Things added up so quickly for Joseph Woll throughout last season that the young goalie had to draw a line in the sand and make the kind of proclamation he couldn’t have imagined before.
No more Lego.
The Maple Leafs goalie quickly became known as a fan of the toys during his breakout 2023-24 campaign. His parents presented him with yet another mammoth Star Wars-themed set for Christmas in 2023. Yet the prospect of sinking hours into building it grew daunting. Then his old billet parents from his time with the U.S. NTDP wanted to get him even more Lego for his birthday in July.
“I said, ‘I appreciate it, and this is a great gift idea, but please, no. This is making me stressed,’” Woll said, holding back laughter.
All jokes aside, Woll’s desire to turn away from Lego is twofold: building Lego can be time-consuming, and Woll would prefer to spend more time with revamped training methods developed together with Leafs staff this summer. Now 26, Woll is feeling less like a younger player with free time and more like a grown man wanting to dedicate himself to his career in a new way.
“It’s my goal to play as many games as I’m able to and be healthy for the season,” Woll said.
Listening to Woll, it’s hard not to pick up on changes from years past. There is a buoyancy and positivity in his demeanour. He practically bounces as he’s chatting about the season ahead with a constant smile. Woll waves back to Artur Akhtyamov as the Leafs goalie prospect greets him from a rink where a development practice is about to begin.
“My goalie buddy,” Woll calls him affectionately.
The cerebral Woll knows he could be accused of spending too much time in his own head in seasons past, thinking heavily about his process and his future. Well-read and thoughtful, in front of the cameras Woll could grow pensive and speak in quiet tones at times, especially about himself.
That feels like a thing of the past.
Woll knows who he is. He knows he’s capable of winning important games. He knows he’s valued in Toronto.
Yes, there is obvious disappointment he sustained a back injury on the final play in Game 6 against the Bruins. And that means, combined with past injuries including a high ankle sprain suffered during his ascent earlier in the season, the easiest question to ask is whether he can stay healthy. But Woll is still entering this season exactly where many hoped he might be: believing in his chances to become the Leafs’ No. 1 goalie this season.
“If someone doubts me, it doesn’t matter,” Woll said. “It’s important that I know what I want to do.”
It felt likely Woll and new signing Anthony Stolarz would work as a tandem this season. Woll, after all, has only played 36 regular-season games in his NHL career. And the league as a whole appears to be trending away from true No. 1 goalies in favour of splitting starts and managing minutes to mitigate risk. Goaltending is such a volatile position that betting on one person feels wrought with jeopardy.
But internally, the Leafs have not been opposed to having that true No. 1. They tried to go after Jacob Markström early in the summer before the New Jersey Devils snapped him up in a June 19 trade. It’s difficult to imagine giving up anything similar to the first-round pick and prospect the Devils traded to the Calgary Flames, having his $6 million AAV on the books and then playing Markström in a tandem.
Instead, they added Stolarz. The 30-year-old has played 108 NHL games and he clawed his way back from injuries to post a .925 save percentage through 27 games last season. Stolarz propelled the Florida Panthers when they needed it. The eventual Stanley Cup champions probably don’t get the favourable playoff matchups they did without his mid-to-late season swing.
But even with Stolarz, Woll was undeterred: This could be the season his athleticism and composure see him truly make good on years of promise.
“Over the years of playing pro, I’ve really learned that what someone else does really does not impact you,” Woll said.
On July 1, Woll officially signed a three-year, $11 million extension. The extension took shape at the NHL’s combine. He’s now under contract longer than any goalie and just as long as any other Leafs player. Any thoughts that Woll isn’t the Leafs’ goalie of the future were extinguished. Woll’s capabilities just needed to override any concerns about his health.
We’ve seen it happen before around these parts. The “injury-prone” epithet can get cut off from a player like a nagging T-shirt tag as quickly as it is fixed on. Worry about Nick Robertson’s health has all but dissipated after he proved he can stay on the ice for the entirety of a season.
And so while the lasting image of Woll with some fans right now may be of him sprawling out for a save with less than a second left in a game that was already put to bed, his talent and work ethic alone mean he deserves the chance to right his wrongs. Woll’s play (49 stops on 51 shots) through Games 5 and 6 was the only reason a Leafs team that couldn’t score even had a chance to play in Game 7.
This summer, in a new way, self-doubt barely entered Woll’s mind at all.
Crucially, instead of returning home for lengthy stretches or taking long trips abroad the way he has in past offseasons, Woll made a choice: staying in Toronto for almost the entire summer. Far longer than he ever has in the past.
“As you get older, you get comfortable having your own life. I’ve gone back to (his parents’ home in) St. Louis less and less as the years have gone on,” Woll said. “I don’t own a place so I don’t know where I want to settle. That’s part of why being here made the most sense. From a training standpoint and the resources, there are few better places to train.”
The Leafs staff wanted to better understand how Woll trained and then mesh that with improved nutrition and sleep plans. That’s why he’s as confident as ever.
Working with Sally Belanger, a Leafs consultant who specializes in neuromuscular recruitment (“Pilates on steroids,” Woll said), the goalie came to understand which muscles are and aren’t working, where he’s overcompensating with his movements and how to make the whole puzzle come together properly. The idea is Woll will be able to make improved choices both in his training habits and in goal. A longer season than he’s used to could follow.
“From the first time I got back on the ice, it translated,” Woll said. “I felt like I stayed ‘on’ more in the crease. Things like that are important for longevity.”
As the summer progressed and he began to feel uplifted about what his body was capable of, Woll began to plan mentally to be the Leafs’ starter in a way he never has. As he’s given possible reasons for concerns about the season ahead, you can quite literally see him shake those concerns away as his head moves side to side and his grin emerges.
“That’s just good ol’ life as a teacher,” Woll said of how he moved on from past injuries. “Why waste your energy worrying about things that are out of your control? I know what I need (to do) and the actions I have to take.”
If Woll truly moves on from how his last season ended and takes the next step in his career, it could make him as valuable as almost any other player on the roster. He still has one more season to go on a team-friendly deal with a $766,667 AAV.
In the past, Woll has hedged his bets. But after this summer, he has every reason to believe in the changes he made to his game to keep him healthy, confident and winning games all season. Perhaps this is the year Woll enters the prime of his career with the tools and mental makeup to trend toward becoming one of the NHL’s better goalies. You’d have to go back to the early days of Frederik Andersen for the Leafs to claim one of the NHL’s better starters.
A lofty goal? Sure. But if you’re Joseph Woll, you have every reason to be optimistic.
“That’s a good thing to have as a goal,” Woll said of being the starter. “It’s important to put yourself in that mindset. Act as you are something before you are it. Where that’s important is developing those (starter’s) habits and actions.”
(Top photo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
