Everyone has pointed to Bobby McMann and Oliver Ekman-Larsson as the obvious trade chips for the Toronto Maple Leafs this year, but a new name has emerged, which may surprise you.
The Leafs have a goaltending conundrum. Joseph Woll, Dennis Hildeby and Anthony Stolarz are all NHL calibre netminders, but they'll have to go on waivers next season. As a result, one of them will get claimed immediately and it's no fun to lose a goaltender for free.
Back in 2018, the team faced a similar situation and thought they could get away with it, but ultimately allowed goalie Curtis McElhinney to get picked up by the Carolina Hurricanes, leaving them with Garret Sparks as the back-up. Although it was different management then it is now, the organization should learn from that mistake and at least get an asset in return if they have to lose a goalie.
Let's evaluate all three goalies quickly and breakout their pros and cons:
Joseph Woll
Pros: Career .910 SV% who makes $3.66M until 2028 and is only 27 years old.
Cons: Very injury-prone and only has 104 starts since 2021
Anthony Stolarz
Pros: Stanley Cup winning goalie (back-up) who had an amazing first year in Toronto with a .926 SV% and 2.14 GAA.
Cons: Has never started more than 34 games in a season and has been terrible this year. Has a four-year extension at $3.75M that kicks in next year.
Dennis Hildeby
Pros: Only 24 years old and is on an Entry Level contract next year still, making less than $1M. Had a .912 SV% in 19 starts with the Leafs this year. 6-foot-7 and looks like he could be the goalie of the future
Cons: Unproven and still raw. Less than a .900 SV% in the AHL this year and could arguably be the second best goalie on the Marlies.
Leafs may look to trade Woll at the deadline
As we all know, there are some positives and negatives with all three goalies but the clear consesus is that you can't trade Hildeby. Goalies develop later in their careers, so there is a ton of potential with Hildeby and the fact that he makes less than $1M AAV is huge next year, even if he's your back-up.
However, the one trade rumour that the internet has been talking about is the idea of trading Joseph Woll, then keeping Stolarz and Hildeby next year, and I can get behind that. If you're set on keeping Hildeby, Woll will give you the most value in return and you can talk yourself into thinking that he'll never be healthy enough to be a full-time starter.
Woll is a good goalie but is he someone you can win a Stanley Cup with? Probably not, and especially not with the blue-line in front of him. I'd rather push all your chips into the Hildeby basket and let him try to win the net from Stolarz next year anyways.
Also, with Artur Akhtyamov in the wings as well, the Leafs goalie situation is actually in a good spot for the future, so they can move on from Woll and try to get a defenseman or a top-six forward who can help speed up the retool.