Toronto Maple Leafs' goalies James Reimer, Jonas Gustavsson ready to battle it out for top spot
Toronto Maple Leafs have top quality goalies in the form of James Reimer and Jonas Gustavsson, who also know that only one out of them will be able to play as Toronto’s number one goaltender when the new National Hockey League (NHL) season starts in October.
James Reimer, a 23-year-old, 99th overall selection during round-four of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by Toronto, was finally given a chance as the teams’ goalie last season after proving himself in various minor league teams since his draft.
Being selected in 2006, Reimer spent his time in the minor leagues, playing for teams like Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League (WHL), Toronto Marlies in the American Hockey League (AHL), Reading Royals in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) and
South Carolina Stingrays.
Spending his first season in the major league with Toronto, Reimer earned the name of “the beast”, which obviously is more than enough to describe his performance. Not only that, he also met up with the teams’ other goalie for two seasons, Jonas Gustavsson,
and developed a friendly relationship with the 26-year-old even though there is an unavoidable sense of competition between the two.
“We talked a lot the past couple of days, got to know each other better”, Reimer said this week. “It’s going to be great having that competition there. He obviously wants the net and he’s going to be a heck of a goalie. We’ll push each other and I think
it will be a good system”.
Other than having a competitive feeling between each other, Reimer who has considerable less amount of experience as compared to Gustavsson, who is entering his third straight season with Toronto, took the time to learn and gain some advice from him during
the time they spent together.
“I loved having Jiggy around”, Reimer said. “He educated me a lot on the league, on different players and on different situations. It was priceless what he did for me”.
Reimer might be a higher valued prospect in comparison to Gustavsson according to analysts and critics, but both have their eyes set on competing for the top-spot in next month’s training camp.
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