The Toronto Maple Leafs had a disapointing start to the NHL's off-season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs started off weak with their lame end-of-year press conference but switching out Sheldon Keefe for Craig Berube seemed like a positive move, although Keefe doesn't really deserve any blame and he did an overall great job.
But after that the Leafs top priority was - or should have been - getting a front-line starter to avoid wasting the prime years of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner (who I am just going to assume won't be traded because of how epically stupid such an idea is in the first place).
This did not materialize as the three top goalies available were all snatched up before the draft - Jacob Markstrom was traded to New Jersey and Ottawa picked up Linus Ullmark. Finally, Jusse Saros was re-signed by the Nashville Predators.
This left the Leafs with no good options, and the signing of Anthony Stolarz is reflective of that.
Unfortunately, the Leafs appeared to be too far down the path of all-in before learning they couldn't get a top goalie. Going with Stolarz / Woll undercuts the Tanev and Ekman-Larsson moves, but if you squint you can view it as a high-risk high-reward move because Woll really is extremely talented, just fragile.
As I said yesterday, the Leafs moves don't really improve the team enough to justify the crazy cap committments they've made, and their roster overall lacks upside. Outside of a star turn from Knies or Woll, the Leafs appear to be stalled on their way to the top of the league.
Currently the Leafs are a decent team but don't seem like a team that could win the President's Trophy and be a top Cup Contender.
On the bright side, they still have a lot of cap space they can create by getting rid of Kampf, Reaves and Jarnkrok. Whether this comes now or at the deadline is TBD.
For now, here are the grades of the moves they made.