Did the Toronto Maple Leafs Make a January ?
Arguably the most stressful situation the Toronto Maple Leafs had this season was trying to maneuver around all the goaltending issues throughout the year.
Coming out of the 2022-23 season there was a ton of questions around the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending situation. Matt Murray’s health was a main focal point, Ilya Samsonov pending contract talk and whether or not Joe Woll could take the next jump in his development.
Things became even more skeptical before the season started when it was learned that Murray would miss the entirety of the upcoming year with hip surgery which left management signing Martin Jones as an insurance goalie.
While some were very critical of the signing due to the last half decade of results from the veteran goalie, however, the contract did not disturb anything the team could have done with the cap space while giving the team a “just in case”.
As the season progressed on, Samsonov showed signs of why the Washington Capitals gave up on the their former first round pick. The team was collecting points with him in net despite how bad he was playing as he posted a 5-1-3 record with a 3.21 GAA and .886 Save Percentage through his first 11 appearances leading to Woll taking over as the number one goalie.
As fans got excited about their top goalie prospect looking to be taking strides towards being an upper end goalie in the league things came crashing down on the Maple Leafs in early December when Woll went down with an ankle injury. To everyone’s fear Samsonov was handed the keys to the number one spot again and after a stretch of surrendering 21 goals over a four game stretch he was placed on waivers.
With Woll and Samsonov away from the team, the organization gave Jones seven consecutive starts while calling up prospect Dennis Hildeby to be the back-up but never gave the Swedish an opportunity.
