CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — There’s an old adage in hockey that says that goalies are weird.



But what about smart? Or articulate? Or conscientious?



Joseph Woll might be a little of the former but he is defined by the rest. It’s always been that way.



His longtime goalie coach, Bruce Racine, saw it when he first started working with him at the age of 8 or 9 (it’s been so long he can hardly remember). His second goalie coach, the one who scouted and recruited him to USA Hockey’s National Training Development Program, Kevin Reiter, saw it on trips to watch this kid from St. Louis that everyone was talking about. These days, Boston College assistant coach Mike Ayers, a third former professional goalie to work closely with Woll, sees it daily. Leafs goalie expert and scout Brian Daccord saw so much of it that he was able to convince Toronto to take him 62nd overall in the 2016 draft.



There’s more to Joseph Woll than...