On Wednesday, June 24, goaltender Joseph Woll opened up about his initial reaction to getting traded to the Philadelphia Flyers from the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 27-year-old American was speaking about his emotions to the media exactly a week after his move across the border was completed.

While crediting the Flyers as the original source, the Leafs latest reported on X with a short video of Woll explaining his condition in the immediate aftermath of receiving the trade call.

“I think my initial reaction right when I got the call, as I imagine it would be for most people, was a lot of emotion,” Woll said in the video post on X after revealing that he was playing with hockey cards when the call came. “I spent a long time in Toronto, so I was pretty sad to hear the news right when it happened.”

Woll mentioned that he went for a walk after hearing about the trade, to possibly get in a better frame of mind to process it. He alluded to receiving a call shortly afterwards from his “buddy” and defensemen Simon Benoit in Toronto.

Before his call with Benoit, the Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, native was thinking about leaving the Maple Leafs. He also didn’t have any idea about whether anyone else was involved in the trade deal.

Notably, the Flyers actually brought in Woll along with Benoit, which will continue their friendship on and off the ice in Philadelphia. In return, they gave goaltender Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae, and a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft to the Maple Leafs.

“And just the excitement, his voice, I think, really helped for me see how an unbelievable opportunity this was,” Woll explained what Benoit was feeling about being a part of the Flyers as his teammate, per NHL. “And it was almost like, from that initial reaction onward, there's been almost a surplus of excitement on my part.”

Woll must be aiming to take his career to the next level in Philadelphia with his friend Benoit around.

Joseph Woll’s NHL career in numbers at the Toronto Maple Leafs

Joseph Woll became a part of the Toronto Maple Leafs after they selected him as the No. 62 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. After finishing up his NCAA career with Boston College in 2019, he played for the Toronto Marlies, the AHL affiliate, for two seasons.

Woll made his NHL debut with the Maple Leafs on November 13, 2021, against the Buffalo Sabres. The career numbers for Woll with the Maple Leafs are quite decent in 117 regular-season games.

He has a 63-43-9 record with a .906 save percentage, 2.94 goals-against average, and four shutouts.

He didn’t have the best of the 2025-26 season for Toronto in the NHL with a 15-16-7 record in 39 games, including a save percentage of .899. His goals-against average was 3.34, still better than the overall stat of 3.60 for the Maple Leafs across the entire season.

In his 14 appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, he managed to have a 6-6-0 record with .906 save percentage, 2.73 goals-against average, and one shutout for Toronto.

Will Joseph become a valuable addition in the goaltending role for the Philadelphia Flyers? Share with us your take in the comments.

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Shubhi Rathore