Toronto Maple Leafs’ goaltender Anthony Stolarz sat down with Leafs Morning Take and took us through the process of why he chose Toronto as a free agent.
After a career-season in Florida during the 2023-24 season, Stolarz became one of the hottest goaltenders on the open market before he ultimately chose to sign with the Maple Leafs on the first day of free agency. He sat down with Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on the Leafs Morning Take to discuss a variety of topics, including why he ended up choosing Toronto over the other teams that were interested.
“It was a quick turnaround with the parade on June 30th and then the next day you’re kind of signing on July 1st. So you know, I know there was some dialogue back and forth and you know once the season was officially over and I was kinda able to speak to my agent about things and see what he thought and he kinda presented me with all the options and I thought that Toronto was the best fit just in terms of the opportunity, a team that is a very strong contender and going to a city like Toronto is something that I am looking forward to and I’m really excited for it.”
Despite only playing in 27 games last year, Stolarz still had a remarkable campaign as he led the league in both save percentage (.925) and goals against average (2.03) all the while posting a 16-7-2 record with 2 shutouts as Sergei Bobrovksy’s backup.
Drafted in the 2nd round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, Stolarz finally stepped on the ice in 2016-17. Over the last 7 years, he’s quietly posted a 43-31-9 record with a .915 SV% and a 2.69 G.A.A. with the Flyers, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks, and most recently the Panthers.
In fact over his last 4 seasons, he’s posted a very strong .917 SV% and a 2.59 G.A.A., which includes a 9-game stint with a .929 SV% and a 2.18 G.A.A. for a downtrodden Ducks teams in 2019-20 and 2020-21. However, his biggest knock is that he hasn’t garnered a lot of experience since he has just 108 games under his belt and 83 starts to his name in 7 years.
As he alluded to in the interview, Toronto presented him with the opportunity to play more games in what should be a career-year in that category in 2024-25.
Forming a tandem with Joseph Woll, Stolarz will be given plenty of opportunities to stake his claim to the blue paint and with the Maple Leafs having revamped their blue-line this off-season, expect another strong showing in goal for the soon-to-be 31-year-old.
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