Getty The Toronto Maple Leafs are closing in on an extension with Joseph Woll.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are closing in on a three-year extension with goaltender Joseph Woll, NHL insider Kevin Weekes reported.
Woll has one year left on his deal that will pay him $766,667 for the 2024-25 NHL season. With Woll, who is projected to be Toronto’s starting goalie next season entering the final year, Weekes reported that the Maple Leafs are closing in on a three-year deal.
**Breaking News** 🚨 📰
I’m told the @MapleLeafs are closing in on 3Yr Contract Extension (July 1st) for G Woll in the neighborhood between $ 3.5M – $4M AAV. #LeafsForever #HockeyX #HockeyTwitter
“I’m told the MapleLeafs are closing in on 3Yr Contract Extension (July 1st) for G Woll in the neighborhood between $3.5M – $4M AAV,” Weekes reported.
As Weekes mentions, the contract can not be signed or made official until July 1, when the league year turns over.
Last season with the Maple Leafs, Woll went 12-11-1 with a 2.94 goals against average and a .907 save percentage. In the playoffs, Woll went 2-0 with a 0.86 GAA and a .964 SV% before getting injured.
Woll’s Injury History a Concern for Maple Leafs
Joseph Woll has been in the Maple Leafs organization since he was drafted 62nd overall in the 2016 NHL draft.
Woll turned pro in the 2019-20 season in the AHL, but since turning pro, injuries have been a concern. His career high in games is 32 which was his rookie season in the AHL. In the NHL, his career high in games played is 28 which he did last season, which includes the three playoff games.
However, Woll suffered an injury at the end of Game 6 which kept him out of Game 7 which Toronto lost in overtime to the Boston Bruins.
At the year-end press conference, Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said Woll’s injury history is a concern.
“As far as our goaltending, I’ve got faith in Joe. Now, like everybody else, there are questions. The biggest question with Joe is he’s gotten injured a lot. We have to dig into that. Sometimes that happens, sometimes bad luck happens. Is there a training issue that we have to deal with? Do we need to change something in his off-ice routine? All those things are what we have to dig into,” Treliving said on May 10.
Despite the injury history, Treliving said he and the organization do have faith in Woll going forward.
“I believe in Joe as a goaltender. We have to support Joe. Ilya’s contract is up, but we certainly have to try to put ourselves in a position where we don’t have the second-best goaltender in each of these series,” Treliving said.
Maple Leafs Linked to Several Goalies
With Toronto closing in on an extension with Woll, Toronto is expected to bring in another goalie this offseason to form a tandem with the American.
The Maple Leafs are expected to let Ilya Samsonov leave in free agency. With that, Toronto has been linked to Winnipeg Jets’ Laurent Brossoit and Florida Panthers goalie Antony Stolarz who are both pending free agents.
Brossoit went 15-5-2 with a 2.00 GAA and a .927 SV% last season with the Jets. He finished the one-year $1.75 million deal he signed with Winnipeg on July 1, 2023.
Stolarz, meanwhile, went 16-7-2 with a 2.03 GAA and a .925 SV% with Florida this season. He is coming off a one-year $1.1 million deal with the Panthers.
NHL free agency is set to begin on July 1.