Analyst reveals why the Leafs haven't signed a veteran goaltender this summer
With yesterday's announcement that Matt Murray would be placed on LTIR this summer, the reality had set in that the Leafs' tandem this year would indeed be Ilya Samsonov and a 25-year-old Joseph Woll, who has just 11 games of NHL experience under his belt.
If Samsonov can play a similar game to what he did last season with the Leafs, the Buds will be getting exceptional goaltending from their starter. If Woll can provide the same goaltending that he did last season with an increased workload, this tandem stands a very good chance of being among the top 1-2 punches in the entire NHL.
Samsonov went 27-10-5 across 42 appearances last season, racking up a 2.33 GAA and a .919 SV%. Meanwhile, the rookie, Joseph Woll, went 6-1-0 in 7 games with the Buds, rocking a 2.16 GAA and a .932 SV%.
On Thursday morning, former NHLer and ex-Leafs AGM Dave Poulin joined the TSN 1050 First Up crew for a chat about all things Leafs, with the goaltending situation coming up in the conversation. Among the strong points that Poulin made on the program, he mentioned that he believes that the Leafs had perhaps known about Murray ahead of time and that them not going out and securing an experienced veteran as a replacement says a lot about how they feel about Woll and his ability to take a big leap forward this season with an increased workload.
We saw this situation once before in Toronto, where the Leafs passed the torch to Garret Sparks before he was ready. It didn't work out the first time around, with the Leafs allowing the aforementioned McElhinney to walk as a free agent and putting all of their eggs into the Sparks basket. The hope here is that Woll is a little more ready than Sparks was and possesses a better overall skill set that will allow him to succeed where Sparks had failed.
Having said that, there's still a couple of months here to work with before training camp, so there's still a possibility that the Leafs add an experienced veteran with NHL experience to the roster as a bit of an insurance plan in case the Woll experiment doesn't work out as planned.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 27 | 443 ANSWERS Analyst reveals why the Leafs haven't signed a veteran goaltender this summer Is Joseph Woll the future starter in Toronto? | ||
| Yes, I believe in him | 297 | 67 % |
| No, he's just a really good backup | 126 | 28.4 % |
| I sure hope not | 20 | 4.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
