{"id":418307,"date":"2026-01-20T18:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418307\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:30:14","slug":"anthony-stolarz-joins-toronto-marlies-in-next-stage-of-his-nhl-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418307\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Stolarz joins Toronto Marlies in next stage of his NHL return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Stolarz, missing from the Maple\u00a0Leafs\u2019\u00a0crease since\u00a0Nov.\u00a011<\/a>, is taking the next step in his return to game action.<\/p>\n

The club announced Tuesday morning he is going on conditioning loan to the American Hockey League\u2019s Toronto Marlies, though it\u2019s likely for practice purposes only and he\u2019s unlikely to play.<\/p>\n

He has been on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body nerve issue since a Remembrance Day match in Boston.<\/p>\n

Stolarz rejoined full practice on the Leafs\u2019 recent trip, but such activity will be limited for the team in a cramped schedule the rest of this month leading to the Olympic break. The Marlies have plenty of workout time this week, not in action until Friday, Saturday and Sunday on an East Coast swing through Springfield, Hartford and Providence.<\/p>\n

Leafs coach Craig Berube had raised the possibility of Stolarz getting an NHL start before the Olympic break and the team completes that stage of their schedule with four games out West, starting Jan. 29 in Seattle.<\/p>\n

WHAT STOLARZ\u2019S RETURN TO THE LEAFS WOULD MEAN<\/p>\n

Stolarz was a\u00a0workhorse early\u00a0in the season when Joseph Woll was at home for a month dealing with a personal issue.<\/p>\n

But after playing in 13 of the club\u2019s first 17 games, concerns that the 32-year-old goalie (his birthday is Tuesday) might have trouble carrying a full game load seemed to be justified when he broke down in the Boston game.<\/p>\n

His save percentage went from an impressive .926 last season to .884 when the whole team began to struggle in November.<\/p>\n

Despite giving up five to the Minnesota Wild\u00a0in\u00a0a 6-3 loss<\/a> Monday, Woll\u2019s save percentage is .910 and he has played quite well in Stolarz\u2019s absence with a record of 10-3-2.<\/p>\n

Dennis Hildeby came up from the Marlies and performed strongly as well. Despite lack of offensive support in many of his games, Hildeby has scrounged the Leafs points in nine of 15 games.<\/p>\n

But he does not require waivers to be returned to the farm and, though Berube has ruminated that he and general manager Brad Treliving might try carrying three goalies, going back to Stolarz and Woll in a steady rotation appears to be the best solution.<\/p>\n

It will keep extra skaters around in a very intense schedule, both this month and down the stretch in March and April.<\/p>\n

Hildeby might also be a trade chip as the March 6 deadline\u00a0approaches\u00a0and the\u00a0Leafs\u00a0assess what their needs are to stay in the playoff hunt and try to advance\u00a0a few rounds\u00a0if\u00a0they make it.<\/p>\n

lhornby@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

X:\u00a0@sunhornby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Stolarz, missing from the Maple\u00a0Leafs\u2019\u00a0crease since\u00a0Nov.\u00a011, is taking the next step in his return to game action.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[54,154,825,3081,5,3821,20,5172,38,4,25,2686,66,31,1725,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-418307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-anthony-stolarz","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-craig-berube","11":"tag-dennis-hildeby","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-joseph-woll","14":"tag-maple-leafs","15":"tag-mapleleafs","16":"tag-minnesota-wild","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-ottawa-senators","19":"tag-seattle","20":"tag-toronto","21":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","22":"tag-toronto-marlies","23":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115928853689719683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}