On Tuesday, July 2, the Toronto Maple Leafs and veteran goaltender Matt Murray came to an agreement, re-signing Murray to a new deal.
Murray will return to the Leafs on a one-year, $875,000 contract, the team announced on the second day of free agency. Murray signed a $25 million, four-year contract with Toronto at the conclusion of the 2023–2024 season.
Murray previously signed a contract with the Ottawa Senators in 2020. On July 11, 2022, he was traded to the Maple Leafs in exchange for future considerations, along with a third-round pick in 2023 and a seventh-round pick in 2024.
Murray, who turned 30 in May, appeared in just 26 games for the Leafs in 2022–2023 and finished with a 14–8-2 record while maintaining a.903 save percentage and giving up an average of 3.01 goals against.
But the seasoned goalie, who last appeared on April 2, 2023, was sidelined for the entire 2023–24 campaign due to a concussion he sustained in a game against the Detroit Red Wings.
In September 2023, Brad Treliving, general manager of the Maple Leafs, revealed that Murray would require a “significant” surgery. As a result, the netminder missed the entire season.
Murray has a 146-86-24 career record, a.910 save percentage, and a 2.79 GAA. He has won two Stanley Cups, both with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Re-signing young goalie Joseph Woll, a Maple Leaf
The Leafs got to work right away, realizing that they needed to strengthen and expand their group of goalies.
NHL insider Kevin Weekes revealed on June 24 that the Maple Leafs were “closing in” on an extension for young goalie Joseph Woll, one week before free agency opened on July 1.
On July 1, Woll was free to sign his extension; the team made the announcement as soon as possible after Woll’s official signing date.
With an annual cap hit of $3.66 million, the 25-year-old goalie inked a three-year, $11 million contract. Woll’s entry-level contract has one year left on it, so the extension will begin with the 2025–2026 campaign.
In the 2016 NHL Draft, the Leafs selected Woll with the 62nd overall pick. Since then, the goalie has made 39 appearances for the team, posting a 23-13-1 record. He has maintained a.915 save percentage while giving up 2.65 goals against on average.
In 2024, Woll had a 12-11-1 record while playing for Toronto. In those 25 games, he stopped.907 of the shots he faced, giving up an average of 2.94 goals against.
Additionally, he played in three postseason games against the Boston Bruins, winning two of them to record a perfect 2-0 record. In those three games, he allowed a pitiful 0.86 goals against and recorded an incredible.964 save percentage.
Toronto Signs the Current Stanley Cup Winner Goalie
The Maple Leafs signed former Florida Panthers netminder Anthony Stolarz to a two-year, $5 million contract with an annual cap hit of $2.5 million on July 2, in between the extensions of their two goalies.
Stolarz was originally selected by the Philadelphia Flyers with the 45th overall pick in the 2012 draft. The goalie inked deals with the Panthers, his most recent team with whom he won the Cup, in 2023 after signing two two-year contracts with the Anaheim Ducks in 2019 and 2021.
For the 2025–26 season, Stolarz’s contract has an eight-team no-trade list; however, there are no protections for the 2024–25 season.
In 27 games in 2024, the 30-year-old goalie recorded a 16-7-2 record with a.925 save percentage.
Despite being an afterthought during the postseason, Stolarz made just one appearance in place of Sergei Bobrovsky, playing 35 minutes and giving up three goals while saving sixteen of the seventeen shots he faced in the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers.
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