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Toronto Maple Leafs Matias Maccelli (David Kirouac-Imagn Images)

Maple Leafs News & Rumours: Woll, Maccelli, Stolarz & Hildeby

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By The Old Prof | Last updated Dec 16, 2025 3:15 PM ET

The Toronto Maple Leafs are back at it tonight, closing out a five-game homestand against the Chicago Blackhawks, and the storyline almost writes itself. This game isn’t about the standings or the opponent as much as it’s about time. Specifically, it’s about the third period — the final twenty minutes. Toronto has watched two winnable games slip through its fingers late, and the echoes are starting to feel familiar.

Saturday against Edmonton was the best example of the Maple Leafs’ implosion. Three unanswered goals in the third period turned a tight game into a 6–3 loss to the Oilers. Before that, there was San Jose, where a 2–0 second-period lead dissolved late and ended in an overtime defeat at the hands of the Sharks. In each of these games, the Maple Leafs failed to take control. They didn’t kill plays. They allowed the game to happen to them.

Chicago arrives shorthanded, without Connor Bedard, and searching for traction of its own. On paper, this should be a game Toronto dictates. In reality, it’s a test of whether the Maple Leafs can finally come through when the game tightens. And woven into that bigger question are three smaller ones — about goaltending health, lineup trust, and how much patience the organization really has left.

Here is some news affecting Toronto for the upcoming game.

Item One: Joseph Woll Will Be Back Between the Pipes

Joseph Woll is set to start Tuesday night at home against the Chicago Blackhawks. It will be his first game since Dec. 4, when he faced the Carolina Hurricanes. Woll has missed four straight games with a lower-body injury and is still technically listed on injured reserve, though that label will disappear sometime today. The important part is that he’s healthy enough to play, and the Maple Leafs are ready to hand him the crease again.

Before the injury, Woll had stabilized the goaltending picture. He’d won back-to-back starts and looked composed doing it, posting a 1.20 goals-against average and a .960 save percentage over that stretch. In short, he gave the team the kind of goaltending that lets a team breathe.

The matchup helps. The Blackhawks come in without Connor Bedard and sit 24th in the league in goals per game, making this a sensible spot to ease Woll back into action. How Woll looks and feels after, and how the Maple Leafs manage his workload, will tell us about where this team thinks its goaltending is headed as the season deepends and games start to carry more weight.

Item Two: Matias Maccelli Is on the Outside Looking In

Matias Maccelli was absent from Monday’s practice due to illness, which either matters or it doesn’t, depending upon the perspective you take. However, it does add a wrinkle to a situation that already seems stuck in the mud. Even if the illness clears in time for Tuesday’s game, there’s no guarantee Maccelli would be back in the lineup. He’s been a healthy scratch for seven-straight games, and nothing about the recent rotation suggests that’s about to change.

The problem for Maccelli is that he doesn’t come close to fitting the Maple Leafs’ new DNA. DNA or not, he probably looked too tempting to pass up. It now seems like a tactical misread, and Maccelli has been parked in the press box despite his four goals and five assists in 22 games this season. Not headline numbers, but not zero.

At some point, the bigger question becomes: where does Maccelli fit, if at all? Right now, he looks less like a player waiting for his chance and more like one who’s completely fallen out of the picture. Whether that changes remains a future decision, probably based on injuries or on whether the team keeps losing and needs any boost from anywhere they can find one.

Item Three: Anthony Stolarz Remains Sidelined

Anthony Stolarz’s return to the Maple Leafs crease now seems far, far down the road. Head coach Craig Berube confirmed Tuesday that Stolarz will see a specialist about his upper-body injury, reporting that recovery hasn’t progressed as the team hoped. While a concussion has been ruled out, Stolarz still hasn’t resumed skating, which keeps his timeline firmly in the uncertain column.

For now, the Maple Leafs will lean on Woll with Dennis Hildeby continuing as the backup. The original plan — once Stolarz and Woll were healthy — was a split crease. That plan is paused, if not shelved, until Stolarz gets the all-clear.

This is one of those situations where phrasing matters. “Not making the progress we thought” usually means optimism has given way to resolve. Until Stolarz is back on the ice, the Maple Leafs’ goaltending picture remains unsettled, with Woll’s health and success carrying more weight than the organization probably intended when the season began.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

For the Maple Leafs, getting back on track tonight is about intent. Berube has been clear. The team’s urgency can’t depend on the score. Whether they’re leading or chasing, the Maple Leafs have to play the same way in the third period as they do in the first. That means being direct with the puck, finishing plays instead of managing them, and taking control rather than waiting for the game to settle.

Oddly, the Maple Leafs’ success or failure doesn’t depend at all on the strength of the opposition. They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning and Hurricanes easily, but fall apart against the Sharks? It almost doesn’t matter whether Chicago is short-handed. It’s how the Maple Leafs play the game that counts.

At home, this is the kind of game the Maple Leafs are expected to win. If Toronto wants to stop the slide, it starts with owning the final twenty minutes. Can they change the way they approach the game?