Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll took another step in his growth to become one of the better goalies in the NHL today.
Platooning with Anthony Stolarz could have caused his confidence to take a hit, but Woll instead embraced his new teammate as the two were able to find success splitting the starts. The option was not always available to Craig Berube given that both of his netminders missed time due to injuries, but the Leafs during the regular season felt good about the crease regardless of who was getting the start. Some may argue that Stolarz was the better of the two, but Woll did well in managing a busy stretch mid-campaign and helped guide the Leafs to Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.
Sure, the Leafs were able to reach that decisive game against the eventual Stanley Cup champions, but it was never close in part because Woll was letting five get past him. In fact, Woll had the second-worst Goals Saved Above Expected/60 of any goaltender that played four or more games in the postseason and finished with a .886 playoff save percentage. There will certainly be pressure on him to regain his composure, but Woll is willing to embrace the noise and grow from the experience.
“I’ve had a unique experience of only playing for this team, so I can’t really speak from an experience of playing for a different team,” he said to reporters on May 20. “But I know that there’s nowhere I’d rather play, and I’m happy how much people care. And it really makes you have to focus that much harder and really be in the moment that much more when you have that pressure. The flip side is, you don’t have pressure, and no one cares. I think it’s pretty awesome that everyone cares as much.”
The goal: Stay healthy and continue to grow
Concerns about Woll’s durability have persisted since he became an NHL regular, and they were not dispelled when he suffered a lower-body injury the day before the opening night of the 2024-25 regular season. He was thankfully able to stay healthy the rest of the way once he returned on October 24th, but there will be some who will need to see him avoid being on the shelf for a long stretch of time before subsiding their concerns.
When Woll was playing, he was quite effective. Only once over the course of the year did he have three consecutive sub-.900 save percentage games, while there was only one instance in the regular season where he was pulled. Yet, he was not the Game 1 starter of the playoffs in part because of the technical issues of overcommitment and adjusting to being a more effective cheater when a pass goes east and west. He struggled with cross-crease passes in proximity of his cage because of his insistence on making the dramatic save instead of calmly adjusting his body to prepare for the subsequent shots.
That will be an area he needs to work on if he wishes to regain trust from parts of the fanbase who are more in favour of Stolarz, the latter of whom is entering the year on an expiring deal. The Leafs have a lot of faith in Woll and his former teammates can attest that he is capable of reaching the next level, but he will have to show he can get there and grow into the player the front office thinks he can be. Doing that while staying healthy will make for a successful campaign for the 27-year-old.
The expectation: Thrive in the goalie rotation alongside Anthony Stolarz
Make no mistake, the Leafs’ goaltending is the best it has been in quite some time and Woll is a big part of why that is the case. The fact that he is the first one since James Reimer to be an impactful player who was drafted and developed by the team is an added bonus. While there is still room to grow for the American netminder, he is coming off a season where his stats were in the upper half of the league.
He and Stolarz should once again be sharing the net and pushing each other to reach new heights. Both will certainly have plenty of motivation to prove that their strong season a year ago was not just a one-time thing but something that can be sustainable for years to come. And assuming Stolarz gets extended in the near future, then there is no reason to believe that the Leafs will set at the position for the foreseeable future with Woll being a big part of it.
Apart from the pressures of shaking off the less-than-ideal showing in the postseason, there will also be increased expectations placed on Woll’s shoulders as his three-year contract with a $3.66 million AAV kicks in beginning this campaign. There is enough evidence before 2025 that suggests Woll is more than capable of elevating his play in the postseason and fans should feel good about his chance of rebounding. Especially now that he has gotten the hang of Berube’s system and the depth in front of him has improved.
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