According to the stats, Campbell, Kuemper and Talbot are headed for train wreck seasons; Murray, Samsonov should improve

He decided that an extra 2 years and $10M was enough to leave Toronto and all the power to him, but Jack Campbell may regret that decision sooner than later. Going to what has become the Edmonton Maple Leafs, Campbell is about to see a lot of rubber this season. Particularly because he has a top four that includes both Cody Ceci and Tyson Barrie.

In Toronto last season, the Leafs had the lowest xGA per shot against in the NHL last season and yet, they finished 22nd in save percentage, despite doing a good job of limiting shot quality. Going from the number one ranked team in expected goals against per shot against to the 19th ranked team that hasn't exactly improved much should prove to be a difficult task for Campbell.

To add insult to injury, 50 goalies faced 1000 shot attempts last season in which Campbell ranked 49th, while new Leaf goalies Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray were significantly better. Samsonov ranked 13th and Matt Murray, had he qualified, would have ranked 3rd.

Now it's not just Campbell that may struggle this season, there are two other goalies that have moved to significantly worse defensive teams in terms of expected goals against per shot against and those are Cam Talbot and Darcy Kuemper. Talbot is going from the 3rd ranked team in Minnesota to the 25th team in Ottawa and while Ottawa has improved its forward group there are still big question marks around their defence. As for Kuemper, he is going from the 6th ranked team in Colorado to the 18th ranked team in Washington.


It will be interesting to see how much of an effect going to weaker defensive teams will have on Campbell, Kuemper and Talbot this season.