The Toronto Maple Leafs need Joseph Woll to return to the NHL immediately.
Goaltender Joseph Woll played his first professional game of the season, playing just over 30 minutes with the Toronto Marlies on Saturday. He looked okay, stopping 21 of 24 shots, but more importantly, he left the game healthy.
After missing the beginning of the year due to a personal matter, the Leafs goaltending has struggled. Anthony Stolarz’ numbers are much higher than his previous few seasons, while Cayden Primeau and Dennis Hildeby are not reliable back-up’s.
In 16 games thus far, the Leafs have allowed three or more goals 12 times. They’re lucky that John Tavares, Matthew Knies, Wiliam Nylander and Auston Matthews have been off to a hot start offensively, or their record would be much worse than 8-7-1.
The Leafs are a flawed team, so without a number-one goaltender, they’ve been getting exposed almost every night. The team was very similar last season, but the tandem of Stolarz and Woll helped propell them to an Atlantic Division title, which is something you can’t assume will happen this year.
It feels more likely that the Leafs would miss the playoffs versus winning the Division right now, but a healthy and productive Woll could change that narrative.
Leafs need Joseh Woll back ASAP
Although Woll only has 78 career NHL starts, he’s shown strong potential when he’s been healthy. Speaking of health, that’s obviously been the biggest concern with him as he’s missed large chunks of time during his entire professional career.
With a career 2.74 GAA and .910 SV%, if Woll were to play “average” the Leafs would be a significantly better team than they’ve been thus far. As it currently stands, the Leafs are 31st in the NHL with a 3.75 GAA and 28th with a .883 SV%.
If Woll provided the Leafs his average stat-line, his SV% would be eigth best and SV% would be fifth best in the entire league.
In October and November, it’s easy to outscore your issues and still march towards the playoffs, but once April hits, that mantra is impossible. As a result, Toronto needs Woll back immediately and needs him to be his average self, as he’s the missing piece towards this team being a Stanley Cup contender, once again.
