Woll stopped 36 of 37 shots for the Marlies during his conditioning stint. When he returns, the Leafs will need to make a choice on Martin Jones.
Joseph Woll has rejoined the Toronto Maple Leafs following a one-game conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies.
Woll made his first professional start in little under three months, saving 36 of 37 shots in a Toronto Marlies victory over the Laval Rocket.
On December 7, Woll returned to action against the Ottawa Senators after suffering a high ankle sprain. The Leafs may ultimately elect to get the goaltender into more games, but the netminder will eventually return to the Maple Leafs. When that happens, the Leafs will have to figure out what they do when it comes to roster composition.
Typically, once Woll returned, Martin Jones, the team’s third goaltender, would be placed on waivers before being assigned to the Toronto Marlies. Can the Leafs afford to take the risk of making him accessible to another team for 24 hours?
Jones, who signed a one-year contract worth $875,000, has supplied respectable goaltending when the team needed it. With Woll out and Samsonov struggling for a few months before the calendar turned from 2023 to 2024, Jones went 11-7-1 with a.907 save percentage.
While he started hot, Jones’ most recent performance did not set the globe on fire. Over his last five games, the 34-year-old has a save percentage of 0.856. That might be enough to prevent teams that don’t require goaltender assistance. However, many clubs could benefit from having another goaltender option, and the Leafs do not appear to want to take that chance.
It’s why they added a $100,000 signing bonus to Jones’ contract in October to deter other clubs from pursuing him the first time around.
The Maple Leafs are currently capable of accomplishing this. According to Puckpedia.com, the Leafs have little less than $2.9 million available while carrying 22 players.
