The Toronto Maple Leafs have had an up-and-down start to this season after a division-winning year last season.
One of the Toronto Maple Leafs' biggest strengths last season was their goaltending.
Heading into the year, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving signed Anthony Stolarz to a four-year deal, making an average annual value (AAV) of $3.75 million.
Coming off a season where Stolarz posted a .926 save percentage in 34 games, the deal looked pretty good. Coming off that fresh new deal, there have been some discussions about his play this year.
Has Anthony Stolarz cost the Leafs some wins?
Before I actually break down Stolarz's play, the obvious needs to be pointed out. The Leafs haven't been good enough defensively.
Stolarz has faced the ninth most high danger shots out of any goalie in the league. If you want to put your goalie in a position to succeed, they simply can't see that many 'grade A' chances.
With that number of high danger shots Stolarz has faced, it is no surprise that the Leafs have allowed the seventh most goals in the NHL, and Stolarz has a .895 save percentage.
To me, it has felt like more of those good chances have been getting past Stolarz than last year, and the numbers would support that.
He has posted a -0.85 goals saved above average (GSAA), which ranks 43rd in the league. Stolarz has also posted a 2.68 goals saved above expected (GSAx), which ranks 27th in the league. Just to compare, last season he posted a 24.22 GSAA, which ranked fourth in the league, and a GSAx of 31.2, which was second in the league (stats from Evolving-Hockey.com).
Although the numbers look stark right now, I'm not panicking.
I thought Stolarz was very good before calling the team out after their overtime loss to Seattle. I'm not sure if the added pressure he put on himself got to him, or if he was tired from a heavy workload with Woll out, but there was a dip in his play after that.
Stolarz has made some big stops for this team, and he looked good in the last couple of games for this team. He locked it down in the third period against Pittsburgh and was very solid against Utah, with the exception of the second goal he allowed.
While I don't think he's been at his best, he certainly isn't one of the bigger problems the Leafs have had so far.
His play is trending up, much like the teams. The Leafs need to tighten up in front of him, and I think we'll see Stolarz's game get closer to what it was last year. You can't let your goalie get peppered with great scoring chances all night like they have through most of the first 14 games.