Garret Sparks has been called up to the team from the Marlies. The Leafs have a practice today and a game tomorrow, so the assumption has to be that Frederik Andersen might not be healthy enough for one or both of those events.
Garret Sparks called up by the Maple Leafs. Joins McElhinney for practice.
— David Alter (@dalter) March 27, 2017
Sparks played for weeks as one of the Leafs goaltenders last season, but has yet to even dress as backup for the Leafs this year. His save percentage in 17 games last year was .893.
In the AHL this year, he has played 26 games. He has a record of 18, 7 and 0 and a save percentage of .927. That percentage is good for third in the league for qualified goalies, and he has a nearly identical stat line to Jaroslav Halak.
Sparks played both parts of a back-to-back this weekend, and got a shutout on Sunday in the second game.
In other news: Kasperi Kapanen was also at Leafs practice today. He has been hot on the Marlies himself since coming back from an injury. With Nikita Soshnikov and Josh Leivo out with injuries, Kapanen might be getting the call to fill in.
Unlike Leivo, he is experienced at the penalty kill and is a natural right wing.
Here's a riveting pre-practice video of Nylander and Kapanen for your Monday pic.twitter.com/6E43PVuSuP
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) March 27, 2017
The Leafs PR release notes that Sparks’ recall is an emergency one, whereas Kapanen’s is a regular recall. It seems the Leafs don’t have quite enough injured forwards to qualify for an emergency recall of Kapanen.
The Leafs have now used two of their four allowed regular recalls.
The question now is: is Kapanen staying up for the rest of the season?
Kapanen’s video from his scrum. His face looks like that courtesy of the epic brawl in Sunday’s Marlies’ game.
