If the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to improve, they'll need a trade to better balance out their roster. Would trading one of their three NHL-capable goalies do the trick?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a better-than-average team that's had multiple worse-than-average performances this season.
Toronto's flaws are obvious – they need a top-four defenseman and a top-six right winger – but they're also at a point in their management where they don't have much trade capital when it comes to draft picks and top prospects.
However, there is one area the Maple Leafs have a surplus at – and that's in goal, where they have three NHL-capable goalies in Joseph Woll, Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby.
From this writer's perspective, Leafs GM Brad Treliving needs to generate a healthy market for one of Toronto's netminders, because there are teams out there who will be happy to take one off his hands.
That said, Woll must stay.
Woll has had a pretty good season when healthy, posting a .912 save percentage and a 2.85 goals-against average in 21 appearances. He's had some struggles of late, giving up 11 goals in his past two starts, but at his best, Woll is a calming presence on the ice – and at 27 years old, his prime years are still ahead. Woll's annual salary of $3.66 million for this season and the next two makes him a major bargain.
That makes it a two-horse race as to which goalie Treliving could use as a trade option.
Is it the currently injured Stolarz? He's also got a team-friendly contract extension paying him $3.75 million per year for the next four seasons, making him a cost-certain asset who can be traded to roughly half of the league's teams as per his partial no-trade clause. At 32, Stolarz has a lot of good hockey left in him, and he and Woll made up an outstanding tandem last season. Despite having a 3.51 GAA and .884 SP in 13 games this season, the Leafs would and should command a high price for him in a trade.
Similarly, the trade return for Hildeby also would be considerable. Hildeby has availed himself well this season, putting up a .912 SP and a 2.90 GAA in 19 games.
At 24, Hildeby is the baby of the bunch in Toronto's top trio of goalies, and he's signed for another two seasons at $841,667. The question then becomes whether Toronto should give up on Hildeby before he's at his peak. That would be a major gamble on Treliving's part.
So, if it were us in Treliving's shoes, we'd be trading Stolarz. His poor stats to start the campaign were the result, in part, because the Maple Leafs were terrible in front of him. That's not to absolve Stolarz of any blame for his individual numbers, but you have to acknowledge the Leafs have evolved into a much more competitive team than they were at the time Stolarz was injured. And you can still get a lot for him in a trade.
In some regards, it will be tough trading Stolarz or Hildeby, because you can see value in each of them, and that three-goalie depth is very valuable right now, considering Stolarz and Woll's injury issues. But the Leafs aren't comfortably in a playoff spot right now, and any team in desperate need of better netminding will almost certainly send a notable forward or defenseman Toronto's way in return for Stolarz or Hildeby.
And considering what they've got in the draft pick and prospect cupboard, a goalie would be a better asset anyway.
The Leafs currently have only one first-round draft pick in the next three drafts, and that pick is in 2028. They've also spent one second-round pick and one third-rounder in the next three drafts.
Meanwhile, trading away young players like right winger Easton Cowan or prospect defenseman Ben Danford would be poorly received by Maple Leafs fans. At some point, you have to replenish your stocks at all positions, and Toronto has to build around a new group for the long term. That's the main reason why we believe Treliving should consider a trade for one of his goalies.
The Leafs still have other goalie prospects as well, including current AHLers Artur Akhtyamov and Vyacheslav Peksa. If the organization continues to develop goalies at the NHL level, it's not going to hurt as much to trade one of them every few years.
The Leafs need to be great listeners when it comes to trading Hildeby or Stolarz. The teams that will need goaltending could change at any moment, given the injury bug's appetite for their roster, so the price for one of them may only go up from here. But you'd better believe there are teams that will be looking for a long-term fit in net, and Stolarz and Hildeby both would satisfy that need.
Thus, Treliving needs to let the market come to him. Treliving can finally be a seller, but in a good way that allows him to have a more balanced roster altogether.
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