The Toronto Maple Leafs were out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round by the Boston Bruins.
During the critical Game 7, Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll was unable to play because of an injury. This was the second time in the post-season that he got hurt, which caused Ilya Samsonov to become the starting goalie again.
Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving now says the biggest concern going into the off-season is the injury history of Woll.
“Regarding our goalkeeping, I have confidence in Joe. Now, like everyone else, there are concerns. The biggest issue with Joe is that he’s been injured a lot. We need to investigate that. Sometimes that happens, sometimes bad luck happens. Is there a training problem that we have to address? Do we need to change something in his off-ice routine? All those things are what we have to investigate,” Treliving said.
Woll is under contract for the 2024-25 NHL season with a cap hit of $766,667. However, Samsonov and third-string goalie Martin Jones are both unrestricted free agents, so Treliving says adding a goalie behind Woll is crucial.
“I believe in Joe as a goalie. We have to support Joe. Ilya’s contract is up, but we certainly have to try to put ourselves in a position where we don’t have the second-best goalie in each of these series,” Treliving said.
Woll went 2-0 with a 0.86 goals against average and a .964 save percentage in the playoffs before the injury.
Woll’s Injury Revealed
At the end of Game 6, Woll suffered an injury when he dived across the crease trying to make a save.
Treliving revealed at the season-ending press conference that Woll sprained his back which is why he couldn’t play in Game 7.
“Joe Woll suffered an SI joint sprain, a sprained back, at the end of Game 6, which made him unavailable for Game 7,” Treliving said.
With Woll being unable to play in Game 7, Samsonov returned to the crease and stopped 28 of 30 shots, but it wasn’t enough as Toronto lost in OT.
Samsonov Wants to Remain in Toronto
After the end of the Maple Leafs season, Samsonov made it clear he wanted to re-sign with the team.
Samsonov had been with Toronto for the past two seasons but is a pending free agent after signing a one-year extension with the Maple Leafs last off-season.
“I want to stay here… I love this city, I love everybody on this team. But I never know. If it’s serious, I didn’t talk about this with my agents because we just get some time for rest for my mind. If we get some more chance, come to this locker room, and put on this jersey, I will be happy,” Samsonov said on May 6.
Although Samsonov wants to remain in Toronto, he says the goal for him this off-season is to get a long-term contract after signing back-to-back one-year deals with the Maple Leafs.
“The last couple of years, seriously, the last three years, I’m just working with one (year) contracts. It’s not too easy. It’s not too easy for me. You think about it. It doesn’t matter if you’re still human or it doesn’t matter how your confidence level or something. You still think about this. I think I want to get some more stability. Maybe this will be nice if we get a couple of years or a three-year contract. It’s true. This will be good for my family,” Samsonov added.
During the most recent season, Samsonov had a record of 23 wins, 7 losses, and 8 overtime losses with a 3.13 goals against average and a .890 save percentage.
