Joseph Woll’s calming presence in net a big reason for Leafs’ turnaround

This season could have fallen apart and become a lost cause for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who floundered around for the first few months of the year and bottomed out at last place in the Eastern Conference on multiple occasions.

Instead, they’ve righted the ship, improving their record to 23-16-8 in the past few weeks and climbing to just two points out of the East’s second wild card spot.

Several players have contributed to the turnaround, including a red-hot Auston Matthews and a consistently strong run from William Nylander.

But goalie Joseph Woll, both healthy and effective, has turned in a .914 save percentage across his 19 appearances this season, which includes a 6-0-2 run in his past eight decisions.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the impact a healthy Woll has had on the team with former Maple Leafs forward Jay Rosehill.

Carter Hutton: Obviously with Anthony Stolarz’s start to the year and his injury, and he hasn’t been able to come back. Hildeby has been very good this year, but the story to me… Joseph Woll. He’s been unbelievable this year. He’s 10-1-1 in his last 12 games, two shutouts. Has it been a factor of like him being that calming presence?

Jay Rosehill: I think Joseph Woll is just a solid goaltender. I think he has shown that now. He’s got enough runway behind him that his good is very good, and I think his average is good enough to help the team win. There’s not a lot of blips on the radar. There’s not a lot of stinkers out there, and the only caveat with Joseph Woll is he has trouble staying healthy, and he has this year as well. It seems like every year there is a pretty good chunk of time that he misses.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…