{"id":694621,"date":"2026-10-24T22:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T22:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/694621\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T22:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T22:24:12","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-turn-to-anthony-stolarz-in-net-for-meeting-with-red-hot-edmonton-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/694621\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs turn to Anthony Stolarz in net for meeting with red-hot Edmonton Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Stolarz<\/a> will start for the Leafs on Saturday in Edmonton, coach Jim Hiller announced in a pre-game media session. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust a decision, yeah,\u201d is all Hiller would say when asked why Toronto\u2019s back-up goalie is getting the call against the red-hot Oilers. <\/p>\n

Sergei Bobrobsky allowed four goals on 25 shots in Toronto\u2019s win over the New York Rangers<\/a> on Thursday. It was his worst game by save percentage (.840) through eight starts with the Leafs. <\/p>\n

Bobrovsky did not take part in Friday\u2019s practice with the team, calling it a scheduled day off the ice for the 38-year-old. Hiller confirmed that Bobrovsky will dress as the back-up goalie in Edmonton. <\/p>\n

Stolarz stopped 36 of 38 shots to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> in his last start on Tuesday. It was a good bounce-back effort from the 32-year-old who had allowed five goals on 28 shots in his previous appearance in Utah. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys made a bigger deal out of it than we did,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cIt\u2019s a long season and you\u2019re going to have some ups and downs. I thought he was really good in Columbus, though, and gave us a great game despite the score (6-2). We got up early and they pushed a little bit late. He was good. We got a lot of belief in both those two goaltenders and glad we have them as a tandem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stolarz is 3-1-0 on the season with an .898 save percentage. Bobrovsky is 3-3-2 with an .895 save percentage. <\/p>\n

The Oilers are 8-1-1 and will likely be the stiffest test for the Leafs during a four-game trip, which starts Saturday and also includes stops in Calgary, Seattle and Vancouver. <\/p>\n

Edmonton captain Connor McDavid<\/a> is off to the hottest start of his career with 31 points in 10 games under new head coach Mike Babcock. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I see anything different,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cI see a little bit different style of play. I guess the other thing I would say is they\u2019re probably a little fresher than they\u2019ve been in past regular seasons based on the long playoff runs [in 2024 and 2025]. They\u2019ve certainly got their legs, and they\u2019ve been tough to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid has scored three goals in five career games against Stolarz, who played six games for Edmonton during the 2018-19 season. <\/p>\n

Stolarz was sharp in beating the Oilers in Edmonton last season. <\/p>\n

With injuries piling up on defence, Dakota Mermis<\/a> will draw into the Leafs lineup and make his season debut with the team on Saturday. The 32-year-old is projected to start on the third pair beside Oliver Ekman-Larsson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have played a little bit before, so I know him well and obviously a good player,\u201d Ekman-Larsson said. \u201cYou know what you\u2019re getting. He\u2019s a hard-working defenceman and makes that first pass easy and quick. So, I like his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projected Leafs lineup for Saturday\u2019s game: <\/p>\n

Cowan – Matthews – Roslovic<\/p>\n

Marchenko – Paul – Nylander<\/p>\n

McKenna – Sissons – Lettieri<\/p>\n

Duhaime – Blueger – MacEwen<\/p>\n

McCabe – Raddysh<\/p>\n

Rielly – Stecher<\/p>\n

Mermis – Ekman-Larsson<\/p>\n

Stolarz starts <\/p>\n

Bobrovsky <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Stolarz will start for the Leafs on Saturday in Edmonton, coach Jim Hiller announced in a pre-game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[32469,4759,32610,5,20,5172,4,34394,66,31,32467,5171],"class_list":["post-694621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-anthony-stolarz-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476932","tag-apple-news","tag-edmonton-oilers-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-22","tag-hockey","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-nhl","tag-sergei-bobrovsky-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8475683","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10","tag-torontomapleleafs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117498233709332327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694621","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=694621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}