The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player storylines from around the NHL. On deck this week:
• Leafs have decisions to make when Anthony Stolarz is healthy
• Alexandre Texier turning into a brilliant add for Habs
• Brent Burns still has plenty left in the tank
• Stuart Skinner taking advantage of fresh start
Joseph Woll, Anthony Stolarz, Dennis Hildeby, Toronto Maple Leafs
It’s a good problem to have.
That’s the attitude the Maple Leafs should take when Stolarz is ready to return and they have the luxury of three quality goalies at their disposal. Woll has been excellent this season and Hildeby looks great as well, exceeding even the highest expectations anyone likely had for him in 2025-26. Stolarz led the league in save percentage last season and figures to be much better than he showed earlier this year when he’s fully healthy, and also now that the Leafs are playing much better defensively. The challenge becomes, who gets the net on a nightly basis? And how do you keep everyone engaged and playing?
For the remainder of this season, it shouldn’t be that much of an issue. Hildeby is waivers-exempt, so the Leafs could simply send him down if they choose, allowing him to continue to build his game in the AHL and call him up for spot starts if needed. That would give an opportunity to Stolarz to find his game again, which could be critical if the Leafs consider moving a goalie in the future. Stolarz made an appearance on Nick Kypreos’ trade board this week and he makes a good point about potentially moving him because Toronto has other thinner areas of the roster that need help, even if a deal is easier said than done.
Out of Toronto’s trio, Stolarz would make the most sense to move if the Maple Leafs choose that route. Hildeby and Woll are much younger than Stolarz and come cheaper, while also playing much better this year. That said, if the Leafs do plan on exploring a move, it’s going to take some time to rebuild his value. Stolarz had a dreadful start to the season and he’s 31 with a long injury history. He hasn’t showed he can handle a true starter’s workload, so the remainder of the season will be critical in helping him look like a real asset once again. Plus, Stolarz’s extension he signed back in September hasn’t even kicked in yet and it includes a 16-team no-trade clause. Suffice to say, a Stolarz deal won’t be a simple one.
The real challenge for the Leafs will come next season if they don’t move Stolarz. Hildeby will no longer be exempt from waivers and they would almost certainly lose him if they tried to sneak him back down to the AHL. Even though teams like Carolina, Buffalo and Montreal have done it this season, carrying three goalies is still very rare in the NHL. It’s hard to keep everyone in a rhythm and there are cap implications for teams to consider, but carrying an extra netminder does have its advantages as well.
Carolina is probably the poster child for the three-goalie system. The Canes have essentially been using it since the 2020-21 campaign, when they had James Reimer, Petr Mrazek and Alex Nedeljkovic. Then it was a combination of Frederik Andersen, Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov for a number of years until this season, when they added Brandon Bussi to the mix. One of the reasons Carolina employs it is because the Hurricanes have a good defensive system that can support goalies and it’s allowed them to not spend big dollars on a starting netminder.
The Canes have also used three because while Andersen are Kochetkov have generally put up strong numbers for them, neither has been able to stay healthy and handle a full starter’s workload. Sound familiar? You could essentially say the same thing about Woll and Stolarz. For instance, there hasn’t been a single game this season where the Leafs have had both Woll and Stolarz available to them. That’s why Hildeby, and Bussi for that matter in Carolina, have been so critical. Without Hildeby and Bussi, both the Leafs and Canes might have been in major trouble this season. Essentially, if you don’t have a bona fide starter that can reliably give you 55-60 games, your third goalie becomes an incredibly important piece of your roster.
There are other benefits of carrying three goalies, too. It can help you in back-to-back situations by sending your starter to the city of the second game in advance, whether it’s home or away to get extra rest and avoid travel. The Montreal Canadiens used this very strategy earlier in the week, when they hosted the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and then headed to Washington on Tuesday to face the Capitals. Jakub Dobes started for Montreal in the first game and Jacob Fowler backed up, while Samuel Montembeault headed to Washington early to rest and avoid late-night travel. The Canadiens didn’t play great against the Caps, getting outshot 42-26, but Montembeault did. He made 39 saves, helping Montreal pick up a crucial point in the standings in an overtime loss. Now that the league is adding two games to the schedule next season and best-on-best tournaments like the Olympics and World Cup of Hockey have returned, it’s only going to make schedules more condensed and put more of an emphasis on back-to-backs.
One of the other reasons teams don’t like to carry three goalies is because of the cap. Having a goaltender that’s playing only once every 10 days or so eating up one of your 23 roster spots is not something everyone wants to do, but it could actually end up having cap advantages in the playoffs. With the new playoff cap rules, only the players that you dress on your game-day playoff lineup now have to be under the salary cap. So, in Toronto’s case, let’s say Woll is going to be your starting goalie, you could dress Hildeby as the backup, who makes only $841,000, as opposed to Stolarz and his $3.7-million salary next season. That cap savings could theoretically be used to boost another area of the roster if a shrewd general manager or cap specialist can take advantage of it.
There are still going to be a number of teams that will want to avoid carrying three goalies at all costs, but with the cap going up and teams having more flexibility, I do think we will see more than just a few organizations do it in the near future. It’s hard to deny having a good third goalie is more important than carrying a 14th forward or eighth defenceman on the roster. The goaltending position is too critical not to invest in.
Alexandre Texier, Montreal Canadiens
There have been a number of under-the-radar adds that have paid big dividends this season. The Maple Leafs grabbed Troy Stecher off waivers and he’s suddenly become a key minute-munching defenceman for them that’s helped the team get back into the playoff race. Over in Carolina, the Hurricanes have desperately needed what waiver pickup Bussi has provided in goal. With Kochetkov hurt and Andersen struggling, Bussi has gone 16-3-1 and helped the Canes to the top of the Metro.
Montreal also has received a boost from an under-the-radar move with Texier. The Canadiens added Texier in late November after the St. Louis Blues let him go and he’s been a massive contributor for their lineup. Texier has seven goals and 16 points in 26 games since joining Montreal and he’s really turned it on lately. The 26-year-old has eight points in his past six outings to help push the Canadiens up the standings.
To say this production from Texier was unexpected would be an understatement. His best year in the NHL to date was 30 points back in 2023-24 with the Columbus Blue Jackets and he’s never scored more than 12 goals in any season. His production this year would put Texier at a 50-point pace, which would be found money for a Canadiens team that made a very low-risk investment to bring him in and has now inked him to a good value short-term extension.
Texier’s production has also changed the dynamic of Montreal’s lineup. The Canadiens were somewhat of a one-line team a year ago, with Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky filling the scoresheet the majority of the time. Now Texier has joined Suzuki and Caufield on the top line and Slafkovsky has dropped down to line two, giving them a lot more balance. Add in the emergence of Ivan Demidov and some more secondary scoring from Zachary Bolduc, and suddenly the Canadiens have become much more challenging to defend.
Brent Burns, Colorado Avalanche
And then there were two. That’s how many players are still active from the famed 2003 draft after Marc-Andre Fleury retired last season and Ryan Suter couldn’t latch onto a team this year. That’s left Corey Perry, who may just play until he’s 100, and Brent Burns. Many felt Burns didn’t have much left to give after he really started slowing down the past two campaigns in Carolina, but he’s bounced back in a big way in 2025-26.
Burns inked a modest one-year, $1-million deal with the Avalanche this summer, with the idea he would be able to provide them some depth and experience on their third pair. Instead, Burns has had somewhat of an offensive renaissance and is logging top-four minutes with Devon Toews sidelined with injury. Last week, Burns tallied three goals over a two-game stretch, already giving him two more than he had all of last year and putting him on pace for 15 on the season. He’s also on pace for 42 points, which is close to double what he produced in 2024-25.
Despite turning 41 in March, Burns is still being leaned on heavily for the Avs. He’s already played over 20 minutes in four games this month and is now averaging 19:28 a night on the season. That’s probably more than Colorado planned on using Burns but lately it’s been out of necessity with Toews set to miss some time with an injury. He’s also plus-26 this year, which would tie his career-best mark for plus/minus.
Granted, a lot of Burns’ success is due to playing on an elite Avalanche team that is humming along at a historically good pace. It was the perfect landing spot for Burns, as the veteran is a smart player with great offensive instincts, who has lots of experience playing with high-end players. Burns also has some extra motivation to try and parlay this season into one more contract. He’s played 970 consecutive games and is now 95 away from breaking Phil Kessel’s record. That would require Burns to remain healthy this season and then play one more year. Given how things have gone so far in Colorado, that seems very plausible and Burns has proven over his career he’s a player you probably shouldn’t bet against.
Stuart Skinner, Pittsburgh Penguins
A picture tells 1,000 words, or in this case, 1,000 points.
It was probably a very sombre time when Skinner was dealt to Pittsburgh last month and you could feel his pain when he watched his former teammates celebrate only a few feet away after Leon Draisaitl scored his 1,000th career point. Skinner had spent his entire career with the Edmonton Oilers and had come very close on two different occasions to capturing the Stanley Cup. Plus, he’s from Edmonton and it’s always tough to swallow when you have to move on from your hometown team after things didn’t work out.
Sometimes a change of scenery is good, though. Skinner went from a team expected to compete for a Cup to one that’s just hoping to get back in the playoff mix and he’s been doing his best to help the cause lately. Many people probably thought Skinner would fall on his face in Pittsburgh after some inconsistent and turbulent play with the Oilers, but he’s picked up his game and has the Pens pushing for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Over his past five games, Skinner’s allowed a total of just seven goals for a .942 save percentage. He’s stopped 114 of 121 shots over that stretch.
One of the things that might be good for Skinner in regards to leaving Edmonton was getting out from under the microscope, but the Steel City brings its own pressures. The Penguins are hoping to maximize every year Sidney Crosby has left and getting back to the playoffs is paramount. The Penguins weren’t supposed to be in the mix this year, though now that they are, you can tell how hungry the team and fans are to return to post-season play.
Given the fact that this is likely Evgeni Malkin’s final year in Pittsburgh and Crosby is having another excellent campaign, if Skinner could help drive this team back to the playoffs with some strong play, he could quickly become a fan favourite. Leaving Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and his hometown was likely a huge adjustment for Skinner, but getting a chance to play with one of the greatest players of all time in Crosby isn’t a bad consolation prize.
