The goaltender who led the Maple Leafs to their first playoff series win since 2004 is now on waivers just seven months later. Ilya Samsonov has been placed on the waiver wire as of 2 p.m. EST on New Year’s Eve.
Ilya Samsonov came up huge in Game 6 for the Leafs.
-Made a lot of really great reads that lead to easy saves on difficult chances.
-Got his feet set on plays with pre-shot movement
Stats:
31 saves on 32 shots
2.54 Goals saved above expected
Here were some of his biggest saves pic.twitter.com/hqovIfR3Up— Rink Rat Report (@RinkRatReport) April 30, 2023
Just a few weeks ago in early December, Joseph Woll was humming along, and Ilya Samsonov was sick after a slow start to the year but returned to post a shutout against Nashville, giving him a 3-0-1 record with a .930 over his previous four games. Having fortunately passed through waivers, Martin Jones — who is past his prime but did start 48 games for a playoff team last season — was available as third-string support and was called on during the Samsonov illness and subsequent Woll high-ankle injury. The Leafs‘ goaltending situation wasn’t without adversity, but the NHL depth chart appeared to be in a decent enough spot, all things considered.
Fast forward just a few weeks to the end of December, Jones is now carrying the load until Woll can return from his high-ankle sprain (hopefully sometime in late January) and a despondent and currently unplayable Samsonov is on waivers, where he’ll either be picked up or sent down to the AHL to rebuild himself.
One of the goalie-needy teams in the league taking a flier on Samsonov is not implausible given the contract status, which was wisely limited to just one year in length by Brad Treliving over the offseason. If Samsonov passes through and remains in the organization but off the NHL roster, the Leafs will free up $1.15 million in cap space on his $3.55 million contract.
It’s an unfortunate series of events but also not unheard of at a goaltending position that can be maddeningly unpredictable outside of the special few studs who are reliably good as year-in, year-out 60-game starters. Jones is giving the Leafs competent if unspectacular starts so far, and now we may find out what the 6’7, 22-year-old goalie prospect Dennis Hildeby — excelling as a rookie with the Marlies (.919) — can do as he will probably receive a start during the California road trip, which includes a back-to-back on Tuesday-Wednesday in LA and Anaheim. That means the matchup against the Ducks on Wednesday could mark Hildeby’s NHL debut.
The potential risk with this move to waive Samsonov is that if he is claimed, the Leafs will be rolling forward with Joseph Woll — who has been very promising in the NHL so far but has played 26 total NHL games and has a long injury rap sheet — as well as Martin Jones in goal, with Hildeby and Keith Petruzzelli available as call-ups. Without the potential to rebuild Samsonov, it would move them closer to a situation where they need to add veteran goaltending depth from outside the organization and potentially spend assets on acquiring help in net when all the gunpowder would’ve preferably been reserved for defense help (and possibly one more veteran winger).
But after the Columbus loss this past Friday — which dropped Samsonov to a .862 SV% this season and had the coach clearly at his breaking point — it was officially at the point where Samsonov starting even the game against the Ducks was untenable, so here we are. We’ll see what happens by 2 p.m. on Monday.
