Maple Leafs Goaltending 2026-27: Inside the Crease Logjam Behind Anthony Stolarz

The Maple Leafs goaltending picture is suddenly crowded

For the first time in years, the biggest question about Maple Leafs goaltending isn't whether Toronto has enough — it's whether Toronto has too many bodies for too few nets. After trading Joseph Woll to Philadelphia and bringing back Samuel Ersson, John Chayka now has Anthony Stolarz, Ersson, Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov all competing for a job in an organization that can only dress two goalies on a given night. The Maple Leafs goaltending depth chart has gone from a settled tandem to a genuine logjam in a matter of weeks.

That sounds like a good problem. In practice it is a roster-management puzzle with real consequences for the cap, for waivers, and for which prospects actually get to develop in Toronto rather than somewhere else.

Stolarz is the starter, full stop

Start with the one certainty. Anthony Stolarz is the No. 1 goaltender, locked in on a long-term extension, and nothing about the summer's moves changes that. When Stolarz has been healthy he has been one of the more efficient starters in the league by save percentage, and the Leafs committed to him precisely so they wouldn't have to relitigate the crease every offseason.

The asterisk is health. Stolarz has had durability questions, and the entire reason depth behind him matters is that Toronto cannot assume 60-plus starts. Whoever wins the backup job has to be ready to carry a real workload if needed — which is exactly why the competition behind Stolarz is worth watching.

There's a roster-construction logic at work too. In a league where the cap is climbing to $104 million, Toronto's decision to anchor the position with one well-priced starter and develop the rest internally is a deliberate efficiency play. The Leafs spent years pouring money and assets into the crease; the current build is meant to free up cap room for the forward and defensive holes that actually decide playoff series. That only works if the goalies behind Stolarz cost next to nothing — which raises the stakes on every decision below him.

The Samuel Ersson question

Samuel Ersson is the most interesting name, because his future with the team is the least clear. Ersson arrived in the Joseph Woll trade with the Flyers alongside defenceman Emil Andrae and a third-round pick, and on paper he is a former NHL starter who has handled big-league minutes. But he is a pending restricted free agent who needs a qualifying offer at a number around $1.6 million, and the Leafs may decide not to tender it.

The logic is uncomfortable but real: if Toronto views Hildeby and Akhtyamov as its developing tandem of the future, paying $1.6 million for what would be a third or fourth option doesn't fit. Declining to qualify Ersson would turn him into an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Keeping him, on the other hand, gives Chayka an experienced insurance policy and a goalie he could flip later. What the Leafs actually got in that deal — and what Ersson's role really is — is something we examined in our piece on the Ersson and Andrae return for Woll.

Dennis Hildeby's case

Dennis Hildeby is the homegrown option. The 24-year-old Swede is enormous at 6-foot-7, got his first taste of NHL action over the past two seasons, and recorded his first NHL shutout in December. His AHL numbers with the Marlies this season sat around a .912 save percentage and a 2.84 goals-against average across roughly 19 games — solid if unspectacular, and the kind of line that says ready-to-compete rather than ready-to-anoint.

Hildeby's edge is that he is waiver-exempt flexibility wrapped in legitimate size and pedigree. He can be sent to the Marlies without risk and recalled the moment Stolarz tweaks something, which makes him valuable even if he opens the year in the AHL. The question is whether the player who looked like the clear goalie-in-waiting a year ago still holds that title.

Artur Akhtyamov changed the conversation

He may not. Artur Akhtyamov's rise is the wild card in all of this. The Russian netminder earned AHL all-star recognition and was a central figure in the Marlies' run to the franchise's first Calder Cup since 2018, and that postseason performance forced the organization to reassess its internal pecking order. Where Hildeby was once comfortably ahead, Akhtyamov has closed the gap — and by some internal measures may have passed him.

Toronto recently extended Akhtyamov, a signal that the team sees him as part of the plan rather than depth filler. For a franchise that has spent a decade buying its goaltending rather than growing it, having two genuine prospects pushing for NHL time at once is a meaningful shift in how the organization is built.

The numbers game and the waiver math

Here is where it gets complicated. A team carries two goalies. Stolarz is one. That leaves one NHL job and, potentially, four candidates if you count Ersson, Hildeby, Akhtyamov and whatever the Leafs do at the margins. Waiver status becomes the deciding factor: a goalie who can be moved to the Marlies freely is more useful to the roster than one who must clear waivers and could be claimed.

That math is why Ersson's qualifying-offer decision and the prospects' development paths are linked. If Toronto keeps Ersson as the veteran backup, Hildeby and Akhtyamov split the Marlies crease and wait. If Toronto lets Ersson walk, one of the two young goalies likely backs up Stolarz from opening night. Chayka has consistently prioritized flexibility this summer, and the cleanest version of that is to keep options open as long as the cap allows. You can see how the goaltending commitments stack up on our contracts page.

Why Chayka traded the depth he had

It is fair to ask why a team would trade Joseph Woll — a capable, well-liked NHL goalie — and then create a logjam behind Stolarz anyway. The answer Chayka has pointed to is goaltending depth itself: the Leafs felt they had enough internal options that Woll's value was better spent acquiring a defenceman and a pick than kept as insurance. That was a philosophy bet as much as a hockey one, and we dug into the broader logic in our look at why Woll was always the likelier goalie to move.

Whether it proves right depends entirely on Hildeby and Akhtyamov. Trade a known quantity, bet on developing talent, and you'd better be right about the developing talent. The Marlies' championship run gave Chayka cover to make that argument. A rough month from both prospects next fall would make it look reckless.

What's next

The first domino is the Ersson qualifying-offer call before the late-June deadline. That decision tells you how Toronto really values its prospects: qualify Ersson and you're hedging, decline and you're committing to youth behind Stolarz. From there, training camp becomes a genuine competition for the first time in years, with Hildeby and Akhtyamov fighting for the backup role and the Marlies net.

For a decade, Maple Leafs goaltending was a problem the team kept trying to spend its way out of. Heading into 2026-27, it's the opposite — a surplus of plausible answers behind a starter the team believes in. Sorting out which ones to keep is the next test of Chayka's roster-building, and the clock starts at the qualifying-offer deadline.