Joseph Woll has been away from the Toronto Maple Leafs since departing the club a few days into training camp for personal reasons. The timeline for the goaltender’s return to the club remains indefinite. Despite this, his placement on Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) was purely a salary cap management move.
The club needed to clear space when they placed Chris Tanev on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury and called up Dakota Mermis. At the time of that transaction, the Leafs didn’t have sufficient salary cap space, having only $21,213 available.
Toronto had options, as both Scott Laughton and Woll were already on injured reserve to open the season. According to PuckPedia.com, the Leafs opted to put Woll on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). This transaction immediately gave the Leafs $3,630,667 in cap space.
Despite the roster move, Woll’s personal status remains unchanged: he is still away from the team. Head coach Craig Berube provided little detail when asked about Woll on Tuesday. However, based on the club’s cap transaction, Laughton, who has been skating for the last couple of days, is closer to returning to the lineup than Woll is.
It Doesn’t Seem Like Joseph Woll Is Returning To Maple Leafs Any Time Soon
Woll has been away from the team due to personal reasons since Sept. 23.
Once a player returns to the lineup, Toronto would have to find room again for the player’s $1.5 million cap hit. Given a player on LTIR is required to miss 10 games and 24 days (pre-season does not count), the soonest Woll could be an option for the Leafs would be Nov. 1 on the road against the Philadelphia Flyers.
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