Confirmed with Link: Leafs acquire Emil Andrae, Samuel Ersson, 2026 3rd for Joseph Woll, Simon Benoit

[meefer]

Good luck to both Woll and Benoit. Don't know anything about the D kid they picked up, will have to wait and see...but that cap space is intriguing.

 

[cyris]

Woll's wc performance probably didn't help his value too

It also doesn’t help when everyone knows you need to trade a goalie.
I probably would have preferred to trade Stolarz but there probably wasn’t much interest.

I was hoping for a 2nd so I can live with a 3rd and a young D even if I’m not that high on him

 

[Malachi Crunch]

f*** off with this AI garbage.

Okay, next time I'll write a small essay from scratch.

 

[The Management]

Couple thoughts.

I'm guessing teams wanted an asset / draft pick in order to take on Anthony Stolarz, and the Leafs, asset-poor, didn't want to do that. Instead, they get a draft pick and a bit of a project defenseman.

I also really wonder about Woll's fit with the team, as everything seemed to go off the rails last year when the season opened with him being unexpectedly unavailable. We don't know the full circumstances there, but it wouldn't shock me if Stolie is more well-regarded in the locker room. He was bad. But he showed up. Total speculation on my part.

I still don't love it, but we've all been expecting a goalie trade of some kind, and goalies don't hold much trade value. Woll has been good when healthy, though, and this does have the potential of biting us in the arse for a fairly nominal return.

 

[Leafsfan74]

This has "A.I data, advanced stats driven" all over it.

An underwhelming return for these players in my opinion. I am glad they stuck with Stolie instead of Woll though. Stolie has some fire in him that the team desperately needs. Trading Woll and Benoit (who is underrated for his physical play) should return something a little more tantalizing than this in my opinion. Though another 3rd Round pick cannot be bad.

There are plenty of teams who need a goalie, they are a strong assets to wield and must bring back a strong return every time.

 

[thinkblue]

 

[Buds17]

I am first and hopefully foremost thrilled that the answer to alleviating the logjam in goal wasn't to remove Hildeby from its equation. Now, we'll have to maintain a 1A and 1B in net with Stolarz and Hildeby that should involve the latter establishing a new career high in starts. Ersson can be the backup to AA in the AHL and serve as the organizational #4. Not expecting more than bottom pairing from Andrae but do hope he can build on this past season and be relatively adept at bringing some offence and defence to the role. Became a bit younger, created some cap space and hopefully haven't regressed. I neither like nor dislike this move to any great extent right now.

 

[1specter]

Rielly won’t be here at minimum.

Yeah Rielly must be gone. You're not trading Joseph Woll for a press box d-man.

 

[Stephen]

A third isn’t a bad return for an oft injured goalie, who just had a terrible World Championship. Plus we dumped Benoit’s contract.

We got a third and two players that we likely don’t tender an offer to.

It seems a little odd that we wouldn’t qualify Andrae since he’s a player type might need. But now we have even more cap flexibility to go screw up Tampa’s day on the Raddysh front.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Damn, would have loved to keep a young home grown goalie along with Hildeby and AA. He also had a few very good playoff performances but I admit 2025 playoffs were a shit show for him.

 

[Metroid]

The Leafs traded their best goalie for essentially nothing, and a negative value asset. They are a worse team thats easier to play against after this trade. And they made the deal with a team who owns their first.

Well done Chayka, A+

The KING of overreactions on almost anything Toronto does good or bad lol... Pun intended...

 

[yubbers]

World Championships made up Chaykas mind.

 

[Devils Trap]

He isnt like by hockey guys cause he is small. Thats it.

His play on the icer is always been an A grade and im not surprised Chayka wanted him. I see alot of Sam Malinski in his game

 

[seanlinden]

I don't get this one at all from Toronto's standpoint.

Ersson is likely worthless. Woll is coming off a rough year at 3.31/.899 in 39 games, but that's better than Ersson has ever performed in a season.

As for Andrae, not sure what to make of him. Is he untapped potential waiting for a breakout opportunity? or just another Denis Malgin type who's fancy stats looked decent; but overall a reasonably useless player.

 

[Raging Bull]

What a shit deal

 

[Fogelhund]

I'm not sure if it was on here or maybe one of the TSN personalities saying the Flyers were kicking tires and interested in Woll just a few weeks ago.

Gaining the cap space is probably the best thing about this deal. And people need to relax....it's day 2 of the offseason!

With the way AA is performing this playoff it should be an interesting battle for the net next year with Hildeby/Stolarz likely getting starts and AA putting pressure on them. Ersson can be a Marlie with NHL experience if both guys go down with injury. Will see how Peksa progresses too.

Peksa is reportedly going back to the KHL.

Will need a goalie or two, but not at Ersson’s $1.6mil QO. We really need a cap min guy or two to take those spots.

 

[JKG33]

I'm not sure if it was on here or maybe one of the TSN personalities saying the Flyers were kicking tires and interested in Woll just a few weeks ago.

Gaining the cap space is probably the best thing about this deal. And people need to relax....it's day 2 of the offseason!

With the way AA is performing this playoff it should be an interesting battle for the net next year with Hildeby/Stolarz likely getting starts and AA putting pressure on them. Ersson can be a Marlie with NHL experience if both guys go down with injury. Will see how Peksa progresses too.

I feel like there were Woll to Philly rumors for basically Briere's entire time there

 

[fahad203]

Couple thoughts.

I'm guessing teams wanted an asset / draft pick in order to take on Anthony Stolarz, and the Leafs, asset-poor, didn't want to do that. Instead, they get a draft pick and a bit of a project defenseman.

I also really wonder about Woll's fit with the team, as everything seemed to go off the rails last year when the season opened with him being unexpectedly unavailable. We don't know the full circumstances there, but it wouldn't shock me if Stolie is more well-regarded in the locker room. He was bad. But he showed up. Total speculation on my part.

I still don't love it, but we've all been expecting a goalie trade of some kind, and goalies don't hold much trade value. Woll has been good when healthy, though, and this does have the potential of biting us in the arse for a fairly nominal return.

He could totally turn it around but to be honest he was trending towards the opposite. He's very injury proned and inconsistent.

Maybe Woll wanted to move along. Who knows. I don't like the return. But maybe we were overvaluing him too much

 

[Aashir]

Woah….andrae was not on my list of players we’d target

How should I feel about this guy?

I wanted to trade woll+ for zellwegger or hayton.

 

[1specter]

A third isn’t a bad return for an oft injured goalie, who just had a terrible World Championship. Plus we dumped Benoit’s contract.

We got a third and two players that we likely don’t tender an offer to.

No chance we don't re-sign Andrae IMO.

 

[JKG33]

The KING of overreactions on almost anything Toronto does good or bad lol... Pun intended...

LOL well done

 

[Fogelhund]

 

[leafs in five]

Benoit is exactly the kind of dman that playoff teams that missed out on good dmen give up too much for at the deadline, it was very silly to wait to the offseason to move him. I also don't like dealing with GMs who have recently taken us to the woodshed in trades. but obviously I have no idea about the dman we got.

 

[Tak7]

Woll was one of the few personalities on this team that actually seemed super likeable

 

[Fogelhund]

No chance we don't re-sign Andrae IMO.

After learning more. Agreed