The Toronto Maple Leafs reached an agreement with goaltender Matt Murray on Tuesday, July 2, re-signing the veteran to a new contract.
The Leafs will bring back Murray on a one-year, $875,000 contract, as announced by the franchise on the second day of free agency. Murray completed a four-year, $25 million contract with Toronto at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.
Murray signed his latest deal with the Ottawa Senators in 2020 and was traded to the Maple Leafs on July 11, 2022, along with a 3rd-round pick in 2023 and a 7th-round pick in 2024 in exchange for future considerations.
Murray, who turned 30 years old in May, only played 26 games for the Leafs in 2022-23 posting a 14-8-2 record allowing 3.01 goals-against on average and keeping up a .903 save percentage.
The veteran netminder, however, last played on April 2 of 2023 and missed the 2023-24 season entirely. He last played on April 2 when he suffered a concussion in a game against the Detroit Red Wings.
Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving announced on September 2023 that Murray would undergo a “significant” surgery, which led to the netminder missing the entire season.
Murray is a two-time Stanley Cup champion (both titles won with the Pittsburgh Penguins) and has a career 146-86-24 record with a .910 save percentage allowing 2.79 GAA.
Maple Leafs Re-Sign Young Goalie Joseph Woll
With a clear need to bolster and add depth to their goaltender rotation, the Leafs went to work on that front early.
A week before the start of free agency on July 1, NHL insider Kevin Weekes reported (on June 24) that the Maple Leafs were “closing in” on an extension for young netminder Joseph Woll.
Woll was eligible to sign his extension on July 1 and he signed it officially on that date with the franchise announcing the news as soon as it could.
The 25-year-old shot-stopper signed a three-year, $11 million deal with a cap hit of $3.66 million yearly. As Woll still has a year left in his entry-level contract, the extension will kick in for the 2025-26 season.
The Leafs drafted Woll with the No. 62 pick in the 2016 NHL draft and the goalie has appeared in 39 games for the franchise putting up a 23-13-1 record to date. He’s allowed 2.65 goals-against on average while sustaining a .915 save percentage.
Woll posted a 12-11-1 record in 2024 with Toronto. He saved .907 of the shots he saw in those 25 games, allowing an average of 2.94 goals against.
He also appeared in three postseason games against the Boston Bruins, winning two matchups for a perfect 2-0 record while allowing a tiny 0.86 goals against and posting an extraordinary .964 save percentage in three games.
Toronto Signs Reigning Stanley Cup Champion Goaltender
Sandwiched between the extensions of their two goalies, the Maple Leafs signed former Florida Panthers netminder Anthony Stolarz to a two-year, $5 million deal with an annual cap hit of $2.5 million on July 2.
The Philadelphia Flyers originally drafted Stolarz in the 2012 draft with the No. 45 pick. The goalie signed two two-year contracts with the Anaheim Ducks in 2019 and 2021 and then inked a deal with his most recent team the Panthers in 2023 with whom he won the Cup.
Stolarz’s contract includes an 8-team no-trade list for the 2025-26 season but no protections for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign.
The netminder, aged 30, appeared in 27 games in 2024 putting up a 16-7-2 record with a .925 save percentage.
Stolarz was an afterthought in the postseason, however, appearing in relief of Sergei Bobrovsky just once to play 35 minutes allowing 3 goals and saving 16 of 19 shots against the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final.
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