{"id":458789,"date":"2024-12-18T12:33:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T17:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=458789"},"modified":"2024-12-18T12:33:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T17:33:06","slug":"can-this-toronto-maple-leafs-goaltender-make-an-nhl-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/12\/18\/can-this-toronto-maple-leafs-goaltender-make-an-nhl-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Can This Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltender Make An NHL Comeback?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have an open spot in their goaltending tandem. On Tuesday, head coach Craig Berube<\/a> announced that Anthony Stolarz<\/a> will be out for the next 4-6 weeks<\/a>. The Leafs netminder suffered a knee injury in Thursday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>. Although he looked fine for the entire first period, Joseph Woll<\/a> took over the game from the start of the second frame, securing a 3-2 victory<\/a>. Despite this big loss, it’s a ‘next man up’ scenario for Toronto. This could be the opportunity that Matt Murray<\/a> has been waiting for.<\/p>\n

With Stolarz<\/a> gone for about a month, the Maple Leafs must rely on their goaltending<\/a> depth. Woll will act as the starting netminder for the Leafs for the time being. With that, he is capable of that responsibility. However, it’s unrealistic for Berube to start him every night until Stolarz returns to tandem again<\/a>. Therefore, the team needs a solid third-stringer and maybe a fourth. The Leafs certainly have candidates that can fill in on an emergency basis.<\/p>\n

Toronto’s Goalie Depth Put to the Test<\/h2>\n

Within the system, the Leafs organization have three solid goaltenders who can fill in. The two most likely candidates are Murray and Dennis Hildeby<\/a>. However, another goalie in the ranks could see NHL games in the distant future. That would be 23-year-old Artur Akhtyamov<\/a>, who has been putting up great performances with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs affiliate team. Statistically, he has been the best of the three minor-league goaltenders, with a .911 save percentage and a 2.36 goals-against average. Furthermore, he leads rookie goalies in the AHL<\/a> in both those goaltending categories. He’s one of the best rookies in the American League.<\/p>\n

At the moment, Toronto has gone with Hildeby as the club’s No. 3 netminder. Their last game was a second half of a back-to-back against the Buffalo Sabres<\/a>. In that contest, Hildeby made his third NHL appearance. He earned his second career win, allowed three goals and recorded a .889 save percentage. This is the first season where Hildeby has featured for the Maple Leafs. He has a 2-1-0 record for Toronto and a .875 save percentage. Last season was a better one for the Swedish goalie. The 23-year-old spent the year with the Marlies with a .913 save percentage in 41 games. Now, he’s below the .900 percent mark in the AHL or NHL.<\/p>\n

With Akhtyamov and Hildeby, it may be too early to convert them to NHL goaltenders, even with the workload of a backup. However, there is no denying that they both have bright futures.<\/p>\n

Is Murray the Answer For Stolarz’s Absence?<\/h3>\n

Murray was once a star goaltender in the NHL. He won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, taking the starting job from future Hall of Famer Marc-Andre Fleury<\/a> in the process. His best seasons happened a decade ago. However, that doesn’t mean there is no hope for the rest of his career. Murray is just 30 years old and has great years ahead of him. The key is for him to remain healthy as he has a history of serious injuries, requiring hip surgery last season. Also, he recently recovered from a recent “tweak,” the injury was undisclosed. Per TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Leafs want to see Murray play a few more games in the minors before calling him up. On Friday, he will start for the Marlies against the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s been over 600 days since Murray last featured in an NHL game. In the 2022-23 season, the Thunder Bay, Ont. native made 26 starts for the Maple Leafs, putting up a respectable .903 save percentage. Murray is a serviceable goaltender and maybe Toronto can find some value in him from a short stint in the NHL again. Murray signed a one-year deal with the Leafs<\/a> in the offseason at $875K AAV.<\/a><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs have an open spot in their goaltending tandem. On Tuesday, head coach Craig Berube announced that Anthony Stolarz will be out for the next 4-6 weeks. The Leafs netminder suffered a knee injury in Thursday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks. Although he looked fine for the entire first period, Joseph Woll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5141,"featured_media":458834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,4548],"tags":[1169,4500,1092,478,5868,6472,508],"class_list":["post-458789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-anthony-stolarz","tag-goaltending","tag-joseph-woll","tag-matt-murray","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-analysis","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-goaltending","tag-toronto-marlies"],"modified_by":"Andre Leal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458835,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458789\/revisions\/458835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}