{"id":479616,"date":"2025-12-06T12:01:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=479616"},"modified":"2025-12-06T12:02:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:02:42","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-move-goalie-to-ir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/12\/06\/toronto-maple-leafs-move-goalie-to-ir\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs Move Goalie To IR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/12\/02\/maple-leafs-avoid-injury-scare-on-the-blueline\/\" target=\"_self\"> Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> are suddenly navigating a major shakeup in their crease after placing goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/wolljo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joseph Woll<\/a> on injured reserve Saturday with a lower-body injury. In response, the team recalled Artur Akhtyamov from the AHL, signaling that Toronto is preparing to roll with an inexperienced tandem for the near future. The IR move is retroactive to December 4th, but the timeline remains unclear.<\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"698\" data-end=\"1275\">What Happened that Ended With a Joseph Woll Injury<\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"698\" data-end=\"1275\">Woll suffered the injury during <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/12\/05\/toronto-maple-leafs-goalie-exits-game-early\/\" target=\"_self\">Thursday\u2019s 5\u20131 win over the Hurricanes<\/a>, appearing to tweak something while extending for a save late in the second period. He didn\u2019t return for the third, and the mood around the team shifted almost immediately. Woll has carried the bulk of Toronto\u2019s starts since rejoining the lineup on November 15th, starting eight of their last nine games and posting a sharp .927 save percentage in that stretch. For a player who missed most of training camp and the early regular season for personal reasons, he stabilized the crease faster than anyone expected.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"1569\" data-end=\"1961\">What Will the Leafs Do?<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"1569\" data-end=\"1961\">What makes this situation even tougher is that the Leafs are already without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stolaan01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Stolarz<\/a>, who remains sidelined with an upper-body injury. Stolarz hasn\u2019t skated since November 11th and has no set return date. Just like that, Toronto\u2019s top two goalies are unavailable, leaving the net to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hildede01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dennis Hildeby<\/a>, who entered the season as the organization\u2019s developing project, not its stopgap solution.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1963\" data-end=\"2378\">Hildeby now becomes the starter by default. The 6-foot-7 Swede has shown poise in limited NHL action, posting a .917 save percentage through seven appearances. Most of that work has come in relief, but he\u2019s handled himself well and will now get the chance to show whether he can manage a heavier workload. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/mapleleafs\/video\/dennis-hildeby-post-game-carolina-hurricanes-6386008244112\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201c<em>You\u2019ve got to be ready for anything<\/em>,\u201d Hildeby said Thursday. \u201c<em>You take it as it comes and enjoy the moment<\/em>.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<article class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full focus:outline-none [--shadow-height:45px] has-data-writing-block:pointer-events-none has-data-writing-block:-mt-(--shadow-height) has-data-writing-block:pt-(--shadow-height) [&amp;:has([data-writing-block])&gt;*]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]\" dir=\"auto\" data-turn-id=\"request-69332d86-d238-8330-b860-4f970811d6f8-0\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-14\" data-scroll-anchor=\"true\" data-turn=\"assistant\">\n<div class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] @w-sm\/main:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(16)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\">\n<div class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group\/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\">\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-1\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"c23c4f8b-abcf-4f7f-9227-75ebbb87ebf5\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5-1\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[1px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words dark markdown-new-styling\">\n<p data-start=\"2851\" data-end=\"3160\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">The Leafs now face a stretch defined by survival and patience. Woll\u2019s injury couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time, but Toronto has no choice but to lean on its young goalies until reinforcements arrive. Whether this duo can keep the Leafs afloat will be one of the team\u2019s defining storylines in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p data-start=\"2851\" data-end=\"3160\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Main Photo Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Maple Leafs are suddenly navigating a major shakeup in their crease after placing goaltender Joseph Woll on injured reserve Saturday with a lower-body injury. In response, the team recalled Artur Akhtyamov from the AHL, signaling that Toronto is preparing to roll with an inexperienced tandem for the near future. The IR move is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5672,"featured_media":465100,"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":[18,4547,6671,34,4548],"tags":[1092],"class_list":["post-479616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl","tag-joseph-woll"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479616","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\/5672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479616"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479621,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479616\/revisions\/479621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}