After a shaky start to the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are on a three-game winning streak, after their 5-3 victory over the Utah Mammoth, and a large part of those victories has been the play of Anthony Stolarz.
The veteran goaltender has looked more like the confident, composed presence who impressed in his first season in Toronto, winning his last four starts and giving the team a much-needed boost between the pipes.
His recent form has injected new life into a Maple Leafs team still searching for answers. While the Leafs look to find chemistry among their forward combinations and try to overcome the injury absence of their best defensive defenseman, stability in goal will help mask some deficiencies.
Fresh off a contract extension and now a key piece to the team's hopes, Stolarz struggled with an increased workload during the first month of the season. Over his last few starts, however, he appears to have turned a corner, offering a reminder of how a steady hand in goal can change the complexion of a scuffling squad.
Leafs' Goaltending Unable to Mask Deficiencies
Over the first fourteen games of the 2024-25 season, the Maple Leafs had a record of 7-5-2 for 16 points. This year, their record is 8-5-1 for 17 points, with 52 goals (3.71 per game). In 2024-25, they scored 43 goals at the same point or 3.07 per game.
The difference has been at the other end of the ice. This season, the Leafs have surrendered 50 goals against in fourteen games, or 3.57 per game. Last season, they allowed 39 goals after fourteen games, or 2.79 per game.
The first reason for the discrepancy is that this season's Maple Leafs have lacked attention to detail and the defensive structure of the 2024-25 version. The second reason is that their goaltenders, specifically Stolarz, have not covered up for their defensive breakdowns.
Last season, when healthy, Stolarz was a top-five goaltender league-wide. This season, he has let in some questionable goals, and his numbers have regressed with an increased workload due to Joseph Woll's absence.
Woll has not been available to push Stolarz and create the healthy competition that last season gave the Maple Leafs arguably the NHL's best goaltending tandem. Cayden Primeau has won a couple of starts, but his performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets showed he is no threat to take playing time away from Stolarz.
Promising signs for the Maple Leafs, however, have emerged. Stolarz's save percentage over his past four starts is .911, stopping 112 of 123 shots, winning all four games. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Matthew Knies, the Leafs' new top line, have led the way offensively, starting with the third-period outburst in a comeback victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in the week.
Woll should return soon to lessen the workload for Stolarz and provide some competition for the net. The Maple Leafs and Stolarz, who let in an odorous second goal for the Mammoth, still have some issues to work through, but they appear to be finding their form as a heavy road schedule with stiffer competition awaits.