If anything about the 2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs has become clear over the season’s first 14 games, it’s that the club has a No. 1 goaltender and it’s Anthony Stolarz (from ‘Why the Maple Leafs’ No. 1 goalie job belongs to Anthony Stolarz – for now,’ The Athletic, November 5, 2025).
At a time when Joseph Woll has started slowly while battling injuries, Stolarz has taken the reins in net and shone. Tuesday night’s 29-save shutout over the Boston Bruins added an exclamation point to a start that has seen the 30-year-old go 5-2-2 with a 2.12 goals-against average (GAA) and a .928 save percentage (SV%). His early play has forced a change of plans, turning what was thought to be a tandem situation into a clear designation of starter and backup.
That’s where things could get tricky down the road, however. A relatively late bloomer, Stolarz has remained, over the first seven seasons of his NHL career anyway, a perennial backup. In fact, he has never exceeded the 28 games he played as a member of the Anaheim Ducks in 2021-22. Last season, he posted sparking numbers (2.03 GAA, .925 SV%), albeit still in a backup role to Sergei Bobrovsky for the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
Around the NHL, such a rise after a long tenure in a backup role is fairly rare. While many teams ask young goalies to grow into larger roles over time (as Woll did last season), it’s uncommon for veteran goalies to suddenly take on larger workloads. This prompts the question of whether Stolarz might slow down and tire at some point as he becomes increasingly relied upon by the Maple Leafs. With that in mind, let’s look at the success rate of some goalies who have taken on greater roles amidst similar circumstances in recent years:
Charlie Lindgren
| Season | Games Played | Goals Against Average | Save Percentage |
| 2022-23 | 31 | 3.05 | .899 |
| 2023-24 | 50 | 2.67 | .911 |
It’s been quite the hockey journey for Charlie Lindgren, an undrafted netminder who caught the eye of the Montreal Canadiens while backstopping St. Cloud State at the NCAA level. Since then, the 30-year-old has spent plenty of time bouncing back and forth between the NHL and American Hockey League (AHL) before earning a regular role with the Washington Capitals in time for the 2022-23 season.
While Lindgren’s 2022-23 campaign represented a significant surge in playing time from five games with the St. Louis Blues to 31 in Washington, last season also saw a massive jump up to 50 games and a designation as the Capitals’ starter. He hasn’t been able to replicate his sensational numbers with the Blues in a too-small-to-gauge sample size (1.22 GAA, .958 SV%), but he has still acclimated himself nicely to an increased role. Notably, he helped the Caps sneak into the postseason last spring by posting a 25-16-7 record with a 2.67 GAA and a .911 SV% and then started all four games of their admittedly short playoff stint.
Apart from the lack of playoff success, Lindgren’s 2023-24 experience serves as a pretty encouraging blueprint. Like Stolarz, he was exceptional out of the gate (5-1 with a 2.01 GAA, .942 SV% in November). Although his level of play dropped (perhaps predictably so) in January and February, he came back strong in March and April to help Washington clinch a playoff berth. So long as the Maple Leafs can settle into a comfortable playoff slot heading into 2025, they would gladly take the Lindgren scenario with Stolarz (minus the lack of playoff success).
Joonas Korpisalo
| Season | Games Played | Goals Against Average | Save Percentage |
| 2022-23 | 28 | 2.87 | .914 |
| 2023-24 | 55 | 3.27 | .890 |
As a goaltender who developed through the Columbus Blue Jackets’ system, Joonas Korpisalo found his role in the NHL early. But while it might have seemed like the Finnish backstop was on the fast track to becoming a No. 1 goalie after starting 30 games at just 21 years of age, it wouldn’t be until his age-29 season in 2023-24, his first full campaign away from Columbus, that he started the majority of his team’s games.
By that point, Korpisalo had joined the Ottawa Senators as a free agent on what now looks to be a regrettable five-year contract. He would ultimately last only one season in Ottawa before being included in the Linus Ullmark trade with the Bruins this past summer, but it was his campaign with the Senators that solidified him in a starter role – at least for one season.
As you can probably anticipate from the Senators’ decision to pursue Ullmark, Korpisalo was unable to prove himself as a starter in Ottawa and justify his long-term contract. He went 21-26-4 while seeing a significant decrease in GAA (2.87 to 3.27) and SV% (.914 to .890) from his backup role in Columbus and Los Angeles the season prior.
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The Maple Leafs shouldn’t read too far into Korpisalo’s struggles in adjusting to a full-time starter’s role. The 2023-24 Senators finished second-last in the Atlantic Division, with just 78 points. Some of that certainly falls on the goalie, but he also didn’t have the same caliber of team in front of him that Stolarz does now. Even with the Bruins’ early struggles this season, Korpisalo has fared slightly better (2.70 GAA, .897 SV%) alongside Jeremy Swayman and with a better defence in front of him.
Alex Lyon
| Season | Games Played | Goals Against Average | Save Percentage |
| 2022-23 | 15 | 2.89 | .912 |
| 2023-24 | 44 | 3.05 | .904 |
Stolarz isn’t the only goalie to leave Florida and find more playing time along the way. His Panthers’ backup predecessor, Alex Lyon, was something of a desperate, inexpensive free agent addition by the Detroit Red Wings in the summer of 2023 after Ville Husso, the big-ticket goaltending acquisition from the previous summer, had flopped.
Given the tough situation he had arrived in – joining a team looking for cheap answers in net after already committing $4.75 million to a player not getting the job done – Lyon handled himself well. His numbers decreased a bit (2.89 GAA to 3.05, .912 SV% to .904) as he saw an increase from 15 games played to 44, but that was probably to be expected while joining a weaker team and taking on more work.
Ultimately, the journeyman 31-year-old did well to keep the Red Wings afloat and now stands as the organization’s top option, especially after Husso allowed four goals on 14 shots in his one and only NHL appearance this season. Detroit trusts Lyon enough in the role that they were willing to let James Reimer go in free agency, although Cam Talbot has mostly shared netminding duties to date.
Even for as good as Stolarz has been thus far, no one realistically expects him to repeat his remarkable 2023-24 numbers as the Panthers’ backup. In that sense, the Maple Leafs would love to see him finish the season with marginally lesser numbers than what he put forth in Florida. A slight drop in GAA and SV% for the whole season would probably still warrant Vezina Trophy consideration for Stolarz.
All told, these three netminders demonstrate the range of scenarios that could await Stolarz depending on how he holds up amidst what is expected to be a career-high workload. And yet, there’s the possibility here that he doesn’t follow any of the comparable player paths. He has the chance to do what none of Lindgren, Korpisalo or Lyon managed: take a major step from backup goalie to No. 1 option and carry his team on a deep postseason run.
