With so much focus placed upon a perceived No. 1 goaltender competition in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ net, the club and head coach Craig Berube continue to worry more about simply having a capable netminder between the pipes every night. By putting that approach into practice, the organization has managed to strike a highly successful balance between their still-inexperienced incumbent, Joseph Woll, and Anthony Stolarz, a veteran free agent signee who has spent most of his career as a backup.
The Maple Leafs have operating in something of a tandem goalie situation since Frederik Andersen anchored the crease prior to the pandemic, with varying results. Jack Campbell and Ilya Samsonov both had strong seasons in Toronto and the club is certainly glad to have passed on the numerous big-ticket goalies available over that time, including Marc-Andre Fleury, Ville Husso, Alexandar Georgiev and Campbell, himself. However, there was plenty of uncertainty along the way when it came to keeping pucks out of the net.
It’s still early, but no such uncertainty seems to exist at the moment when it comes to Woll and Stolarz. And while the play of the two men, coupled with the support of a greatly improved blue line, has been the driving force behind that confidence, the handling of the goaltending situation by the coaching staff has also been a key contributor.
Offseason Goaltending Decisions
In what has become an all-too-common offseason challenge for the Maple Leafs’ front office, general manager (GM) Brad Treliving and company were tasked with finding reliable goaltending in a thin market with minimal cap space. Samsonov had struggled in 2023-24 and was coming off of a rough postseason showing. Meanwhile, Woll was already showing himself to be somewhat injury-prone and had just 36 games of NHL experience under his belt, but played well in the playoffs and was as close to a sure thing as Toronto had.
The newest member of the Buds: Anthony Stolarz 🔵⚪️
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) July 2, 2024
After kicking the tires on Linus Ullmark before reportedly landing on the 31-year-old Swede’s no-trade list, the Maple Leafs pivoted to Stolarz, who was fresh off backing up Sergei Bobrovsky for the Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers. The 30-year-old, who signed for two years and $5 million, brought seven years of NHL experience, but had never played in more than 28 games in a season. Still, pairing a rising Woll with a…
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