Despite allowing 22 goals in their last five games, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas gave a vote of confidence to his goaltending tandem.
Dubas shrugged off any doubt about Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek's situation during a press conference at Hamilton's Tim Hortons Field ahead of March 13's NHL Heritage Classic.
"We've got two guys that have been good goaltenders. I mean, Jack played at all-star level this year, Peter Mrazek's played almost played 300 games in net or nearing that and he's been a good goaltender in his career."
"I don't think goaltending was the issue in the last game and I think we tend to get a little bit game-to-game in this marketplace and I'm not concerned about either one of them."
Dubas remained cautious on the topic of Jake Muzzin and his potential return to the Leafs lineup. The defenceman remains on long-term injured reserve but is still an important part of the team for the Leafs GM and his bill of health could dictate Toronto's actions come trade deadline.
"A lot of it's gonna depend on Muzzin's health, and where we're at. We still have quite a bit of flexibility to get creative and try to make something happen," Dubas said. "Unless we get the news we don't want on Muz, I think we'll just have the one move left."
"I think if we're gonna focus on anything here, was just trying to make the team better. But I think at this time, it'd be a bit more on defence."
Dubas has been known to make deals ahead of trade deadline, and even pointed to the Muzzin as an example. The Leafs GM doubled down on that mentality, if all goes well for Toronto's front office, for this season as well.
"I still feel the same way now. The (Ilya) Lyubushkin deal a few weeks ago with (Nick) Ritchie, that was sort of the the intention there," Dubas said. "So I think acting early if you can is best than not getting yourself right up against the deadline at three o'clock would be the key."
Dubas added that no issues have occurred with Toronto's two Russian players, Lyubushkin and Ilya Mikheyev, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine but that the team's staff is prepared.
"Our director of security is around the team every single day on the road and at home," Dubas said. "We've talked to both of the players. There have been no issues reported to them or anything with towards them or their families. So we just continue to monitor their members of our team and we care about them and want to make sure that they're that they're safe and then we're taking care of them as best we can and anything that comes up they know to report it right away."
