Reim and Reason

The Toronto Maple Leafs season has been over for 11 days, but after seeing several videos of James Reimer’s incredible season over the last couple of days, I couldn’t help but share my thoughts on how Optimus Reim’s meteoric rise to become the number one goaltender in the world’s largest hockey market was somewhat predictable.

Now I know many people probably won’t believe me, saying this after the fact and I probably should have blogged about it back in September but in the pre-season I thought that James Reimer had the potential to be the Leafs number one goalie by midseason. Here’s why:

James Reimer didn’t enter the pro ranks with a lot of notoriety. He wasn’t a first round pick like Tuukka Rask and he didn’t set a WJHC shutout record like Justin Pogge. In fact, Reimer was almost released from his junior team, Brent Sutter’s Red Deer Rebels, and he only put up 7 wins in 34 games in his rookie season with the Rebels. However, former Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. saw enough in the kid from Manitoba to make him the Leafs fourth round pick, 99th overall in the 2006 NHL Draft. As a Leafs draft pick, I made it my duty to pay close attention to his career.

Reimer turned pro in 2008 and played the majority of the 2008-09 season in the ECHL on an abysmal Reading Royals team where he went 10-7-3 with a 3.30 GAA and a 0.904 SV%, not great numbers. At the trade deadline, Reimer’s ECHL rights were traded to the South Carolina Stingrays and that’s where he first impressed me. Reimer was named the 2009 ECHL playoff MVP while leading the Stingrays to a Kelly Cup Championship.

Shortly before the 09-10 season, the Leafs traded Justin Pogge which meant Reimer had the opportunity to start for the Toronto Marlies. While Reimer battled injuries for most of the season, he did play 26 games and put up pretty impressive numbers. However, wanting some goalie insurance, GM Brian Burke went out and signed two young goalies in Jussi Rynnas and Ben Scrivens, both of whom could play for the Leafs in the near future. To me this meant that Reimer had two choices. He could either crumble from the competition and end up back in the ECHL or he could step up and prove he was the goalie of the future.

I was banking on the latter. I thought he could be a man on mission, out to prove that he was better than either of the two young goalies Burke had brought in. I thought that if he played well enough and if Gustavsson and Giguere struggled, then Reimer could be starting for the Leafs by midseason. Of course, at the time I didn’t know exactly how right I would be.

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