In the second installment of our 25 Montreal Canadiens in 25 days series, here’s a look at backup goaltender Dustin Tokarski.
No matter how well he performs, Tokarski can’t possibly dethrone reigning MVP Carey Price.
A huge part of his job — hard as it may be as a 25-year-old up and comer — is accepting this fact and acting as a good teammate. And on that front, he’s conducted himself quite admirably.
Now Tokarski must work to find the balance between making Price’s life easier and challenging him to earn more opportunity to prove himself.
His NHL sample size is too small to predict whether he’ll ever become a top-tier NHL goaltender, and any judgment of his play to date must take into consideration that starting as sporadically as he has makes it markedly more difficult for him to impress.
Who: Dustin Tokarksi | No. 35 | Goaltender | 5’11” | 204 lbs | Age: 25 | DustinTokarski
Acquired: Trade (2013) for G Cedrick Desjardins
Contract status: 2 years, NHL-AHL, $562,000 AAV (expires 2016)
2014-15 stats: 17 GP; 6-6-4; .910 SV%; .917 ADSV%; 2.75 GAA; 0 SO
Career stats: 27 GP; 9-9-5; .907 SV%; .918 ADSV%; 2.80 GAA; 1 SO
The book on 2014-15:
This story starts with Tokarski leapfrogging then-backup Peter Budaj after Price went down with a knee injury in Game 1 of the 2014 Eastern Conference final against the New York Rangers.
Tokarski impressed, but the situation called for heroics. He played well enough to get the Canadiens to Game 6 and, considering he started with a 1-0 series deficit, that was no small task. The experience should have inspired the confidence for him to take the next step in his career.
But Tokarski passed the test during the team’s 2014-15 training camp, and when the Canadiens traded Budaj on October 5th, it surely reinforced his self-belief.
If things started off well for Tokarski in his first full season in the NHL, they didn’t necessarily end that way.
After posting three wins in his first four starts, Tokarski sputtered toward the finish line with just three wins in his remaining 12 starts.
Nonetheless, the highlight of Tokarski’s season came over that rough stretch, when he posted a 41-save win over the Florida Panthers on March 17 to recover from four straight losses.
All in all, Tokarski’s record of 6-6-4 could be considered acceptable, taking into account that he had to rely mostly on the work he got in practice to stay sharp. He only came in to relieve Price in one game all season (a 7-1 blowout in Tampa Bay on Oct. 9). And living up to the bar Montreal’s star netminder set was an impossible task, especially given that at one point during the season, he went more than a month without appearing in a game.
Off-season updates:
Aside from numerous tweets outlining his affection for the Toronto Blue Jays, Tokarski hasn’t been heard from much this off-season.
We know Tokarski returned to his home in Saskatchewan following the Canadiens’ elimination from the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Since then, Tokarski was spotted in Ontario, participating with Brendan Gallagher and Devante Smith-Pelly in a charity hockey game organized by teammate Nathan Beaulieu.
2015-16 outlook:
Simply put, Tokarski needs to be better this season. If his play can inspire confidence from the coaching staff to start him more, it would do a great deal to help secure Price’s health for an extended run come playoff time.
Tokarski’s output in 2014-15 may have been sufficient on paper, but how could he not be disappointed with it in light of how successful the Canadiens were as a team? Two more wins on his ledger would’ve helped Montreal win the Presidents’ Trophy (awarded to the team with the best regular season record).
Add in his predecessor Budaj’s record of 54-23-16 in three years with the Canadiens — and the expectation that Tokarski perform at a higher level given he seized the backup role — wasn’t out of line.
The Canadiens’ expectations that Tokarski be more capable than Budaj wasn’t conjured out of thin air, either.
“To be a winner, you need to be a battler, and this is exactly what he showed tonight,” said Canadiens coach Michel Therrien after Tokarski stepped up to deliver a Game 3 win over the Rangers in that 2014 Eastern Conference final.
In addition to helping Canada win a gold medal at the 2009 World Junior Championship, Tokarski boasted a winning record in all three of his major junior seasons with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and in all five seasons of his AHL career split between the Norfolk Admirals, Syracuse Crunch and Hamilton Bulldogs.
The 2015-16 season offers Tokarski an opportunity to get back to his winning ways and the time is ripe for him to prove he can one day be more than just Price’s understudy.
