Maple Leafs Make Surprising Announcement Regarding Anthony Stolarz

The Maple Leafs play host to the Red Wings on Thursday evening in their final home pre-season game. In doing so, they are giving their fans a treat, dressing what many expect to be their opening night lineup in its entirety.

That means fans will get to see Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and Easton Cowan one more time before the regular season kicks off next week.

Fresh off of signing a four-year extension that many see as a bargain of a deal, the Leafs announced that the 31-year-old will play the entire game on Thursday night.

Coming off of a career-high 34 games last season, where he posted a 21-8-3 record, Stolarz is going to be asked to shoulder most of the workload to begin the season while Joseph Woll tends to a personal family matter.

Thursday night's game will be Stolarz's second pre-season game, as he played the first two periods against the Montreal Canadiens last Saturday, giving up 3 goals on 18 shots.

The Leafs will hope that a full game with a full NHL roster in front of him will let Stolarz find his comfort zone as he enters the season as the Leafs' undisputed number one goalie.