Ahead of the 2024-25 NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs were set with a solid tandem in net. They had handed the keys to Joseph Woll, who had signed a three-year extension worth $10.98 million on July 1, and recruited Anthony Stolarz through free agency on a two-year deal worth $5 to supposedly serve as the backup.
However, an early groin injury landed Woll on the injured reserve prior to the start of the regular season for the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a result, Stolarz was thrusted into the starting role to hold down the fort until Woll’s eventual return.
During that time, Stolarz was spectacular in the Leafs net, giving the team a chance to win every night and instilling the confidence in his teammates in front of him. When Woll finally returned towards the end of October, many wondered whether he had lost the crease to Stolarz with the latter’s stellar play. Especially when Woll ended up struggling in two of his first three games of the season.
However, Woll had turned things around and had been a rock for the Maple Leafs in his past four appearances. During that time frame, he had given up only six goals in the process and secured wins in each of them, including an impressive shutout against the mighty Vega Golden Knights on November 20. As a result, he had started for Toronto in each of the past two games and four of the past six overall.
Do the Toronto Maple Leafs have trouble brewing in their crease?
So with that, do we have some trouble brewing in the Maple Leafs net? With both goalies now performing so well, who should get the priority in starting each night? In addition, how can the Leafs keep them both happy with their playing time going forward?
For Stolarz, he has posted a solid 7-3-2 record with a sparkling 2.18 GAA and .927 save percentage in 12 games played. For Woll, he hasn’t been that far off either, amassing a stellar 5-2-0 record with a 2.00 GAA and .922 save percentage in seven games of action.
More importantly, it appears as though his injury woes are behind him now as he has looked positionally strong in the crease. In doing so, it has created the dilemma for Toronto in their net, but most certainly it is a good problem to have actually. But what is the most proper and effective way that the Leafs can deal with it?
The best possible goaltending scenario for the Leafs going forward is to have both Stolarz and Woll split all of the games evenly for the rest of the season. That strategy has proven to be surprisingly effective by the Boston Bruins in recent years.
No matter which of their goalie tandem had the hot hand, the Bruins avoided giving any of their goalies more than 3 consecutive starts for the most part (barring injuries), with the alternating of starts being their most used mode of deployment. Not only does that help preserve the health of both goalies, it would give them two capable goaltenders that could easily take over the starting role whenever needed without the worry of a huge drop-off in play at any time. (All stats from NHL.com and all salaries from PuckPedia.com)
As a result, the Leafs might not have much of such experiences in the past. But with the astonishing plays of both Stolarz and Woll this season, borrowing a page from their arch rivals’ book should be the perfect strategy for a winning formula for the Maple Leafs for the rest of the 2024-25 season.