The Toronto Maple Leafs 2nd Star of the Month
2nd Star – Joseph Woll – 3-2-0 | 1.89 GAA | .942 Save Percentage
Joseph Woll started the season as the Leafs back-up goalie, and technically no announcement has been made to the contrary, however, if we are going off of play since the start of training camp, he has definitely stolen the net.
Woll has taken over as the unofficial starting goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs over Ilya Samsonov, but for how long and what that means remains to be determined.
While Samsonov was handed the starter’s role at the start of the season, Woll took it and ran with it after he entered a game just before the ten minute mark on October 21 and the team down 3-0 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Missouri native would go on to save all 27 shots he faced, which would allow the Maple Leafs to storm back and take the victory in overtime 4-3.
In his next two starts on October 24 and 26, Woll would go on to stop 68 of 70 shots for back to back victories.
Fans do need to temper their expectations for him as the starter as Woll has battled injuries over the entirety of his professional career and has not played more than 26 games in a season since his first season with the Marlies back in 2019-20 when started 32.
If Woll keeps up his solid play, he can hide a lot of the Leafs problems. However, as we saw Halloween Night in Toronto against the Kings, he can’t do it every night.