Sergei Bobrovsky

Last Season

Fifty-two appearances, 27-23-1, a 3.07 goals-against average and a .8768 save percentage with four shutouts. His five-on-five work was done in Florida.

His 806th career game and his 456th win. A career save percentage of .9123 across sixteen seasons.

He turns 38 in September.

The Physical Game

Six foot two and 180 pounds, and small by the standards of the position — the game has always been about quickness and reading the release rather than covering net.

At 37 the push across the crease is still there and the recovery on a second chance is not. Rebound control is the part that has gone.

The Mental Game

Two Vezinas, a Stanley Cup at 34 after a decade of being told he could not win one, and one of the more complete career arcs the position has produced.

Four shutouts in a .8768 season is the shape of a goaltender who is still capable of the good night and no longer capable of the good month.

The Intangibles

A .8768 is the third-lowest figure of any goaltender who appeared forty times, behind only Binnington and Lankinen.

He arrives on a club whose goaltending finished twenty-one goals worse than the chances it faced — the third-worst in the league — and which conceded 206 goals at five-on-five, second-most.

He is 37, and Toronto is betting that a career .9123 means more than a recent .8768. On the evidence in this book that is the single riskiest bet any club made this summer.