It's Joseph Woll's time to prove why the Maple Leafs believe in him

18 December 2024Last Update :
It's Joseph Woll's time to prove why the Maple Leafs believe in him

Joseph Woll smiled and laughed after Maple Leafs practice on Tuesday, bouncing from his dressing room stall toward teammate and friend Matthew Knies. Woll continued to grin as he took playful jabs at Knies for not returning an earlier phone call.

It was as relaxed and eager as Woll has looked all season, especially considering he stumbled out of the gates with a groin injury before the season started.

And now Woll will have even more reason to feel eager about what’s in front of him: a bona fide opportunity to be trusted as the Leafs’ starting goalie.

Not long after Woll finished ribbing his teammate, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving told reporters he anticipated Woll’s goalie partner Anthony Stolarz would miss the next four to six weeks. After leaving a Dec. 12 game against the Anaheim Ducks, Stolarz will have what Treliving called a “procedure” to remove “a little loose body that was stuck in behind his knee.”

“It looks like a little pebble,” Treliving said of what is stuck behind Stolarz’s knee.

Is it a pebble big enough to trip up the Leafs’ season?

The Leafs tandem has pitched a .935 five-on-five save percentage, second in the NHL, and has arguably been the reason they find themselves atop the Atlantic Division.

Stolarz has led the Leafs goalies with 17 games played. Their long-term goaltending depth is a strength of the organization. And it’s about to get tested in a very real way in Stolarz’s absence. Considering it’s possible we won’t see Stolarz until after the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-Feburary, the attention now shifts to Woll. The 26-year-old will immediately face both opportunity and pressure as the net becomes almost solely his alone in Toronto.

Yes, the Leafs turned to Woll in the playoffs in 2023 and 2024. But on both occasions, they were already down in different series and Woll was coming on in relief for Ilya Samsonov.

This is different. The next few months could present the kind of runway for Woll to answer most of the questions surrounding him — and possibly change the course of his NHL future.

The most prominent lingering question around Woll – and in fairness, around the entire Leafs goaltending roster – has been whether he can stay healthy. That Woll couldn’t go in Game 7 against the Bruins in April or the Leafs’ season opener just over five months later thanks to different injuries undoubtedly caused some consternation within the Leafs organization. That concern was likely amplified by the numerous injuries Woll suffered through his time coming up with the Marlies.

This won’t be a quick fix for Woll. He’s stayed healthy for nearly two months this season but the questions about the organization’s confidence in Woll persist.

“We have full faith in Joseph,” Treliving insisted on Tuesday.

Right now, Treliving has every reason be a believer: Woll was one of the best goalies in the NHL through the month of November. Among goalies with at least six games played last month, Woll’s .929 save percentage was only bested by early Vezina frontrunners Connor Hellebuyck and Filip Gustavsson. Woll’s movement was continually clean and economical, suggesting he’s learned how to better take care of his body in a volatile position.

But the fact that there’s still concern over his ability to stay injury-free? It’s a reminder of how weighty the remaining questions about injuries are.

Then there’s whether Woll can handle the workload of a No. 1 goalie in the NHL.

Woll has never played more than 25 games in an NHL regular season. If Stolarz returns to game action six weeks from his procedure, scheduled for on Wednesday in New York, that means he would miss 19 games. It’s conceivable Woll could play the lion’s share of those games and lap his record for games played in a season before the end of January.

The Leafs’ schedule through January alone is unrelenting: 13 games in 28 days. That kind of workload will present new terrain for Woll. He has had at least six days off between four of his 11 starts this season.

But if he can stay as reliable and athletic as he did through November in the process, that final question about Woll could get answered.

“I have a lot of confidence in our group. (Woll) has played extremely well,” Treliving said, before adding, “We are going to need more than Joseph to play.”

With every goalie in the organization conceivably receiving a brief promotion, the opportunities to impress long-term don’t end with the Leafs’ new No. 1. One more injury could see their entire goaltending Etch-A-Sketch being shaken to the point of incomprehensibility.

Dennis Hildeby remains the Leafs’ No. 3 goalie as Matt Murray works his way back from a recent injury. Hildeby was one of the best Marlies last season, ripping off a .913 save percentage through 41 games in his rookie AHL season. Yet the stoic Swede hasn’t looked nearly as solid this season, posting an .897 save percentage in the AHL. As two goals he was expected to save against the Buffalo Sabres went by him on Sunday, it was worth wondering if he was ready for the NHL this season.

“It’s been up and down,” Hildeby said on Dec. 13 of his Marlies season. “I’ve got some things to work on.”

If and when the Leafs turn to him, can Hildeby quickly regain the form that made him so promising last season?

Matt Murray will start for the Marlies on Wednesday. It will be his first start since Dec. 7. The veteran’s play has been inconsistent but trending upward in the AHL after re-signing on a one-year deal with the Leafs. Bilateral hip surgery caused him to miss the entirety of the 2023-24 NHL season. He’s still a Stanley Cup champion with more games played than the other three Leafs goalies combined.

Murray was ostensibly signed for situations like the one the Leafs find themselves in right now. It feels likely the Leafs turn to him given Hildeby’s recent struggles. Can he show he can still stop shots in the NHL after such a lengthy layoff?

Finally, Artur Akhtyamov could take on the Marlies’ full-time starting job for the foreseeable future. Yes, the 23-year-old has shown flashes of brilliance in his debut North American season. But any thought of him appearing with the Leafs is premature. There’s still far too much maturing to do on and off the ice for the 2020 draft pick.

The same cannot be said for Woll. There’s no doubt he’s ready for the opportunity in front of him.

More than ever this season, Woll hasn’t run from his inner confidence. He looks and sounds as relaxed as ever, despite the growing questions around him.

“Over the years of playing pro, I’ve really learned that what someone else does really does not impact you,” Woll told The Athletic in September.

He prepared for this moment by focusing on neuromuscular recruitment this offseason, or “Pilates on steroids,” as Woll called it. He wanted to understand which of his muscles were and weren’t working properly, combined with where and how he was sometimes overcompensating with his own movements. By better understanding his own body, he and the Leafs hoped his durability would improve.

That self-awareness was part of what led to the Leafs re-upping on Woll with a three-year, $11 million contract this summer. They did so not with the intent for him to be a backup, but to give him the chance to prove he’s a starting goalie.

Woll has never had a better chance to do just that.

(Top photo of Joseph Woll: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)