The Toronto Maple Leafs have several areas of concern entering the 2025-26 regular season.
Will the club be able to generate enough offense without 102-point winger Mitch Marner playing their top line and quarterbacking their power play? How will the additions of forwards Nicolas Roy, Dakota Joshua, and Matias Maccelli fit with the current core group led by Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, John Tavares, and William Nylander? How will a veteran blueline led by Morgan Rielly bounce back from being physically pounded in the second-round playoff loss to the Florida Panthers?
Another issue that could rear its ugly head, as it did last season, is the durability of goaltender Anthony Stolarz. The 31-year-old agreed to a four-year, $15-million contract extension earlier this month on the strength of an excellent 2024-25 campaign (21-8-3, 2.14 GAA) in which he had the NHL’s best save percentage(.926).
Leafs GM Brad Treliving was able to get the veteran journeyman signed for a very cost-effective $3.75 million AAV, with the understanding that Stolarz would split duties with Joseph Woll (who is signed through 2028 for $3.66 million) as part of one of the league’s best tandems. Similar to last season, this year has started with Woll unavailable and Stolarz bearing the brunt of the club’s workload.
Woll missed the start of last season with a groin injury, forcing Stolarz to make five of the first six starts. By the middle of December, head coach Craig Berube seemed to be favoring the veteran and had started him in 17 of their first 27 games. Unfortunately, he then suffered a knee injury and was lost to the club for nearly two months. Stolarz finished the year with 34 games (the most in his career), but Woll got the majority of the work with 41 starts.
This season, Woll has been unavailable since the start of training camp, dealing with a personal issue. After inviting veteran and former Leaf James Reimer on a professional tryout, the club claimed Cayden Primeau off waivers from Carolina to back up Stolarz. In both games this season, Stolarz has been extremely busy, facing 31 shots in a 5-2 victory over Montreal on Wednesday and 33 shots in a 5-3 loss to Detroit on Saturday.
The Leafs play 11 games in October, including the first of three back-to-backs on Monday and Tuesday against the Red Wings and Nashville Predators at Scotiabank Arena. With no timetable for when Woll may return, Berube will have to use Primeau or minor leaguer Dennis Hildeby in the back-to-backs at an absolute minimum. But Toronto may have to spell Stolarz even more to avoid what could be another injury that would be catastrophic to their season.
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