The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t even played their first game of the 2024-25 season yet and already they are making headlines with goalie news and on the injury front.
Speculation started swirling late Wednesday morning ahead of the team’s opening night game in Montreal when goalie prospect Dennis Hildeby was seen exiting the team’s bus. As the news continued to break, the Maple Leafs’ PR team released a note that Hildeby had been recalled from the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis.
Joseph Woll Suffering From Lower-Body Tightness
It was further reported that the Maple Leafs’ expected starter against the Montreal Canadiens, Joseph Woll, was experiencing lower-body tightness and as a result the team would not be playing him to open their season and he was therefore scratched.
Woll, who has had some injury issues early in his career, was expected to take the reins this season and is still the favourite to be the Maple Leafs starter when healthy. In 34 career NHL regular season games, Woll has a 21-13-1 record with a 2.76 goals against average, a .912 save percentage and one shutout.
Anthony Stolarz Gets the Start
As for their season opener, newly acquired, Stanley Cup winner Anthony Stolarz will be between the pipes for the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night against their rival Canadiens. Stolarz had a solid preseason for the team and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career the culminated in a Cup win with the Florida Panthers.
Over his career, the journeyman goalie has a record of 43-31-9 in 108 career regular season games with a 2.69 GAA and .915 SV% — but he topped those numbers last season in Florida with a 16-7-2 record, a 2.03 GAA and .925 SV%.
He will be leaned on heavily going into the season with Woll’s history of injury and the fact that neither one of them has played more than 30 games in any given season.
Hildeby Gets the First Call-Up
While it’s not an ideal situation, Hildeby will be backing up Stolarz in the season opener after being the first Marlies call-up of the 2024-25 campaign. Like Stolarz, Hildeby had an impressive preseason and has given the Maple Leafs hope in their goaltending depth moving forward into their pipeline.
