Toronto Maple Leafs: Could James Reimer Take Home the Calder Trophy?

Entering the NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their hearts out and got out to one of their best starts to the season in a long time.

After winning their first four games, plans for the Stanley Cup parade were already being made, and fans were getting ready to buy playoff tickets.

All of that changed after the team went on a horrible eight-game losing streak.

What once looked like a change of scenery in one of the biggest hockey markets turned out to be a dud. After their eight-game losing streak, the Maple Leafs played better hockey for a little while but still suffered for long stretches of time.

Both Jonas Gustavsson and J.S. Giguere seemed to have trouble with injuries, and the quality of their play just decreased. It seemed as if the Leafs would once again be a laughingstock of the league while letting Boston take advantage of the Phil Kessel trade.

It seemed as if forever, but days before the trade deadline, Brian Burke made huge deals to clear up cap space, make the team younger and make this team a winner in the future.

He brought in the likes of Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner, Joe Colborne and others, while dumping players such as Tomas Kaberle, Francois Beauchemin and John Mitchell (finally).

All these moves would not help the Leafs, but luckily for the team, weeks before these trades were executed, Burke called up James Reimer from the AHL. This may sound rude, and it means no offense to Giguere, but us fans should actually be HAPPY that Giguere got injured, because then we would not witness the one they call "Optimus Reim."

Reimer played sensational hockey in his first few games, allowing two or less goals in many of the games he played. Reimer's hot start would cool off a bit, but his game was re-energized after sitting out the game against Florida.

He has so far won two games in a row, 16 in total this season, and has kept the Maple Leafs in the playoff race.

If it were not for James Reimer, the Leafs would probably still be chilling out with the Ottawa Senators down at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and possibly could have become the worst team in the league.

We have seen many sensational bursts of talent from the likes of Logan Couture, Jeff Skinner, Sergei Bobrovsky and others who are front runners for the rookie of the year award. But could James Reimer helping the Leafs make the playoffs for the first time in five seasons be a bigger headline and push him as a favorite for the Calder Trophy?

He may be behind the pack, but even if Reimer does not win the Rookie of the Year in the NHL, us Leafs fans know that he is OUR Rookie of the Year and has done a sensational job of giving us hope that our team can break the 44-year curse.

Thanks for reading!