Maple Leafs place Joseph Woll on injured reserve with lower-body injury

Not the best news to have on the opening day of the Toronto Maple Leafs season.

On Wednesday, it was reported that goaltender Joseph Woll will not be playing in the Maple Leafs’ season opener due to a lower-body injury. The team later placed the former Boston College netminder on injured reserve.

Head coach Craig Berube confirmed Anthony Stolarz will be the starter on Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Initially, he didn’t rule out Woll for the second half of the team’s back-to-back, as Toronto is scheduled to face the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night in Newark. However, that is no longer a possibility.

Toronto Marlies netminder Dennis Hildeby has been called up and will travel with the team for both games. He has yet to make his NHL debut.

It is another mark on what is becoming a laundry list of issues for Woll. The former third-round pick grabbed the starting job early last season after Matt Murray was ruled out for the season due to injury and Ilya Samsonov had his share of struggles between the pipes. However, in early December, he suffered a high-ankle sprain that kept him out of the lineup until late February.

After returning to full health, Woll was called into duty to help the Leafs stave off elimination in their first-round series against the Boston Bruins. After two great performances, he was removed from the lineup just hours before Game 7 due to an undisclosed injury. The Leafs went on to lose in overtime…again.

Despite the injury concerns, Woll signed a three-year contract extension, carrying a $3.67 million AAV, which is set to kick in next season. He is on the final year of a three-year deal with a $766,667 cap hit.

While there is concern for Woll, the Leafs seem to be in good hands with Anthony Stolarz. The veteran netminder came to Toronto on a two-year, $2.5 million AAV this past summer after being on the Florida Panthers team that won the Stanley Cup last season. Stolarz also played well during his first preseason in Toronto.

The 30-year-old did an excellent job backing up Sergei Bobrovsky, going 16-7-2 in 27 appearances during the regular season, posting a 2.03 goals-against average, a .925 save percentage and two shutouts.

The Maple Leafs will have their home opener on Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.