The Toronto Maple Leafs have some holes yet to fill. They would like to add a top-six forward and a puck-moving defender before the ball gets rolling on their 2025-26 regular season. However, they are dealing from a position of strength when it comes to their performers between the pipes.
The Maple Leafs’ goalie tandem of Anthony Stolarz, 31, and Joseph Woll, 27, was recently named one of the best goaltender duos in the NHL.
Toronto Maple Leafs Praised For their Netminders
NHL analyst Joe Yerdon recently released his ranking of all 32 teams’ goalie tandems. Yerdon praised the Maple Leafs duo, but added a caveat.
“After so many years of wondering how well their goaltending would hold up, the Maple Leafs got the best of both worlds with Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll as their tandem,” Yerdon wrote in his Bleacher Report goalie ranking. “Just so long as they stayed healthy.”
Therein lies the rub: staying healthy. Stolarz missed about a month and a half from the middle of December until the beginning of February. Woll missed seven games at the beginning of the season due to a lower-body injury.
Yerdon goes on to explain just how good the tandem was and its importance to the team’s performance this season.
“Woll had a .909 save percentage with a shutout in 41 starts, while Stolarz was outstanding with a .926 save percentage and four shutouts in 33 starts,” Yerdon revealed. “Expecting both goalies to be that good again may be unreasonable, but both Woll and Stolarz have shown they can play consistently well as long as they’re on the ice.”
“Toronto will need them to recreate that play to weather the loss of offense from Mitch Marner.”
Woll & Stolarz, the Maple Leafs’ “Backbone”
Treliving spoke with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun while both were at the GM meetings in Detroit on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. LeBrun shared those insights in a piece he published later that day.
Stolarz is in the final year of his contract and will become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) if and when that occurs. Treliving spoke on that situation and what his thoughts are on the state of the Maple Leafs’ goaltending.
“Anthony has come in and has been terrific,” Treliving told LeBrun. “Him and (Woll), you look at any metric you want, I think they were as good a goaltending tandem as there was in the league, and really were a backbone for us.”
“We’ve certainly explored some things with Anthony and his representative, and we’d love to find a way to get something done. And we’ve been in those discussions for some time… We’ll see what the coming days bring.”
Just How Good Were Woll & Stolarz For the Maple Leafs?
Stolarz and Woll were at the top for several statistical categories.
Among all NHL goalies who played at least 20 games, Stolarz ranked first in save percentage (.926), third in goals against average (2.14), ninth in shutouts (4), 30th in wins (21), and fourth in goals saved above expected (25.8).
Conversely, Woll ranked 14th in save percentage (.909), 28th in goals against average (2.73), 49th in shutouts (1), 16th in wins (27), and 11th in goals saved above expected (16.8). No other team had two goalies ranked in the top 15 for goals saved above expected.
It’s clear the Maple Leafs have two solid goaltenders to lead them back to the playoffs for this season. Maple Leafs fans wait with baited breath to see if these two netminders can remain healthy this go-around.
Maple Leafs Get Top Marks For Their Terrific ‘Backbone’