Leafs extend Joseph Woll 3 x 3.66M AAV

[herman]

https://x.com/mapleleafs/status/1807781209369444354
- - -
https://twitter.com/kevinweekes/status/1805237957093130611

This all but confirms Mirtle?s/Friedman?s (educated) speculation that the Leafs are pursuing a 1B option to platoon in the shorter term, especially since Shestyerkin and Hellebyuck at al are never shaking loose.

 

[bustaheims]

https://twitter.com/kevinweekes/status/1805237957093130611

This all but confirms Mirtle?s/Friedman?s (educated) speculation that the Leafs are pursuing a 1B option to platoon in the shorter term, especially since Shestyerkin and Hellebyuck at al are never shaking loose.

That's a lot of money for a guy with 38 total NHL starts (regular season and playoffs) to his name.

 

[Zee]

https://twitter.com/kevinweekes/status/1805237957093130611

This all but confirms Mirtle?s/Friedman?s (educated) speculation that the Leafs are pursuing a 1B option to platoon in the shorter term, especially since Shestyerkin and Hellebyuck at al are never shaking loose.

That's a lot of money for a guy with 38 total NHL starts (regular season and playoffs) to his name.

I like Woll but yeah I share these reservations.  They better be sure they can get his injury issues under control.

 

[L K]

I'm sorry but 3.5-4M for a guy with absolutely no track record is an absolutely terrible contract.  If that is legitimate this team's contention window is over.  The roster construction only works when you get to fill cheap holes.  Paying 4M to a guy who has a career high of 32 games played in a professional hockey season (2019-2022 in the AHL).

This organization can't help but pay people more than they need to all the time.  The stars don't take discounts.  Now we are paying Woll for the hypothetical of what if he can play 40+ games when he hasn't been able to do it in 5 professional seasons.  LTIR is fine but it doesn't replace the talent gap in the moment when your goalie goes down and we continue to have a thin prospect/pick pool to make trades to fill holes.

 

[Guilt Trip]

https://twitter.com/kevinweekes/status/1805237957093130611

This all but confirms Mirtle?s/Friedman?s (educated) speculation that the Leafs are pursuing a 1B option to platoon in the shorter term, especially since Shestyerkin and Hellebyuck at al are never shaking loose.

That's a lot of money for a guy with 38 total NHL starts (regular season and playoffs) to his name.

I like Woll but yeah I share these reservations.  They better be sure they can get his injury issues under control.

And if he can't he goes on LTIR. This guy is the real deal though, no doubt in my mind. I think we win that series if he started.
https://twitter.com/thegoldenmuzzy/status/1804224291183169801

 

[herman]

Seems like the only concern is Woll?s health, so they are banking on him out producing this low end starter?s salary, (with the only real risk being mitigated by LTIR) for the duration of Matthews? current window.

If the front office really believes in a player and has a chance to underpay over term, I have no problem with that. Really could?ve used it on the super star contracts. Cap?s jumping 5Mish every season too.

https://twitter.com/domluszczyszyn/status/1805242692126847284

 

[Guilt Trip]

I guess we can enjoy another season of a piss poor blueline that leads to an offense getting shut down when teams clog the neutral zone. 

This will have no effect on the blueline next season. Woll will make 766,667 next year.

 

[cw]

https://twitter.com/AnaheimDucks/status/1804247304104480877
https://twitter.com/richclune/status/1804882699540197825

Not exactly massively significant news, but Rich Clunes has left the organization to join the Ducks as an assistant coach. Very large opportunity for him after having just been an AHL assistant coach for half a season. He took over after Eric Wellwood has to take a LOA due to medical reasons, and I was just reading an article last week (here) about what a great job he did in such a short period of time.

Clune has been in the organization (of course primarily as a Marlie) since the 2015-16 season. By all accounts he made a very large impact both on and off the ice with the Marlies and it's a bit of a shame he won't be sticking around longer but obviously that's an offer he just can't pass up. Good luck to him there.

Seemed like a good guy who consistently helped in the Marlies in the various ways that he could.
I hope it works out for him. Not much security in a NHL coaching role ...

 

[L K]

I guess we can enjoy another season of a piss poor blueline that leads to an offense getting shut down when teams clog the neutral zone. 

This will have no effect on the blueline next season. Woll will make 766,667 next year.

Any of the premium free agent bluelines aren't signing 1-year deals.  That's still an issue for the cap next year.  Lots of money off the cap next year (Tavares and Marner) but a blueline that also currently consists of Rielly and Benoit.  We spend way too much time right up against the cap with a very flawed team.  I'm not sure that committing a solid cap hit to a guy who hasn't shown the ability to stay healthy is the right move to rush. 

I like Woll.  If he finds a way to not get injured I think his game is there to be an elite goalie but the organization hasn't found a way to keep him healthy yet.

 

[Zee]

I guess we can enjoy another season of a piss poor blueline that leads to an offense getting shut down when teams clog the neutral zone. 

This will have no effect on the blueline next season. Woll will make 766,667 next year.

Yup, and when Woll's new deal kicks in, the Tavares $11M is off the books (not to mention Marner's 10.9M and what becomes of that cap hit...)

 

[herman]

I would like to highlight the likely positive psychological effect of commitment for a goalie (the position most affected by such things). Samsonov was clearly fighting the pressure at times.

 

[L K]

I guess we can enjoy another season of a piss poor blueline that leads to an offense getting shut down when teams clog the neutral zone. 

This will have no effect on the blueline next season. Woll will make 766,667 next year.

Yup, and when Woll's new deal kicks in, the Tavares $11M is off the books (not to mention Marner's 10.9M and what becomes of that cap hit...)

Sure but we have massive holes everyone in that offseason too.  The projected cap is 92M right now.  If Woll signs for 4M we will have about 47M in cap space. We only have Rielly and Benoit signed on the blueline.  We would have 7 forwards signed and one of those is Reaves so we would need 6 forwards, 5 defensemen and a goalie.  If Woll plays healthy it's a perfectly fine deal.  But if he has more injury problems, the issue isn't that he gets hurt, its that he's unrealible when you need him and LTIR doesn't give you a talented goalie to replace the one you lost without giving up assets that we don't really have.

 

[cw]

They allegedly kicked tires on Markstrom. They probably checked in on trading for the other NHL starters like Saros. Looks like one of the back up UFAs is planned for as a 1B (per media rumours)

By now, they've reviewed Woll's health issues so they have a better understanding of where that is at. They have LTIR to cover them. When Woll was healthy, he was better than Samsonov (though that may not be saying all that much)

It appears that they're planning on adding a couple of RH UFA dmen. So the goalie stats are likely to improve which could cost them. He is arbitration eligible which tips the scales for me. If he is their starter and stays healthy this season, he could be in a much better negotiating position next summer with arbitration. If he wipes out physically, he's on LTIR (which isn't a big deal for the Leafs financially).

This contract doesn't kick in until next year when they get more cap space.

There's definitely some risk either way for the Leafs on this.
The Leafs are the only ones with the medical and inside knowledge to make that kind of call.
It's hard to be critical with confidence as we don't have all the facts they have.

If Woll's body breaks down, he'll have $10.5-12 mil socked away with this deal so he's getting some of his medical risk taken care of in a pretty big way.

Knies is also a RFA in 2025-26 but not arbitration eligible. They might have Hyman in the back of their minds when they handle that contract (not identical circumstances). It would also be high on my priority list because he looks like he's ready to break out. Knies agent would know all about that. The Woll deal is a sign they're thinking ahead for 2025-26.

 

[Guilt Trip]

I guess we can enjoy another season of a piss poor blueline that leads to an offense getting shut down when teams clog the neutral zone. 

This will have no effect on the blueline next season. Woll will make 766,667 next year.

Yup, and when Woll's new deal kicks in, the Tavares $11M is off the books (not to mention Marner's 10.9M and what becomes of that cap hit...)

They're in a very good spot in 25/26. They have roughly 19M this offseason to bolster the D, find a 1B and add up front.

 

[bustaheims]

And if he can't he goes on LTIR. This guy is the real deal though, no doubt in my mind. I think we win that series if he started.

Sure, but that's a massively significant issue. He's getting low-end starter money when he's never come close to a starter's workload in a season and has a deeply concerning injury history. He may be the real deal, but he hasn't proven he can do that for extended stretches or be healthy enough to be counted on. He's not a guy the team should be committing to at this point. He's much more of a question mark than a solution. Until he's shown he can handle ~45 or more starts in a season and play at high level for the majority of them, he should not be getting anywhere near this kind of contract.

 

[Guilt Trip]

And if he can't he goes on LTIR. This guy is the real deal though, no doubt in my mind. I think we win that series if he started.

Sure, but that's a massively significant issue. He's getting low-end starter money when he's never come close to a starter's workload in a season and has a deeply concerning injury history. He may be the real deal, but he hasn't proven he can do that for extended stretches or be healthy enough to be counted on. He's not a guy the team should be committing to at this point. He's much more of a question mark than a solution. Until he's shown he can handle ~45 or more starts in a season and play at high level for the majority of them, he should not be getting anywhere near this kind of contract.

There is risk with every contract. Leafs feel he's going to be the #1. Sometimes you gotta sign them early to not pay so much down the road.
https://twitter.com/domluszczyszyn/status/1805242692126847284

 

[bustaheims]

There is risk with every contract. Leafs feel he's going to be the #1. Sometimes you gotta sign them early to not pay so much down the road.

There's no need to rush into this contract this summer, though. He's still signed through next season, and, he he shows himself to be a capable starter, then you sign him - and, unless he has a healthy, Vezina calibre season (which is unlikely), you still likely get him on a similar contract to this. It's just a completely unnecessary move at this point.

 

[Joe S.]

That's a lot of money for a guy with 38 total NHL starts (regular season and playoffs) to his name.

Yeah that was my initial thought as well.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

There's no need to rush into this contract this summer, though. He's still signed through next season, and, he he shows himself to be a capable starter, then you sign him - and, unless he has a healthy, Vezina calibre season (which is unlikely), you still likely get him on a similar contract to this. It's just a completely unnecessary move at this point.

This is kind of where I'm at with it too. Signing an extension a year early is, generally speaking, done at more of a team friendly deal. Obviously goalies are voodoo and all and maybe Woll wins the Vezina and or Hart and or Conn Smythe next season, but odds are at best he just has a season that warrants this exact type of extension but a year from now. So signing it now completely takes away any risk that Woll has an other riddled season or stumbles a little in what will essentially be his sophomore NHL season. And one or both of those things could very well happen.

 

[cabber24]

The Leafs never really bet on anyone long-term they just pay max dollar when players are peaking or gamble on one-year contracts so maybe we end up with some value here?

But no, he has not earned this contract yet.