picks (one of them conditional) went the other way in the deal, which will see the Kings eat 50 percent of Clifford’s $1.6 million cap hit and salary.
The move was overdue, and also the second time Dubas has dealt for Campbell, a first-round pick of the Dallas Stars nearly a decade ago. When he was still running the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Dubas took a massive swing on Campbell — two players and six draft picks went to Windsor — that ultimately backfired with the Greyhounds missing the playoffs.
Now the Leafs GM, Dubas is counting on Campbell, who’s yet to live up to his draft-day hype in the NHL, to stem a longstanding point of weakness.
Campbell carries a cap hit of only $675,000 this season. He’s signed for two more seasons after that at $1.65 million on the cap.
It’s still unclear how long Frederik Andersen will be sidelined with a neck injury that kept him out on Wednesday night in New York. Regardless of whether it’s through the weekend, with a back-to-back looming against the Ducks and Canadiens, or longer than that, the Leafs had to find someone more capable than Hutchinson. The 29-year-old surrendered three goals or more for the 11th time in 15 appearances this season in the most recent loss to the Rangers.
In nine of those games, including Wednesday night, opponents scored three or more in one period.
It was the fourth goal in particular at Madison Square Garden that really burned the Leafs. Auston Matthews had just cut a 3-1 deficit to one when, 34 seconds later, Pavel Buchnevich flung a shot straight through Hutchinson’s pads.
It was the kind of shot that’s gone in too frequently on Hutchinson.
“The fourth goal was pretty defeating and devastating, frankly,” Sheldon Keefe said after the 5-3 loss, which kept the Leafs outside the playoff picture. “We just didn’t have anything from there.”
Two days earlier, stepping in for an injured Andersen for the final two periods, Hutchinson couldn’t keep the puck out in a game the Leafs lost but dominated. The fact that it was two points lost against the Panthers, a team the Leafs are battling for a playoff spot, made it all the more damaging.
The Leafs couldn’t keep taking chances on Hutchinson that way. Their postseason hopes are too tenuous for that. And Hutchinson’s stumbles, coinciding with sometimes leaky defensive play, has cost them games on at least a handful of occasions. This was not a recent concern, but one that’s been simmering all season. The Leafs even sought another option before things got going, but Michal Neuvirth, a goalie with a history of injuries who was signed to professional tryout, couldn’t stay on the ice at training camp in Newfoundland.
Hutchinson got the job by default. And struggled.
Then the Leafs coach, Mike Babcock, apparently had enough of Hutchinson by the second week of November. A day after the goalie helped cost them a chance at two points with a wobbly effort in Chicago, Hutchinson was placed on waivers. Kasimir Kaskisuo, who hadn’t played a game in the NHL, was recalled from the Marlies to take his place, and it was the Finn who ultimately started Babcock’s penultimate game as head coach.
That night, in his NHL debut, Kaskisuo got rocked for six goals in Pittsburgh. Hutchinson was recalled soon after Keefe replaced Babcock and while he turned a slight corner, he was clearly overmatched for what the Leafs really need from a backup: a goalie who can absorb some of Andersen’s load, and not just on certain nights against certain opponents in ideal conditions.
That the Leafs front office didn’t spring into action sooner has put their season at risk. It might just cost them a playoff spot even if Campbell is able to solidify the position.
It’s also been an area of concern for the organization for two seasons now, ever since Curtis McElhinney and Calvin Pickard were both plucked off waivers in the fall of 2018. Then in his first season as Leafs GM, Dubas chose to protect Garret Sparks, the reigning goalie of the year in the AHL, a decision that while process-approved (a 25-year-old up-and-comer over an aging career backup) ultimately backfired.
Sparks produced a lowly .902 save percentage and was banished (temporarily) just before the playoffs while McElhinney shined elsewhere.
And while Hutchinson did OK last season in a handful of starts after he was acquired from Florida, he had no recent track record of NHL success and looked questionable right from the first days of the preseason this past fall.
All told, since the start of last season, the Leafs’ collection of backups has produced a 14-22-2 record, for a miserable .395 points percentage, with an ugly .896 save percentage.
Overlooking the backup has been costly that way.
The Leafs’ front office might argue that what was out there wasn’t much better, if better at all, than Hutchinson. And there might be some truth to that, with Casey DeSmith, who was available on waivers at one point this season, posting a mediocre .905 save percentage in the AHL so far this season. They’re also paying four core stars a huge chunk of money, and had one of those contracts (Mitch Marner) up in the air until mid-September.
But there had to be a better solution than Hutchinson and perhaps that guy will be Campbell.
Hailing from Michigan, Campbell was picked 11th overall in 2010 by Dallas — one spot before Anaheim grabbed Cam Fowler at No. 12 and five picks before St. Louis took Vladimir Tarasenko at 16.
It didn’t pay off.
Campbell made it into only one game for the Stars before getting crumbs behind Jonathan Quick with the Kings in recent years.
He shined with a .928 save percentage in 31 appearances last season before coming back down to Earth with a .900 clip in 20 games this season. He stopped 26 of 28 shots in his last start for the Kings on Jan. 30, a win over Arizona.
The Leafs might need him to shoulder a serious load if Andersen is out more than a few days, the kind of stretch that could just determine their playoff fate. They really just need a goalie who can give them a chance to win most nights, not one who costs them games with weak goals at inopportune times. Can Campbell be that guy? An upgrade on Hutchinson?
Dubas is betting he can be.
That Campbell is signed beyond this season increases his potential value to the Leafs — if he can do the job.
Campbell is under contract for one year longer than Andersen, whose deal with the Leafs expires after next season. It’s perhaps in part why Dubas preferred him over some of the other options out there, most of them rentals; the organization gains an extra layer of security. Their two goaltenders for next season are now pinned down for $6.65 million on the cap, a very reasonable price tag provided Campbell can do the job behind Andersen. (He’s easily buried if not.)
For the time being, Campbell will slide into the starter’s role. Once Andersen is healthy enough to play, Campbell becomes the No. 2 and Hutchinson lands back in the No. 3 hole he’s more suited to play — an emergency option for NHL duty who plays most of his games in the AHL.
Clifford replaces Moore, meanwhile. He’ll bring the Leafs a different element up front, a bigger body (6-foot-2, 211 pounds) with two Stanley Cups worth of experience.
He’ll be an easy choice for fourth-line duty and might even chip in with the odd bit of offence (six goals, 14 points this season).
But this was about Campbell, and a trade Dubas needed to make.
It might be too late. It might not work. It might also end up saving the Leafs season.
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