Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Chayka hit a massive home run on Tuesday, sending goaltender Joseph Woll to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The move was in the cards as the Leafs needed to clear one of Anthony Stolarz or Woll off the roster. The easiest candidate to move was Woll, and Chayka pounced on the Flyers’ need for a solid backup goalie.
And that’s all that Woll will ever be in Philly. The Flyers are getting ready to ink Dan Vladar to a long-term extension. Meanwhile, the Leafs dumped Simon Benoit, a seventh defenseman on a good hockey club, in exchange for a decent defensive prospect and a third-round pick.
The homerun landed in the upper-deck, however, because Chayka managed to erase one of Brad Treliving’s mistakes.
While Woll is not a bad goaltender, he isn’t a starter. Unfortunately, Woll has shown he can’t stay healthy and cannot carry the load that a typical starter would. As such, paying $3.6 million for a backup goalie is just nuts.
The nearly $5 million in cap space that just opened up will help the Maple Leafs find additional help. While Andrae and Samuel Ersson, the other pieces in the deal, are RFAs, it won’t cost an arm and a leg to re-sign them.
Ersson comes with a $1.6 million qualifying offer. That’s something the Leafs will be happy to pay. Andrae has an $874K qualifying offer, making him another easy target to re-sign.
Maple Leafs get two decent young players in trade
Overall, the Leafs got two decent young players in this trade. Andrae, 24, is a bit of an undersized blueliner at 5’9”. But he is bulky at 194 pounds. He’s no pushover and has a solid upside. He was predominantly a third-pairing guy for the Flyers this season.
In Toronto, Andrae should get a chance to make the team. The former second-round pick of the 2020 NHL Draft played 61 games for the Flyers last season. That’s experience that should translate well for the Leafs.
Fans could see Andrae in on a third pair with Troy Stecher (assuming he re-signs) or a middle pair with someone like Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
As for Ersson, he struggled significantly with the Flyers. The organization hoped that he would be the starter of the future, but had a real hard time hanging on to that role. He eventually lost the gig to Vladar this past season.
In Toronto, the 26-year-old Ersson will have to battle with Dennis Hildeby for the backup role. However, Maple Leafs fans shouldn’t be surprised to see a Swedish combo in the crease, with Stolarz spending as much time on the shelf as he does on the ice.
In the worst of cases, Ersson would go down to the AHL. Having Ersson and Artur Akhtyamov starting for the Calder Cup finalists wouldn’t be a bad situation at all.
Ultimately, John Chayka aced his first trade as Maple Leafs GM. Those of us who have doubted Chayka may begin to see the still-young NHL executive in a more favorable light.
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