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I see him more as an AHL lifer or a fringe backup

At least 30 teams didn't claim him on waivers, so maybe he's not NHL material. Leafs traded for him because maybe they think he's better than at least one of Sparks or Kasmir. Don't expect to be a Leaf this year unless there is an injury to Andy or Mac and Pickard is the best of the rest.

I voted yes but that's because the question was 'can he?' Not saying he will but he has a good chance ... i don't think he will, but he definitely could.

I think Pickard can become a starter. Not sure if he can, but can. Is he good enough? I think so, but am not sure. He needs to just work harder and maybe try harder as well. He was ok and bad last season. But I think he will be a starter or a backup or maybe not.

It's possible. I'll tell you why. Last year was a tire fire in Colorado and anyone who watched the Leafs over the years knows if the defense sucks, the goalie will get killed. Despite that, Pickard had a .904 sv % which is low but not what I would have expected and his sv % was better than the others in Colorado.
Looking at his whole body of work, so far he has ranked 50th on goals saved above expected (from modeling of shot difficulty). That's out of 68 NHL goalies. If he is given a better defense, I could see that ranking rise. In the World Championships where he had a much better defense, he allowed 1 goal in 2 games in 2016 then in 2017 had a .938 save % in 7 games.

He's only 25, that's not that old for goalies to still develop. More likely he ends up being a solid backup but there's a chance he could be a starter in the future.

Part of the reason as to why he didn't get claimed was that there aren't a lot of teams in need of a backup goalie. Edmonton could use one, but it seems like they trust Brossoit. Toronto wanted to get him after he cleared so he could be sent directly to the Marlies. Maybe he just had a bad camp with Vegas, but the guy can be a good backup at the very least. He was so much better than Varlamov last season, and I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes the backup in Toronto. If Andersen were to get hurt, I'd expect Pickard to get more starts than McElheinny.

I would’ve said maybe, but he’s on Toronto now so no.

HAHA great answer!! The fencepost strikes again!!

I swear if there was one gif to sum up rangersfan's thinking process when posting these "comments", it'd be this one:

Now we know why rangersandislesfan is a rRangers and Isles fan. It's not that he really likes these two teams, it's just that after all those years, he's still indecisive on which is his favourite team.

Regarding Pickard. Interesting that Sparks played the two games this weekend and looked good.

He could be a starter, but he needs to be given a true shot to see if he can. Vegas was his chance to play a bunch of games and prove himself, but now he's back in the A