What the Maple Leafs Got Back in the Joseph Woll Trade
The Toronto Maple Leafs made one of the first notable moves of the 2026 offseason, shipping out Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to the Philadelphia Flyers. In return, Toronto brought back goaltender Sam Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae, and a 2026 third-round pick. On the surface, it looks like a hockey trade. In reality, it feels more like a reset of how the Maple Leafs want to build their depth chart moving forward.
What did Toronto get back for Woll and Benoit?
So what exactly did Toronto get here? Let’s break it down in simple terms.
Player one: Sam Ersson.
Start with Sam Ersson. This is the goalie piece coming back the other way, and he’s really the “replacement option” in the deal. He’s still young, still developing, and still very much in that category of “can he figure it out at the NHL level?” His numbers in Philadelphia weren’t pretty last season, but the Maple Leafs clearly see him more as a bounce-back depth option than a finished product. Think of him less as a locked-in answer and more like competition for the crease behind Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby.
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Player two: Emil Andrae.
Then there’s Emil Andrae, the defenseman. This is probably the most interesting part of the return from Toronto’s perspective. Andrae is a smaller, mobile, puck-moving type of defender. He’s the kind of player the Maple Leafs haven’t always prioritized in recent years. He’s not coming in to play top-four minutes tomorrow, but he is coming in with a profile that fits a more modern, pace-driven game. For a team that has leaned on heavier, slower depth defenders in the past, this is at least a different look.
A third-round pick.
And finally, the third-round pick. Nothing flashy, but useful. It gives the Maple Leafs another asset in the system, either for drafting or as a future trade chip. These are the kinds of picks teams quietly stack when they’re trying to keep flexibility open.
Why did the Maple Leafs make this trade?
So why make the move at all? It really comes down to structure. Woll was solid, but not untouchable, and Toronto already had Anthony Stolarz locked in as the clear starter. Add in Dennis Hildeby pushing for NHL games, and suddenly Woll becomes a high-cost backup in a system that doesn’t really need one.
The Maple Leafs basically made a bet here: they can replace Woll internally, save money, and redistribute value into cheaper, younger depth pieces. Ersson becomes a project, Andrae becomes a potential NHL regular down the line, and the pick keeps the pipeline moving.
It’s not a blockbuster move. It’s not meant to be.
The trade is one the Maple Leafs eventually had to make to create space for Hildeby.
It’s the kind of deal that quietly tells you what the Maple Leafs think they are now. It’s a team trying to get a little younger, a little cheaper, and a little more flexible around the edges while the core stays locked in place.