Today it’s been reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs have signed University of Toronto goalie Alex Bishop to a professional try out agreement (PTO) to play back up to Jack Campbell tonight against the Ottawa Senators.

The thought was that Michael Hutchinson would be recalled from the Toronto Marlies, but according to CapFriendly they have $0 in cap space available, and don’t have Petr Mrazek’s cap space available from LTIR...yet. Katya has you covered in this story here:

Understanding IR and LTIR for the capped-out Maple Leafs

If the team has less cap space (or LTIR pool) than $800,000 (this year’s minimum salary plus $100,000) and they have had to play a game with less than 20 on the playing roster, they can recall a player who has an AAV of $800,000 or less for the next game, and that cap hit does not count. The team can keep that free replacement player until they have 20 healthy players again.

So if they play short tonight, only one goalie under contract, they can recall Michael Hutchinson for Monday’s game.

Thank you to Katya for doing my work for me, again.

Alex Bishop is in his fourth year with U of T, after three seasons in the QMJHL and Ontario Junior ‘A’. He’s started for the Varsity Blues his first two seasons before the third was cancelled due to COVID-19.

It’s a big opportunity for Bishop, even if his highlights come down to just chewing gum on the bench, and will bring an extra level of worry and fear to Maple Leafs fans every time a Senators player comes near Jack Campbell.

Good luck tonight Alex.

Will Alex Bishop see any ice tonight?

Yeah, he’ll see lots from the bench189
The Leafs will be winning by 4 goals and put him in net for the final minute96
He’ll take over the net after 10 minutes because we’re cursed219

Couple of updates:

As linked in comments, Sheldon Keefe today indicated that Petr Mrázek’s injury doesn’t look long term.

In preparation for the inevitable recall of Michael Hutchinson, the Marlies have signed a familiar face to a PTO. Andrew D’Agostini played with the team last year, appearing in 14, games largely at the beginning of the season because... wait for it... everyone else was injured.

He finished with an .890 save percentage and the respect of the team for jumping in as the starter when he’d never played a single AHL game ever. He has a long career in the OHL, Canadian University and the ECHL.

This allows Keith Petruzzelli to stay in Newfoundland where the Growlers are still in training camp: