Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll is sidelined week-to-week with a high ankle sprain, the team announced Saturday.
Woll sustained the injury on a seemingly innocuous play in Toronto's 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. He stopped 29 of 31 shots prior to exiting the contest.
Woll went down after this pic.twitter.com/pYAzCbABPV
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 8, 2023
Woll had started five consecutive games before sustaining the injury. The 25-year-old has an 8-5-1 record with a .916 save percentage in 15 appearances this season.
Ilya Samsonov - the Maple Leafs' starter last year - has struggled in the early going, losing the starting job to Woll in recent weeks. The 26-year-old is 4-1-3 on the campaign with a career-low .878 SV% in 10 games. He's been unavailable to back up the past two games due to an illness.
Martin Jones relieved Woll on Thursday, stopping nine of 10 shots to secure the win. The veteran netminder has played sparingly with the AHL's Marlies, posting an .870 SV% in five contests. He had a 27-13-3 record and an .887 SV% last season with the Seattle Kraken.
"Tough blow for our team, tough blow for Joseph," head coach Sheldon Keefe said, according to the Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan. "But a tremendous opportunity here now for the other two guys, Samsonov in particular."
Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren has been out since Nov. 2, also due to a high ankle sprain.
Toronto faces the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
