The Toronto Marlies and Rochester Americans will resume the AHL’s North Division Finals on Wednesday evening, with the former receiving quite the reinforcement. Joseph Woll, fresh off taking over the Toronto Maple Leafs net in their second-round series, has been returned to the AHL.
Woll, 24, has been tremendous for the Marlies this season, posting a 16-4-1 record and .927 save percentage. He carried over that strong play to the NHL, where he went 6-1 in the regular season and registered a .915 in four playoff appearances.
The young netminder appears to be on track for a full-time NHL job next season, though nothing about the Maple Leafs looks set in stone at this point. If he does land a spot, it will provide the team with a significant salary cap advantage.
Woll signed a three-year extension in February 2022 that keeps him under contract through 2024-25 at a very affordable $767K cap hit. With uncertainty surrounding the future of Matt Murray, and Ilya Samsonov headed for restricted free agency, Woll could be the answer to some of Toronto’s long-standing goaltending issues.
The team has had trouble developing its own netminding prospects but showed great patience with the 62nd overall pick from 2016. Woll went to college for three years, suffered several injuries early in his pro career, and has generally progressed slowly (as goaltenders sometimes do).
For now, he’ll try to help the Marlies turn around the best-of-five series and stave off elimination, before entering a crucial offseason of training ahead of his big NHL opportunity.
And … he have up 8 goals on 35 shots.