I’m not sure in a division that includes Andrei Vasilevsky, Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman that I would consider the Maple Leafs the best goaltending team in the Atlantic Division, but then again I am about the furthest thing from a goaltending expert that there is. Kevin Woodley, on the other hand, is a goaltending expert, dropping knowledge on the position for both InGoal and NHL.com. As part of his weekly segment on The Jason Gregor Show on Sports 1440 in Edmonton, he has been ranking each team’s goaltending by division, and yesterday was the Atlantic.
Some surprises in @KevinisInGoal‘s Atlantic goalie rankings (tandem and #3):
1. Toronto
2. Buffalo
3. Ottawa (big believer in Ullmark).
4. Florida
5. Montreal
6. Tampa Bay (doesn’t like their depth).
7. Boston (without Swayman). With him they’d be 4th.
8. Detroit@Sports1440— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) October 1, 2024
From the tweet above you can see some of the reasoning including that Swayman would put Boston up into Florida’s spot. Some of the reasoning was that Bobrovsky had regular season warts last year and Stolarz was a big part of the goaltending strength, and that is now a gain for the Maple Leafs this year. Stolarz’ adjusted numbers and goals saved above expected made him a stats darling last season and while quality of competition and workload, as well as having a different team playing in front of him could impact Stolarz, Woodley has a lot of optimism about what he can do.
Where things get interesting is with Kevin Woodley’s praise for Joseph Woll. Woll, like Stolarz had some strong analytics in net with better than most goals saved above expected, but Woodley seems to think that Woll is something special based on what he’s seen. He’s identified Woll as someone with the potential to be one of the NHL’s next great goaltenders and moving up to the Swayman/Demko class of netminder. His concerns around Woll have nothing to do with ability but instead durability and it is just a matter of Joseph being able to take on the workload that the Leafs need him to. That might be a big ask, but the Leafs are apparently carrying the depth they need to see what Woll can do, and Craig Berube has done a good job of limiting an unnecessary preseason workload for the netminder.
Woodley’s praise didn’t stop at the top two goaltenders and he expressed excitement for seeing what Matt Murray can do for the Leafs this year. A healthier version of Murray is exciting and while he put the caveat in that he was never going to be at his Stanley Cup calibre level, Woodley firmly believes that Murray is an NHL level goaltender and no matter the wear and tear on his body, Matt will be one of the best puck trackers in the game.
You can listen to Kevin Woodley’s full appearance on The Jason Gregor show with explanations of all of his rankings as well as some discussion on Jeremy Swayman’s contract negotiations here (at the 27 minute mark):
Coming up next on the @JasonGregor Show we’ll be joined by @KevinisInGoal as we do our Pacific Division goalie preview!
Listen or watch below!
🎧: https://t.co/nBeuhjSENj
📺: https://t.co/zSXN876iC6https://t.co/YbkIaAAuRU— Sports 1440 (@Sports1440) October 1, 2024
The name that doesn’t come up in this discussion that is also interesting is Dennis Hildeby. Preseason is the preseason and drawing conclusions from it isn’t ideal, but the fact that Hildeby showed well and has a strong season with the Marlies under his belt makes him an intriguing option for the Leafs as well which fits into their promising 2024-25 goaltending picture. The fact that Toronto can reach the fourth goaltender on their depth chart without panic sets them apart from a lot of the league and with question marks around durability and workload, the Leafs might be a team that needs their fourth goaltender too.
The Maple Leafs as well as their fans were certain coming out of 2023-24 that Ilya Samsonov would not be part of the solution going forward and while there was a call from many to pursue options like Markstrom or Saros, the Leafs opted to gamble on the cost effective approach. It’s encouraging to see that it could pay off.
