Woll Extension Changes Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs Need a Top Goalie
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs have supposedly locked up Joseph Woll to a contract extension.
While that is likely a low-risk move that is good for the organization, it changes nothing: The Toronto Maple Leafs still desperately need a goalie.
The analysis surrounding the Leafs suggests that most people expect the team to pick up a decent, not great, back-up goalie to pair with Joseph Woll.
This would be reckless and severely misguided.
It would be another in a seemingly endless list of Brad Treliving errors. The Leafs cannot settle for a mid-tier nobody like Laurent Brossoit or Cam Talbot. They need to make a big bet on a top guy because Auston Matthews is in his prime, and there are only a few years where that is the case - you don't waste them on an injury riddled mystery box and a 32 year old career back-up.
How is this even a conversation?
No Team Should Be More Desperate For a Goalie
No team in the NHL needs a goalie worse than the Leafs. They just can't risk another of Matthews' prime years with a pair of question marks.
Sure, any goalie is technically a question mark, but you have a much higher chance of success if you have one of the few goalies on earth who is a legitamate NHL star.
The fact that Jussse Saros is potentially available should be a bigger deal, but since he plays in Nashville I'm not sure the average person realizes how good he is. He's potentially a top 5 goalie in the NHL and even though Ulmark has a Vezina, almost anyone would rather have Saros long-term.
His availability and the low price the market has shown for goalies is a dream come true for the Leafs, or at least it should be.
If not Saros, Jordan Binnington and John Gibson, while not as desirable, are the next two best options.
If the Leafs do not get one of those three goalies, their summer will be a complete failure. You just cannot bet a year of Matthews' prime on Joseph Woll and a rando. I wish you could, but he's way too injury prone and has barely scraped together one full season in the last four.
It doesn't make much sense to extend Woll if you think you have to pay Saros $9 million annually, so I am guessing that the Leafs do not expect to be able to land the crown jewel of the NHL offseason, but that contract plays reasonably well paired with either of the other two guys.
One thing we know is that the Leafs tried to land Markstrom last week. I doubt they'd be after a top player and then immediately pivot to Woll with three months left in the summer. Therefore signing Woll was likely always the plan. Which means they will still trade for a goalie.
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They better, because if they don't understand how necessary it is to get a star in net, after not having one since two NHL lockouts ago, then this team is in trouble.