Grading the Joseph Woll trade: Leafs, Flyers swap depth pieces in reasonable fashion
The 2026 NHL offseason officially began in earnest on Tuesday with a flurry of notable transactions, the first (and biggest) being an unexpected trade between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers.
Given his track record of near-ceaseless activity with the Arizona Coyotes, it felt like it wouldn’t take long for new Leafs general manager John Chayka to make his first significant move in Toronto. On Tuesday, he pulled the trigger on a major deal, sending Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to the City of Brotherly Love for Emil Andrae, Sam Ersson, and a third-round pick in this year’s draft.
TRADE: We’ve acquired defenceman Emil Andrae, goaltender Samuel Ersson and a third-round selection in the 2026 NHL Draft from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for goaltender Joseph Woll and defenceman Simon Benoit
Given the contractual status of both players heading to Toronto, the five-piece deal might end up being less meaningful than it first appeared when it broke, but it’s still worth diving into in greater detail.
That’s right: it’s time for another edition of Daily Faceoff‘s Trade Grades!
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Receive:
G Joseph Woll, 27 – $3.67 million cap hit through 2028
D Simon Benoit, 27 – $1.35 million cap hit through 2027
It’s easy to see why the Flyers made this deal. They relied extremely heavily upon Dan Vladar during their successful run to the playoffs in 2025-26, and while it looks like they might be on the verge of rewarding Vladar with a hefty (and perhaps ill-advised) extension, they also still needed to give him a bit more support. In the wake of Sam Ersson, Alexei Kolosov, and Carson Bjarnason all struggling last season, it didn’t seem like that help would come from within.
Woll is a perfectly solid young tandem goaltender who performed reasonably well behind a porous Leafs defense last season, going 15-16-7 with an .899 save percentage in 39 games. But he’s two years away from UFA status, tends to get injured at inopportune times, and, most importantly, he had become largely redundant in Toronto with presumptive starter Anthony Stolarz locked in until 2030. The Leafs have goaltenders to spare, which made Woll easy to part with; their loss is Philadelphia’s gain.
The Flyers still feel like they’re caught between contending and rebuilding, what with their disparate core groups of veterans (Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim) and younger players (Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Cam York), seemingly without a truly elite player in either category. But it’s hard to argue with a team looking to improve after making a surprise run to the second round of the playoffs, and this is an instance of Philadelphia very clearly addressing one of its weakest areas.
They didn’t have to give up much, either. The Flyers gave up two RFAs who likely weren’t long for their organization — more on them later — and a third-round pick, which was probably most valuable to them as a trade chip anyway. The only truly concerning part is that Philadelphia now has only four picks in this year’s draft, but at least they still have their first- and second-rounders. And they didn’t just get Woll in this deal, either: Benoit isn’t much of a needle-mover, but he should do just fine in Rick Tocchet’s system, and the Flyers only have him under contract for one year, meaning they can easily cut bait if things go south.
The Flyers still have plenty of cap space to spare after taking on the $5 million allotted to Woll and Benoit. They aren’t overleveraged in terms of draft picks or salary. They still don’t look like much of a threat in the East, but they’re better than they were 24 hours ago.
Grade: B
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Receive:
D Emil Andrae, 24 – RFA
G Sam Ersson, 26 – RFA
2026 third-round pick
Toronto’s motives for making this trade might seem somewhat quixotic at first — they’re clearing up all this space to go big-game hunting in free agency! — but this is more of an instance of a team addressing a bit of a logjam. Woll has been good, but not great, and the Leafs have the means to replace him while committing significantly less money to their backup goalie position going forward.
Candidate No. 1 to replace Woll as Stolarz’s backup is Dennis Hildeby, whom (as Daily Faceoff managing editor Matt Larkin pointed out on Tuesday) is no longer exempt from waivers as of the 2026-27 season. The 6’7″ Swede is signed for the next two years at a bargain-basement $841,667 cap hit and posted an excellent .914 save percentage in 20 games with the Leafs in 2025-26. The Leafs moved out Woll for a third-round pick, saving nearly $3 million a year through 2028 while opening up a spot for Hildeby in the process. Tidy work.
Swapping out Benoit for Andrae is solid business, too. Benoit represents a lot of the limitations that doomed the Brad Treliving era in Toronto — he’s big, slow, and does nothing with the puck — while Andrae is much more of a new-age defender who can provide the Leafs with something different. He didn’t play much in Philadelphia, averaging just over 15 minutes a night over 61 games last year, but his underlyings were strong, and he also likely won’t cost a ton.
There’s a strong chance the Leafs sign Andrae to a new contract. The same cannot be said for Ersson, who drove both Tocchet and John Tortorella to their wits’ end with his inconsistency in Philly over the past four seasons. This past year was his worst yet, as he went 14-11-5 with a brutal .870 save percentage in 33 games. It didn’t seem like the Flyers would qualify Ersson as a pending RFA, and it remains to be seen whether the Leafs elect to do so. They don’t have to sign him, but they might, if just to provide organizational depth; as it stands, the Leafs only have Stolarz, Hildeby, and Artur Akhtyamov signed for next season, and they could always send Ersson to the Marlies until an injury strikes.
Chayka is probably going to make a few more trades this summer. He may end up making a few mistakes — he certainly did on more than a few occasions in Arizona. But this move is perfectly reasonable for all parties involved. It’s nothing to get too excited about, but it’s also completely understandable, and it should set the table for Toronto to continue its retooling process, now with eight 2026 draft picks in tow.
Grade: B
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