The Toronto media continues to question the Maple Leafs’ goaltending heading into the season, but one expert graded them among the best in the Atlantic division.
Fresh off of a Stanley Cup, Anthony Stolarz made the decision just hours after the parade to to sign a two-year deal with the Leafs that will see him earn $2.5M per season. Brought in to challenge Joseph Woll for starts with the hopes of giving the Leafs a solid 1A/1B tandem. Although neither have started or played more than 30 games in a season, the Leafs have been high on both of them from the beginning. So much so, that on Wednesday’s edition of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, GM Brad Treliving touched on why the Leafs chose to put their faith in the tandem despite their lack of experience, specifically Woll.
“His mental make up. There’s not a lot that bothers this guy. He hasn’t played a lot of games. There’s 2 things that you hear a lot about Joe. He hasn’t played a lot of games and he’s had some injuries but everyone we talk to that knows goaltenders just rave about this guy. He’s big, he’s athletic. Ultra competitive in practice. He’s got that demeanour that as a teammate makes you confident. We spent a lot of time with him this summer digging in to see how we can best help him in keeping him upright and healthy. He’s got a real skill set. We looked at the position this year and we kept coming back to this guy who’s just entering that start of his career.”
While the Toronto media and many other analysts question the lack of experience the Leafs’ tandem has, Kevin Woodley of ‘In Goal’ Magazine released his rankings for the Atlantic Division and ranked the Leafs as the best tandem and overall group of goaltenders (counting Matt Murray as their number three). Surprisingly, the defending Stanley Cup Champions are ranked fourth and the Boston Bruins are ranked seventh without accounting for Jeremy Swayman (ranked fourth with him).
Woodley believe’s Woll can be one of the next great NHL goaltenders and has no issues with his or Stolarz’s analytical numbers. His main concern surrounds their durability. Along with strong underlying numbers from Stolarz and Woll, Craig Berube’s defensive structure will surely help them.
With the Leafs kicking off the regular season October 9th against the Montreal Canadiens, it won’t take long for fans and media to draw conclusions from game one as to how the goaltending will look this season compared to Woodley’s rankings.
