The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best goaltending tandems in the entire NHL. It's not even controversial to say it anymore. Last season, it was proven that having both Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll at their disposal make them incredibly secure in the crease. Now, they need to keep them together.
Stolarz is a pending unrestricted free agent heading into this season as his contract expires next summer and he is free to hit the open market and sign with any team he wants. And after playing a career-high games and now leading the NHL in save percentage for two consecutive seasons, that pay day might be enticing.
But, Stolarz looks like he wants to stay in Toronto and be a part of what they are trying to maintain and eventually build towards.
The Maple Leafs and Stolarz have reportedly been working on a new contract that will start for the 2026-26 season, for a few weeks now. And according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman on Monday's episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, the basic structure has been figured out and we know roughly what to expect when pen is put to paper.
"I think Stolarz and the Leafs are going back and forth. When they started, it was a pretty wide chasm there and I do believe it has narrowed. It seems to me this is likely to be three or four years. We're looking at somewhere between $4.5 million and $5 million," Friedman said.
Locking up Stolarz for the next three or four years at a cap hit that is even at $5 million feels like a bona fide win for the Maple Leafs. And with Joseph Woll also signed for three more years, through the 2027-28 season, Toronto could be paying its netminders a total of just over $8 million for at least two seasons after this one. And that is all after the Leafs have comitted just $6.16 million to the position right now.
Basically, thanks to finding a diamond in the rough and letting a homegrown netminder properly develop, they have one of the best tandems in the league for millions less than some teams are paying just their starting netminder.
Now we just need pen put to paper and we can all relax.