Maple Leafs recall goaltender prospect with Anthony Stolarz injury concerns

The crease of the Toronto Maple Leafs is in limbo and the team just needed to recall one of their top goaltending prospects because of it.

On Thursday morning, the Leafs announced that they have called up goaltender Artur Akhtyamov from the AHL's Toronto Marlies.

In a corresponding move to make the Leafs compliant with the 23-man roster limit, forward Scott Laughton has been placed on injured reserve retroactive back to Nov. 8. While it has nothing to do with what is happening in the crease, this means that Laughton is out until at least this weekend.

Starting goaltender Anthony Stolarz was not able to finish the eventual 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins for the Maple Leafs on Tuesday and after being pulled just 20 minutes into the game, the team said that the goalie sustained a lower-body injury. It seemed as the hook was for performance-related reasons, as Stolarz allowed three goals on 11 shots in that first period -- especially considering that he also just allowed four goals on 19 shots in his previous game (also against the Bruins) and was pulled.

Why the Leafs recalled Artur Akhtyamov

Stolarz is now out for Thursday's game against the Los Angeles Kings and the Leafs are in a bit of a bind.

Joseph Woll is the next option but he is still going through his conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies after his season-opening leave of absence, and isn't ready to just suddenly come up and be a part of the NHL tandem. Woll would probably start over third-string netminder Dennis Hildeby under normal circumstances.

But now, with the two regular members of Toronto's tandem out with either an injury or trying to work his way up to game speed, the Leafs needed to bring up someone to backup Hildeby and that just so happens to be Akhtyamov.

The 24-year-old Russian netminder came overseas to make his North American pro debut last season, appearing in 26 games for the Marlies and earning a .901 save percentage and 2.81 goals against average. Not too shabby for someone just trying to find his footing in a completely different style of game.

This season so far, though, Akhtyamov has a .894 save percentage and a 2.82 goals against average through six games in the AHL -- not the best numbers but considering the situation Toronto is in, he's their next-best bet. He (hopefully) won't see the crease Thursday against the Kings, as Hildeby is set to take the start, but it must be nice to collect an NHL paycheque for a day or so.

There is no official word on how long Anthony Stolarz is expected to be out or how long much longer Joseph Woll's conditioning stint will last, but we can't see this AHL-level tandem lasting long in Toronto.