The Toronto Maple Leafs have some of the best hockey players in the world, yet this team could turn into a disaster year because of their goaltending situation.
As much fun as it is to point fingers at the core four year-after-year for their playoff failures, the biggest issue has always been the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending. But, Stephen, look at the stats for Game 6 and 7 all these years. Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Auston Matthews are virtually non-existent. How can you blame the goaltending?
Well, the Leafs have never had a series where they've had the better goaltender and that's a fact. Every single season, the team gets out-goalied and as a result, loses the series by one game. The Leafs are, and always have been, good enough to win a playoff series with the core-four, but have never got over the hump because of goaltending.
The number one reason for a team winning a Stanley Cup every year is goaltending and if you look at Joseph Woll's stats over the past two years, he has been good enough to be that player. However, he can't stay healthy.
The Toronto Maple Leafs made a ridiculous bet on Joseph Woll
Woll has been injury prone since he showed up and that narrative has continued until Game 1 of the 2024-25 season, where Woll was taken out of the line-up due to precautionary reasons.
We all know that Woll is good enough to be a number-one goaltender, but everyone knows that Woll is not healthy enough to play for an entire season, let alone a playoff series. I'm not saying that signing Woll was the dumbest move in Leafs history, but not finding another legitimate number-one goalie was a huge mistake.
Instead of keeping Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, Calle Jarnkrok and David Kampf, the Leafs could have taken the money given to Anthony Stolarz and used it on an esetablished star. I like Stolarz, but he's a great option as a back-up and shouldn't compete as the starter. Signing Woll was never the issue, but instead, they should have had a better goalie competing with him on a nightly basis, knowing that Woll was probably going to get hurt.
With the regular season underway, the Leafs season is looking the exact same as previous years. They're going to win regular season games 4-3 and 5-4 all year, but when the playoffs start, they're going to lose 2-1 or 3-2, instead of being the team that wins 1-0 or 2-1.
Their defense is slightly improved but if their goaltending is worse, then nothing will change. Leafs management should be ashamed of themselves for wasting another year of Auston Matthews' prime because I don't see a scenario where Woll bounces back and finds a way to start 50 games this year.
Maybe I'm wrong but relying on Woll to be the starter was an extremely bad bet.