Instant Analysis: Anthony Stolarz signs two-year, $2.5 million AAV ...
Stolarz is a former second-round pick of the Flyers out of the London Knights program. He played with Max Domi and then-OHL rookie Mitch Marner in 2013-14 (and won the OHL championship with Domi in 2012-13).
A journeyman who bounced around teams (Philadelphia and Edmonton) and levels (ECHL, AHL) for his first six professional seasons, Stolarz’s last three years were split between Florida, where he backed up Sergei Bobrovsky, and previously Anaheim, where he backed up John Gibson. The 30-year-old giant (6’6, 243 pounds) has succeeded in this limited role, starting roughly 25 games per season the last three seasons with a .915 SV%.
Also encouraging: Stolarz has posted a positive goal saved expected in all three seasons, spanning two very different teams: the defensive fortress in Florida and the defensive catastrophe that was the Ducks. He’s shown an ability to be dropped into different environments and succeed—as a backup.
All of the caveats about a limited-workload goalie who is now in his 30s apply here: Stolarz has never been a starter, and his only career playoff appearance was in the most recent Stanley Cup Final when he relieved Bobrovsky during the 8-1 Edmonton rout in Game 4. 18 of Stolarz’s 27 games this past season were against non-playoff teams behind the Stanley Cup champs, so a sparkling .925 SV% has to be kept in context as well.
It will be a bit smaller of a step up for Stolarz if he’s asked to play up to 35 games in tandem with Joseph Woll than some of the other cheap-ish, mid-age options the Leafs looked into in FA this summer (such as Laurent Broissoit, as Stolarz has played 16 more games over the last three years than Brossoit). But it goes without saying that a leap of faith is still involved with signing Stolarz for a larger responsibility than he’s managed in the league to date.
As always, goaltending health and performance is an unpredictable, wait-and-see proposition, especially with a tandem like the Leafs‘ current one. Woll enters the season with 39 games of total NHL experience and a long injury rap sheet, and Stolarz hasn’t managed a 30+ game workload since his AHL days. It underscores the importance of finding a veteran third-stringer with a notable NHL track record to supplement these two on the goalie depth chart (update: it’s Matt Murray). But there is great size, athleticism, poise in the crease, technical ability, and limited-sample results with the Woll-Stolarz tandem, and it’s all priced at just $3.3 million on the cap for 2024-25 and just $6.6 million for 2025-26.
