The Toronto Maple Leafs’ goalie situation this season has seen mixed results. The team’s primary goaltenders, Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll, have faced challenges with consistency and injury, which has impacted overall performance expectations. Samsonov initially struggled with inconsistency and cleared waivers after a rough stretch, raising questions about his reliability, although he has since shown some improvement. Joseph Woll, on the other hand, demonstrated solid play when healthy, though his durability remains a concern for the demanding NHL schedule【8†source】【9†source】.
To address these issues, veteran Martin Jones stepped in and helped stabilize the team’s defense during key games, showing strong positioning and contributing to a notable improvement in Toronto’s defensive performance. Head coach Sheldon Keefe’s management of these goalies, balancing Woll’s and Samsonov’s recovery and game time, is intended to allow one of them to establish a rhythm before the playoffs【9†source】【10†source】.
The goaltending situation remains uncertain, as Samsonov and Woll will need to maintain reliability for the Leafs to stay competitive. With the playoffs in mind, the Leafs may continue to utilize Jones as needed to manage workload and mitigate injury risks among their top two goaltenders.
Marc Savard as an assistant coach this summer, relieving Guy Boucher of his duties as the assistant responsible for running the power play last season, everyone was anticipating a strong bounce-back performance with the man-advantage for the Leafs this year. However, as we are all well aware, the success just hasn’t been there this season.
Savard ran a middle-of-the-pack power play in Calgary last season, which would have been a vast improvement with how the Leafs performed on the PP in the playoffs. However, not only is Savard’s power play not in the top-20 this season, it’s not even in the top-30. The Leafs currently own the league’s worst power play success rate, firing at just 8.8% this season — worse than the lowly Buffalo Sabres.
