Behind Joseph Woll’s journey to the Maple Leafs: ‘Not the stereotypical hockey player’

Michael Woll believes you can tell how much someone wants something by the look in their eyes. And he had rarely seen his older brother Joseph’s eyes narrow with such fervent desire and joy.

The brothers were strolling through a mall near St. Louis this past summer on the hunt for outfits for an upcoming wedding. But Joseph, the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie, stopped dead in his tracks at a Lego store.

It reminded Michael that his brother isn’t built like most hockey players.

The object of Joseph’s desire?

A 6,785-piece Star Wars AT-AT Lego set that made the longtime fan practically salivate.

“(Joseph) bought a Jaguar last year. A beautiful car,” Michael said, after Joseph had driven the same beat-up 2008 Lincoln MKX for over 10 years. “And I’m telling you, he was 10 times more happy to get this Lego set.”

Gucci bags? Cutting-edge electronics? Suits that cost more than a month’s rent?

None of that interests Woll as much as the chance to build.

“Cyber Monday was coming around, and he was going ‘Lego is on sale!’ I thought it was a joke, but he was dead serious,” teammate and friend Matthew Knies said. “He was like a child, but so old-fashioned.”

Woll lugged the Lego set back to Toronto, to continue building in the most important season of his career. The 25-year-old is indeed an old soul. He’s more accustomed to being thoughtful, diligent, and remarkably calm and made up less of the swaggering ego often seen in professional sports.

Those traits have helped him build to where he is now: With a .915 save percentage that puts him among the league’s best and the first starting goalie the Leafs have drafted and developed since James Reimer.

This is the story of how Woll became the person and the emerging No. 1 goalie in Toronto he is today.

Joseph Woll was 4 when he realized he wanted to be a hockey player.

“He loved to see how fast he could skate and see his jersey flap like an NHL player,” Woll’s mother, Shelley, said of her son.

Not long after, Woll was drawn to the blue paint because of the armour.

“It was always about the gear: the pads and the mask. It was a huge deal for him to get that first goalie mask,” Shelley said.

Woll had no goaltender training when a postcard arrived in their home outside of St. Louis advertising tryouts for select teams. The 7-year-old was determined to crack the team. Shelley warned him kids trying out would have already played goalie.

It was then that Shelley first realized if her uber-competitive son set his mind to something, there was no stopping him. Former NHL player Jeff Brown was coaching the team and agreed to let Woll on the team as a backup goalie, with few promises.

That was until Woll’s team was set to travel to a tournament in Toronto later that season. Trent Frederic was the team’s goalie but was unable to attend the tournament because of his first communion.

Brown was forced to turn to Woll, who gained his first win and the tournament championship, and the belief that he could be an NHL goalie.

Even the most ardent believers in destiny would chuckle at the circumstances: A future Boston Bruins forward, of all teams, made way for the future Leafs goalie to earn his first win in Toronto, of all places.

But destiny, or rather faith, has always been part of the equation for Woll, who was raised Lutheran.

“For us, it was faith, family, school and hockey in that order,” Shelley said.

Shelley hoped faith taught her family how to act in the world. Spend time around Woll and you might leave astounded by his politeness in a profession that demands self-centrism. To be a goalie in Toronto with a smile and thoughtfulness in conversation instead of worrying the entire city is out to get him? That’s Woll’s upbringing talking.

“I interpret faith as an antidote to fear, worry or stress,” Woll said. “That’s something I’ve worked a lot on. There’s a lot of fear in this job. But it’s about believing in myself.”

Woll’s parents ensured he would become more than just a hockey player. Shelley had a rule: Unless her children were earning straight A’s, they would not be allowed to play hockey.

“He got a B+ one time. I gave him some crap for it,” Michael said, laughing before his voice reverts to the same genuine tone his brother uses.

Michael believes his mother’s rule allowed Joseph to “figure out that he actually loves learning.”

“He gets so into stuff,” Michael said of Woll’s passions outside the rink, whether that’s learning to play the piano, reading science books, going on multi-day hikes, or Lego.

“(Joseph) is definitely not the stereotypical hockey player, that’s for sure,” Michael said.

Michael laughs when recalling how he met his brother in Tampa for lunch on Oct. 21 before a Leafs-Lightning game. Woll was trending toward the No. 1 job.

You wouldn’t know it, though.

“Every time I talk to him it’s never about hockey and he never gets overwhelmed,” Michael said.

Woll entered in relief and stopped all 27 shots in a Leafs win.

Former NHL goalie and Woll’s goalie coach as a child, Bruce Racine, remembers Woll’s “curiosity” more than anything else.

“He always wanted to know the reasons why I was asking him to do things,” Racine said.

Under Racine’s tutelage, Woll developed his two defining traits: athleticism and composure. Woll developed his sneaky big size at a young age and could make dynamic saves. Racine pushed Woll by drawing parallels to a goalie defined by his calm, and one he would eventually be compared to years later by a future Leafs teammate.

Max Domi says he sees a lot of Carey Price's demeanour in Joseph Woll.
"He's very calm and relaxed both on and off the ice…I'm not a goalie coach by any means, but he's outstanding."
— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) October 22, 2023

“(Joseph’s) game is really based off Carey Price’s,” Racine said. “The smoothness. Yes, Carey was athletic and could make acrobatic saves, but he was calm in his movements. You can see that in Joseph.”

Before practices, Racine would show Woll video of Price’s measured movements. He would play clips illustrating how Price handled consistent questions that come with being a star goalie in a Canadian market.

“He just ate that up,” Racine said.

To this day, when the camera zooms in on Woll’s eyes behind his mask, Racine is brought back to St. Louis rinks.

“He’s laser-focused and he’s going through his mental preparation. I saw that as a young boy,” Racine said. “When you have that focus and passion about something, you’re going to excel at it.”

Before Woll left St. Louis for Michigan and the U.S. National Team Development Program at 16, he gave a gift to Racine as a thank-you for years of tutelage: A hand-drawn picture of Price.

“My idol,” Woll said of Price.

Joseph Woll’s drawing of Carey Price. (Courtesy Bruce Racine)

In his first season with the U.S. under-17 team, shooters were far more skilled than in St. Louis. Both Woll and eventual Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger each played 29 games but Oettinger’s .916 save percentage trumped Woll’s .886 save percentage.

“There was a lot of adversity that first year, but (Woll) never felt sorry for himself,” USA Hockey national team development program coach Kevin Reiter said in 2020. “He showed up the next day with a smile on his face and wanted to get better.”

Woll looks back on that adversity and repeats a quote he’s added to his vernacular. It’s allowed him to forget how other performances affect his own: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” His improved .918 save percentage the following season was partly why the Leafs selected Woll in the third round of the 2016 NHL Draft, and partly why the freshman Woll was given the reins at Boston College the next season.

Yet believing he had to own the new stage, Woll relied too heavily on his athleticism, felt the need to produce highlight-reel saves and was too often crouched and ready to pounce on shots.

“Joseph is so explosive that sometimes he wouldn’t hit the brakes. He would keep sliding,” goalie coach Mike Ayers said.

Ayers never saw Woll start throwing sticks, but instead, the gregarious goalie grew introverted. One thing kept bringing Woll back down to Earth: “Watching the way Carey Price played calmed him down,” Ayers said.

Woll signed in Toronto. As a Toronto Marlies rookie and starter, his ugly .880 save percentage was second-worst in the league. He looked far away from being an NHL goalie.

At Boston College, earning good grades was a stressor. But that season, hockey became his biggest stressor.

“There were a lot of expectations from other people,” Woll said. “It was hard at the time for me, mentally.”

That summer, Woll made changes that would propel him to the NHL. He surrounded himself with philosophy books to better understand his place in the world. He ditched social media and spent far less time on his phone. Friends say it might take a week before Woll responds to texts in season. Woll did not even learn about the Leafs’ massive trade for Ryan O’Reilly last season until he arrived at the rink and saw a new number on the whiteboard.

But his bravest step? He sought out a sports psychologist to help him recognize how to be a better goalie and a better person.

“Society has programmed us to believe asking for help is a weakness. I would say the exact opposite is true. Asking for help is vulnerability. No one labels you as brave if you do the same thing everyone else is doing,” Shelley said.

Eventually, Woll figured out that if he was playing for himself, his joy would return.

“It wasn’t until I was able to reel back those expectations and ask myself, ‘What do I care about? What does success look like for me, not for other people? What’s going to make me happy going to work every day?’” he said.

Woll’s .927 AHL save percentage in the 2022-23 campaign meant he had outgrown the AHL. An injury to Matt Murray created an opportunity with the Leafs, but Woll looked back on the lessons he learned in 2020 and refused to believe his own hype.

When Woll stopped 45 shots in a late-season game in Tampa, he drew praise in the press box from legendary coach Scotty Bowman, who had never heard of Woll but admired his quickness. Days later, a reporter tried to relay this story to Woll, asking him if he wanted his ego boosted.

“No, I don’t,” Woll said, walking away without hearing Bowman’s praise.

Weeks later when Murray was available to play after No. 1 Ilya Samsonov went down with an injury against the Florida Panthers in the second round of the playoffs, Sheldon Keefe turned to Woll. The hockey world realized what Woll had kept believing: With years of patience and growth and impressively calm performances, his time as the next Leafs goalie had come.

Woll is asked why he believes he’s been able to land where he is today.

“Drive. Always looking to get to the next place. As a kid, a young adult, that’s beneficial,” he said. “But that changes a bit. The drive doesn’t go away, but you realize you just have to be where you are. Working with psychologists, I’ve learned how to be more myself, and just how to be happier.”

Last but not very much not least, here is Woll playing piano in the lobby of the Royal York during the 2020 NHL bubble, because why not. 😌
— katie (@itsmitchmarney) December 2, 2023

Woll now feels more confident than ever in his own skin and with the same sense of ease and joy about his work that he had as a child.

Woll is now contemplating getting back on Instagram. He loves making music on his computer in his apartment and wants to share that music with the world.

In that apartment, the Lego set remains unfinished. Like Woll himself, it is a work in progress.

He’ll eventually put all the pieces together. But for now, he’s happy to be building toward something in Toronto he’s been working his entire life for.

“If at any point you feel like you’re done growing,” Woll said, “you’re bulls——- yourself.”

GO DEEPER

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(Top photos: Mark Blinch / NHLI via Getty Images; Courtesy Shelley Woll)