With regular goaltender Matt Murray out of their game tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs have signed goaltender Jett Alexander to an amateur tryout contract. With this contract in place, Alexander will be the backup to regular starting goaltender Ilya Samsonov tonight.
Alexander has spent the last three seasons playing for the University of Toronto in the USports, making the playoffs twice, but ultimately failing to win the David Johnston University Cup. Interestingly enough, due to an injury to then starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper last season, the Colorado Avalanche brought in Alexander to be an emergency backup goaltender for one game.
This season, Alexander received the most playing time he’s been given throughout his career at Toronto, playing in a total of 22 games. In those starts, the goaltender has managed a record of 12-7-2, with a SV% of .927 and a GAA of 2.21.
In a salary cap crunch leading up to the playoffs, the Maple Leafs have executed an interesting move to keep themselves under salary cap compliance. Usually, with Murray out, the Maple Leafs would have called up goalie Joseph Woll, but with only $28K in cap space available, the team needed to make room to eventually sign University of Minnesota forward Matthew Knies once his season is finished.