The Toronto Maple Leafs were heading into this off-season with a bit of a goalie log jam to rearrange before next season.
Under contract were Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll, a tandem that combined for the league’s best save percentage in 2024-25, before sliding back to 17th in 2025-26. They had a combined cap hit of $7.41 million through at least the 2027-28 season before Woll’s contract is set to expire. However, both players had trouble staying healthy and their “availability” was an issue. This past season Dennis Hildeby stepped up from the AHL into 20 NHL games and was statistically the Maple Leafs’ best netminder with a .914 save percentage and 2.80 goals-against average. He was the only one of the three with a positive Goals Saved Above Expected.
The logjam was created by Hildeby losing his waiver exemption status next season, so if the Maple Leafs were to send him back to the AHL after training camp, every other team would have a chance to claim him first. It seems unlikely he would pass through with that performance, and the fact that he has two years remaining on his contract with an $841,667 AAV.
So on Tuesday the Maple Leafs traded Woll to Philadelphia along with defenceman Simon Benoit. Curiously, they didn’t solve this logjam, as the Maple Leafs received 26-year-old goalie Samuel Ersson and 24-year-old defenceman Emil Andrae in return. Both players are arbitration-eligible RFAs who need new contracts before next season.
On the surface, Ersson is not an upgrade on any of Toronto’s goalies from last season. His save percentage has declined over three years, down to .870 this season, and of the 66 NHL netminders who played at least 20 games this past season, Ersson’s -16.5 GSAE ranked 62nd. The questions become: Is Ersson a project whose career the Maple Leafs feel they can resurrect? Is he destined to be the one put through waivers next season? Or will Toronto leave him unqualified as an RFA, thus making him a UFA when the market opens July 1?
Maple Leafs GM John Chayka didn’t commit to any possibility in his post-trade press conference.
“We’re going to make some decisions on what that looks like,” Chayka said. “He’s a good young goaltender, he’s someone we identified as having some upside and someone our staff could work with. So we’ll get together with (goaltending coach Curtis McElhinney) and make that decision.”
Interestingly, the more impactful part of this trade from Toronto’s side might be Andrae. A small, five-foot-nine, 189-pound defenceman with a puck-moving profile, Andrae played sheltered minutes on Philadelphia’s bottom pair for 61 regular season games in 2025-26 with a high percentage of offensive zone starts, but only produced 13 points. It’s well-known that the Maple Leafs are seeking to add more of that type of defenceman to the mix, and he may be the real project here.
From Philadelphia’s side of things, with rumours rampant that Dan Vladar will soon sign a multi-year extension, Woll ends up as their backup or 1B option.
“I always thought the Leafs would rehabilitate (Woll) up enough where they’d get more value,” said Steve Valiquette, former NHL goalie and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics, on Real Kyper and Bourne. “My only critique of this trade is maybe a little bit too soon. But I suppose the World Championships and his performance there really had the Leafs worried.”
In the end, we have to also consider that the Maple Leafs picked up some draft capital with the third-round pick, and shaved just over $5 million off their salary cap before signing either of their newly acquired players. As Toronto re-shapes its mix, those two “assets” cannot be underrated.
For a closer look at the players involved in this trade, we turn to our scout Jason Bukala.
Analyzing the trade between the Maple Leafs and the Flyers produces as many question marks as it does answers. Both teams are taking on a degree of risk with these transactions.
First, let’s look at the two goalies in the deal.
The Flyers took a step forward this season by making the playoffs and advancing to the second round. Vladar, their starting goaltender, proved he is capable of playing over 50 games in the regular season, but the Flyers recognized the need to have another goalie on their roster. Adding Woll could provide the Flyers a more stable tandem to rely upon, but it will depend entirely on whether or not Woll can stay healthy. Woll has struggled with injuries for long stretches throughout his career, as everyone in Leafs Nation knows.
As mentioned above, the Maple Leafs had a logjam in their organizational depth chart between the pipes before this trade:
• Stolarz is about to enter into Year 1 of his four-year extension.
• Hildeby is an affordable back-up option for Toronto. His contract counts $841,667 per season over the next two years but he isn’t waiver exempt anymore, so the Maple Leafs would risk losing him if they attempted to send him back to the AHL.
• Toronto Marlies starting goaltender Artur Akhtyamov, currently in the Calder Cup Final, is signed through the 2028-29 season and positioned nicely to challenge for an NHL job. He has one more year of waiver exemption left on his deal so his contract gives the Maple Leafs some strategic flexibility.
• Ersson is a pending RFA. His qualifying offer is set at $1.6 million, which is too rich for me but could work in the Maple Leafs’ favour.
• Ersson is only 26 years old. If Toronto qualifies him, it’s more likely they can slip him through waivers at training camp despite the fact they would be exposing him to the other clubs in the league. I don’t see Ersson having the same value as Hildeby.
Now for the rest of the deal from Toronto’s side:
My phone started blowing up as soon as the trade was announced and the player everyone is most interested to learn more about is left-shot defenceman Emil Andrae.
One of the more glaring weaknesses the Maple Leafs had last season was their lack of ability to track pucks down in their zone to then launch the counter-attack quickly and efficiently. The addition of Andrae is an upgrade compared to Benoit, but not as much as outsiders may expect from a defenceman who is listed at five-foot-nine, 189 pounds.
The following breakdown, courtesy of NHL Edge, illustrates how Andrae compares to other NHL defencemen in several key categories:
Andrae’s ice time ranged dramatically in Philadelphia. Some nights he would be deployed as little as seven minutes, while other games he logged over 20. Almost all of his shifts came at even strength. He found himself in and out of Philadelphia’s lineup in the playoffs as he battled through an upper-body injury that limited him to only four games.
Here’s the breakdown of how Andrae was deployed in the four playoff games he suited up for this spring. I would usually be more concerned about how he was being used, but the fact that he was pushing through an injury has to be considered.
Toronto is clearly hoping Andrae, especially at his relatively young age, can provide the group with more stability in relation to tracking and moving pucks from their zone. He’s best described as a two-way defenceman who will contribute some secondary depth offence. Andrae produced two goals and 11 assists in 61 games with the Flyers this season.
He isn’t a high-volume shooter (he only directed 38 shots on goal), but he did dole out 68 hits and blocked 58 shots, which is noteworthy based on the fact that he was a bottom-pairing defenceman in Philadelphia and will likely compete for the same role in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs now own four picks in the first 85 slots at this year’s draft. The organization had been very aggressive in recent years trading away draft capital while they were chasing playoff success. As surprising as it might sound to some, the third-round pick could end up tilting this trade in Toronto’s favour over the long run.
I’m of the opinion that acquiring draft capital, at any stage of the draft, is always a wise strategy. The more swings at the plate, the better. Here’s a look at the Maple Leafs’ draft board after the trade with the Flyers: