With the Toronto Maple Leafs acquiring Anthony Stolarz this free agent frenzy, is it possible that he could challenge for the Leafs starting goaltender position.
I would like to believe the Leafs will be just fine with using only two goalies during regular-season (RS) play. Woll during his career has played in 36 and 7 respective RS and playoff games including 34 and 4 respective starts. Last season he played in 25 and 3 respective RS and playoff games, including haven’t started 23 and 2 of them. Woll last season had respective 90.7 and 96.4 RS and playoff save %s. Tony Stolarz during the last 3 seasons has started at least 12 RS games but has only ever at the NHL level played in a single playoff one during which he had allowed 3 goals on 19 shots in relief of Sergei Bobrovsky, a then-teammate of his. Whilst Woll has had so much trouble remaining free of injuries for lengthy time spans, despite having been good when he hasn’t been injured, Stolarz has had a very up-and-down career, with, among 4 seasons during which he before this month had started at least 10 NHL games, RS SV% of 90.0 or better in 3 of the 1st 4 such seasons, the most recent of them last season when on 684 shots he had allowed 51 goals over 27 games including 24 he had started. It may very well be Stolarz and Woll each for the Leafs start this coming season anywhere from 20 to 25 RS games. On the low end that still leaves 42 RS games for other goalies under contract to the Leafs to start, with Matt Murray, who last played in the postseason in 2020 with the Pens but who, with the leaves during the 2022-23 RS started all 26 games in which he had played. Whether he will have the stamina to start at least 20 still remains TBD. It may be he starts with you at 15 as by the time he gets a start during the 2024-25 RS, he won’t have played such a game or playoff one since April 2023 add Scotiabank Arena against the Wings. Hopefully GM Treliving has more moves he will make because the bottom-six forward group needs more work and goaltending stamina is uncertain. The 2020-21 RS featured for the Canucks just 2 goalies (Thatcher Demko and Braden Holtby) they’d used when compared to, aside from Demko: - 2 who had each started multiple games during the 2021-22 RS - 3 who had next RS started multiple games - 2 who had done the same last RS
If there is a group that drinks the Kool Aid every year its Leafs media and then the fans. Last season ..... same thing.... an A and a B. Each played below expectations.... and the only one to outperform was the C. Good luck Toronto.
can someone please explain to me why they re-signed WOll now ? because I dont see that logic .He has another year of ELC at about 800K then he is an RFA which means he can be signed by another team but the Leafs would have the right to match .Why not wait until then and see if he can stay healthy for a year because if he cant then you have to move on from him
