TORONTO — The easiest portion of Anthony Stolarz’s nine-hour, back-to-work drive northwest from his home near the Jersey Shore to Toronto may have been crossing the border.
“Which is the best part,” Stolarz smiled Wednesday during a sit-down with Sportsnet.ca.
“You tell ’em you play for the Leafs and it’s, ‘OK, go ahead.’”
Although Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving downright smuggled his No. 1 goaltender north last summer — inking then-UFA Stolarz for a two-year pact at $2.5 million per — a tariff on the American talent is about to be imposed.
Formerly pegged as a career backup and five-team, injury-prone journeyman, the patient and persistent Stolarz finds himself with something fresh and exciting heading into yet another contract year: leverage.
He wants to use it toward an extension in Toronto “as soon as possible.”
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Hot off the busiest and best campaign of his jagged career (21-8-3), Stolarz and his agent, Allain Roy, are engaged in a “back and forth” with Treliving, trying to hammer out the longest and most lucrative contract of his life.
The team loves the goalie who backstopped them to a Round 1 victory over Ottawa, complete with a forearm shiver; the goalie loves the team that gave him runway and shot blocks and top-notch medical care.
But money must nudge this deal across the finish line.
“Just getting a fair deal for both sides,” says Stolarz, who has gauged the comparables at his position. “Not to totally get into anyone (else)’s contracts, but just getting a fair deal. It’s something I thought about a lot over the summer, just thinking: What would be the best number?
“And if there’s something that we can come to terms with, it helps the team and helps me as well. That’s probably the most important thing.”
Also important: timing.
Oct. 8 — date of Toronto’s opener and Stolarz’s first start since Sam Bennett’s concussion-causing flyby — isn’t a drop-dead deadline. But the goaltender certainly wants to wrap business before the puck drops.
“I want to kinda get it done with as soon as possible, especially before the season starts. You know, I’ve been through free agency three times now, so it’s nothing new to me. So, I’m gonna continue to go out there and play,” Stolarz, 31, says.
“But if there’s something that we can get done before the season, I think that would probably be best.”
The Maple Leafs already have 27-year-old partner Joseph Woll (also repped by Roy) on the books for a team-friendly $3.67 million cap hit through 2027-28 and would prefer to pay its tandem around $8 million or $9 million total — superb value against a spiking cap.
Though Stolarz is unique in terms of experience, injury history, and sheer size (6-foot-6, 243 pounds, size 15 kicks), recent comparables for extension include Chicago’s Spencer Knight (three years at $5.83 million), Vancouver’s Kevin Lankinen (five years at $4.5 million), and Utah’s Karel Vejmelka (five years at $4.75 million).
Stolarz posted a better save percentage (.926) than all of them in 2024-25. Heck, he even outduelled Hart champ Connor Hellebuyck (.925) in the category. That should help his case for salary.
He also required midseason knee surgery, suffered a concussion, and has never played more than 34 games in a single season — which cautions against term. (Three or four years is more likely than five.)
“We’re hopeful to find a good outcome. I don’t get into a whole lot of discussion about contracts. We’re seeing if it can fit,” Treliving said.
“It’s got to work for the player; he’s got to feel comfortable. It’s got to work for us. I’m confident until proven otherwise that we can find something that’s going to work, and hopefully we can do that in short order.”
Stolarz describes his first year as a Leaf as “a huge success for me personally,” what with the increased workload and stellar winning percentage. He takes pride in his consistency and “worker’s mentality,” regardless of whether it’s squeaking out a 1-0 shutout or a 5-4 W.
He believes his battle readiness not only pushes his goalie partner but also the skaters in front of him.
“He’s one of the best goalies in the league, and he showed it last year,” teammate and fellow Cup champ Oliver Ekman-Larsson says. “It’s a really good fit for this organization, this city.
“To have him and Woller is unbelievable too to have that talent… you don’t get that too often. That’s one thing that we have going for us, and we’re confident in. So, that would mean a lot to lock him up. He’s been proving that he can be a good goalie in this league, and I think he’s gonna take that to the next level this year.”
Healthwise, Stolarz assures “everything’s good to go” and he has been training “full throttle,” already hitting the ice 15 to 20 times this summer with personal goalie coach George Bosak and a small group of pro shooters in New Jersey.
Though Stolarz left Round 2 with a series lead and got the green light to back up Woll in Game 7 against the Florida Panthers last spring, he had no control over how the season ended.
Now, he’s using that bitter ending as fuel for a contract year he hopes won’t be a contract year afterall.
“It was tough, for sure. I mean, it was really the first time in my NHL career that I got eliminated from the playoffs. That was a feeling I’ve never had before, and it definitely stung,” Stolarz says.
“I came back to try to give the guys a lift, a little morale boost. And it’s just one of those things that is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. But we had four months to kinda fester on it. And everyone’s motivated here at camp. Everyone’s excited to get things going. Just kinda feel like we have unfinished business.”
In Stolarz’s mind, a critical part of that business would be better finalized before opening night.
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