Stolarz vs. Woll: Who should start for Leafs in the playoffs?

Mar 27, 2025, 13:00 EDT

Credit: Mar 5, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll (60) is pulled for Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz (41) after surrendering three goals to the Vegas Golden Knights during the first period at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

That’s Anthony Stolarz for you. It wasn’t the busiest night. He got beat cleanly a couple times. But he was steady more often than not, and he didn’t allow any of those soft, take-the-air-out-of-the-building specials that characterized recent Toronto Maple Leaf goaltenders like Ilya Samsonov and Frederik Andersen.

It was a 7-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, tidy work, and the best compliment to give Stolarz was that he wasn’t really part of the narrative.

“It wasn’t busy for him, but there were some opportunities where he had to make saves,” said Leafs coach Craig Berube. “It’s never easy for a goalie without seeing [many] pucks. He was sharp. He did what he had to do to seal the net.”

Sharp. Steady. Calm. Those traits have characterized Stolarz’s game during the most important season of his career. He equalled a career high with a 28^th appearance Tuesday and will blow past it by season’s end.

And then there’s Joseph Woll. Most of the time, he’s equally unflappable, but perhaps the pulse rate spikes a bit higher. If Stolarz is the hulking blocker in the crease, economic in his movements, Woll provides more of a thrill ride. He’s not a pure scrambler by any means, as he’s quite smooth and poised in his movements, too, but his athleticism shines through, leading to some highlight-reel games. It also yields a few more rough patches than we’ve seen from Stolarz.

The Leafs arguably have their best, most reliable goaltending since Ed Belfour patrolled their crease in 2003-04, his last elite season in the NHL. Their team save percentage of .907 sits them seventh in the NHL this season. They haven’t ranked that high since 2017-18. But at some point, Berube has to decide between Stolarz and Woll for starting duty. Berube had previously indicated he doesn’t believe in platooning in the playoffs, but he more recently said he “loved” the rotation. He’d be wise to go with the former philosophy come late April. We’ve seen Stanley Cup champions split some of the workload but only out of necessity, such as 2021-22 and 2022-23, when the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights’ starters got injured. The last time a team deliberately split work between healthy goaltenders and won the Stanley Cup was 2016-17, when the Pittsburgh Penguins switched from Marc-Andre Fleury to Matt Murray halfway through the playoffs. They’re the only champ in the past 33 seasons to do so.

So, yes, it would be prudent for the Leafs to anoint one playoff starter and not have him glancing toward the bench after every goal allowed. But whom should it be?

Let’s break down the cases for Stolarz and Woll based on a handful of vital criteria.

Overall performance, 2024-25 season

Goalie	Games	Points %	Save%	GSAx/60
Anthony Stolarz	28	.635	.917	0.525
Joseph Woll	37	.649	.907	0.375

If we’re judging on pure merit and body of work for the 2024-25 campaign, Stolarz has pretty clearly been the better goalie. Through March 25, his 0.525 goals saved above expected per 60 places him sixth in the NHL among 56 netminders with at least 20 appearances. Woll sits close behind at 10^th, illustrating how much Toronto’s goaltending has been a strength this year, but Stolarz has the edge.

Advantage: Stolarz

Performance, past 10 games

Goalie	Games	Points %	Save%	GSAx/60
Anthony Stolarz	10	.550	.895	0.327
Joseph Woll	10	.700	.905	0.119

Rewarding a full season’s effort with the starting playoff gig only makes sense to a point. What if the puck-stopper with inferior season-long numbers has been superior during the stretch run? Well, that isn’t really the case here. The pick is still Stolarz if we judge it by goals saved above expected. He’s been more human since returning from his knee injury, but he’s still been decidedly above average. So has Woll, but he isn’t clearing the league-wide mean by as much. In terms of surface stats over the past 10 games apiece, Woll has the better record and save percentage. Stolarz has a lower SV% but GSAx/60 than Woll, which means the Leafs have played better in front of Woll and provided him a workload with a lower degree of difficulty. Still, the result is the result, so we can’t discount Toronto playing stronger hockey with Woll out there of late.

Advantage: Even

Consistency

Goalie	Oct. SV%	Nov. SV%	Dec. SV%	Jan. SV%	Feb. SV%	Mar. SV%	GS >.900
Stolarz	.916	.927	.950	Injured	.925	.882	59.3%
Woll	.902	.929	.904	.899	.921	.894	55.6%

The 2024-25 league average save percentage is .901. Stolarz has lived (significantly) north of that mark every month but one, whereas Woll has dipped below it in two months. Woll’s overall performance has also fluctuated much more between adequate and above average, whereas Stolarz has basically been elite for every month except the current one. Stolarz also has a higher percentage of starts with a .900 SV% or better, though, once again, Woll isn’t far behind.

Advantage: Stolarz

Clutch performance

Goalie	GP vs. playoff teams	Points%
Anthony Stolarz	15	.464
Joseph Woll	18	.556

In the playoffs, the only stat that really matters for a goaltender is the W column. You can bend but you can’t break. You have to make that save, the one Samsonov couldn’t during the busted play in overtime versus the Boston Bruins in Game 7 last spring.

If we look at whom Stolarz and Woll have faced and break down their win percentages against teams currently occupying playoff spots, we see they’ve been entrusted roughly the same amount for ‘Big Games,’ once you factor in Stolarz’s time missed with his knee injury. But Woll has a pretty clear edge in how his team has performed when he started those games. He’s 10-8-0 across 18 decisions, whereas Stolarz is 6-7-1 across 14 decisions in his 15 appearances.

Advantage: Woll

Playoff experience

Goalie	Games	Starts	SV%	Pts%
Anthony Stolarz	1	0	.841	N/A
Joseph Woll	7	4	.933	.600

This category feels rigged to favor Woll, but that’s by design; it’s only fair to acknowledge this huge advantage. Woll’s playoff experience is a significant factor, especially when he’s performed incredibly well when called upon thus far in his career. In Stolarz’s defense, he’s only played 34:50 of postseason hockey, a relief appearance during the Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup run last year. So it’s not like Stolarz has been bad. He’s simply untested. And even the best playoff goaltenders of all-time were once inexperienced.

Advantage: Woll

Conclusion…?

Clear as mud? Five categories outlined here, and the final score is…2-2-1. Sigh. We’ve resolved nothing. It’s no wonder Berube hasn’t yet committed to a starter. He needs more data, because so little separates his two tenders.

If I had to make the decision right now: give Stolarz the assignment, but keep the leash short. Woll has excelled when parachuting into the middle of a series before. Ride Stolarz until or unless he falters. If that happens, then commit all the way to Woll for the rest of the playoffs, as flip-flopping is not a winning strategy.

Whatever happens, the good news is: the Leafs’ goaltending continues to be a strength, even after regressing from its piping-hot autumn. Whether they end up battling opposite Andrei Vasilevskiy, Linus Ullmark, Sergei Bobrovsky or someone else, they’ll face a major challenge, but the Leafs, for a change, should have goaltending strong enough to counter it.

_____

POST SPONSORED BY bet365