MAPLE LEAFS ARE TAKING A RISKY APPROACH TO SOLVING THEIR GOALTENDING DEPTH
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving has been busy so far this offseason, securing some goaltending depth for next season and beyond. Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll are locked up on multi-year contracts and veteran Matt Murray is returning to Toronto next season. While the depth chart is now full, Treliving has entered the world of risky business.
Let’s start with Woll. The 25-year-old backstop was a huge part of the Maple Leafs last season, however, unfortunately, he battled a serious ankle injury during the regular season and randomly hurt his back in the dying seconds of a Game 6 win against the Boston Bruins. Woll signed a three-year extension at $3.6 million per season, as Treliving is banking on Woll developing into a 1-A or 1-B starter, who will see a serious increase to their workload. So far in the early parts of his tenure in Toronto, Woll hasn’t shown the ability to be available to his team, game in and game out.
As it stands right now, Woll has appeared in parts of three seasons with the Maple Leafs, but his career high in appearances came last season with 25 and in total, he’s only played in 39 career NHL games. While it’s a risk to commit long-term at $3.6 million per season to a goalie who hasn’t even played half a full season in the NHL, Treliving obviously sees it as a calculated one where he believes in the player and team’s ability to get the best out of Woll’s development.
Woll’s career .915 save percentage (Sv.%) is a shining star here. When he has played, he’s been above average compared to the rest of the league. A 23-13-1 career record shows he’s able to do what it takes to win games, and more recently, his .964 Sv.% against the Bruins in the first round proves he can elevate his performance when the games matter the most. The risk could very much be outweighed by the reward here.
Stolarz’s sample size isn’t much bigger than Woll’s
Stolarz brings his recent Stanley Cup success to the Maple Leafs and is now reunited with Mitch Marner and Max Domi from their days playing together with the London Knights. Again, while Stolarz was among the NHL leaders in just about every single statistical category last season, it was the first season where he’s recorded more than 15 wins. The Leafs are banking on a lot of unknowns.
Stolarz hasn’t made more than 28 starts in an NHL season and before he joined the Florida Panthers, put up a .899 Sv.% in 2022-23 with the Anaheim Ducks. Treliving and company are citing the fact Stolarz rose to the challenge for the Panthers last season, who dealt with a crowded crease and displayed the ability to take the backup role by the horns. He finished the year with a 16-7-2 record, along with a 2.03 GAA and .925 Sv.%.
In Toronto, he’s going to get a chance to play more, which was something that appealed to him during free agency. The Leafs are set on a tandem approach and depending on the health of everyone involved, Stolarz could potentially see more than 40 starts. Can the 30-year-old with just two seasons of more than 25 appearances handle a bigger workload and still be as effective as he was last season? That’s the $2.5 million question Treliving seems comfortable waiting on the answer for.
The Maple Leafs had other options to consider on the free-agent market as Laurent Brossoit was another backup who was linked to signing in Toronto. Like Stolarz, Brossoit doesn’t have a ton of starting experience and ended up signing in Chicago for $800,000 more annually than the Leafs gave Stolarz. With very limited salary cap space in Toronto, Treliving was much more comfortable with the cheaper of the two options.
Matt Murray remains a wild card
The Maple Leafs surprisingly brought back Murray on a one-year, one-way $875,000 contract. No confirmation has been received as of yet if the contract mirrors Martin Jones’ from last season where Jones was paid $100,000 on the day after the NHL rosters needed to be finalized.
This contract structure seemed to work for Treliving and his staff as the Maple Leafs were able to get Jones to clear waivers to start the season. Jones eventually appeared in 22 games for Toronto last season, and could Murray be in line for a similar workload this season?
The two-time Stanley Cup champion has recovered from a serious hip injury which essentially cost him his entire 2023-24 NHL season. Murray managed to appear in three AHL games down the stretch, however the results were very mediocre, posting a .846 Sv.%.
So, on the surface, the Maple Leafs insurance plan in net hasn’t managed to stay healthy the past four years and has yet to play an NHL game after serious hip surgery last summer. It’s risky, there’s no doubt about it.
Maple Leafs’ options were limited
There have been reports the Leafs tried to acquire Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames during the early parts of the 2024 NHL offseason, but the New Jersey Devils ended up winning the sweepstakes and have a new #1 starter.
There’s Filip Gustavsson in Minnesota who remains a trade candidate for the Wild as the team remains in a salary cap nightmare and moving on from Gustavsson’s $3.5 million salary could give GM Bill Guerin a chance to re-allocate his resources. From all accounts and a lack of insider reporting, it doesn’t appear the Leafs ever got serious with Minnesota.
The free-agent market was light on talent, to say the least, and besides Cam Talbot and the potential of bringing back Ilya Samsonov, the free-agent group did not include many who have 1-A starting experience.
At the end of the day, Treliving is banking on Woll to continue his growth and development, he’s banking on Stolarz repeating the 2023-24 season as he’ll push Woll for starts throughout training camp and into the start of next season. Murray remains in the weeds as a potential third option and someone the team is now very familiar with and has seen first-hand how much time he’s put into getting himself healthy again and ready for NHL action.
Combined, the Maple Leafs’ new goaltending trio made 52 NHL appearances last season. Treliving has set his team up with a very risky approach in net.
Want more articles like this? Follow TheLeafsnation on MSN to see more of our exclusive NHL content.
More must-reads:
2024-07-04T14:32:35Z dg43tfdfdgfd