Maple Leafs rushed to extend Stolarz and now one Sportsnet analyst is frying them for it

Heading into the offseason, the Leafs had a number of priorities ahead of them, including the Mitch Marner trade, and the Matthew Knies and John Tavares extensions.

One thing that they also wanted to get out ahead of was the Anthony Stolarz extension, despite the fact that Stolarz was concussed in Game 1 against Florida and could not finish the series.

Stolarz had one year remaining on his deal at the time, and the Leafs could have waited to see how this season began before committing to a long-term deal. Unfortunately, they didn't, signing Stolarz to a new 4-year extension before the beginning of the new season.

The decision did not sit well with Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos at the time, and the former NHLer hates the situation even more now with Stolarz having missed so much time, and with Dennis Hildeby on the rise. He revealed as much on today's episode of Real Kyper & Bourne.

Kypreos has a great point about the Hildeby situation. The rookie goaltender will lose his waiver exemption next season, so the Leafs have a big decision to make on who will stay and who will go next summer, because they can't carry all of Woll, Stolarz and Hildeby on their active roster, with 3-goalie rotations never going over well.

I understand the idea behind getting the deal done ahead of time, before another big season sends Stolarz's AAV soaring, but the reality is that, knowing now what we didn't know then, Stolarz's poor start and significant injury could have saved the Leafs a lot of money over the term of his deal had they waited, as Kypreos also pointed out.