'I Haven’t Seen Him At His Best Because His Best Game Is Ahead Of Him': Hurricanes' Forward Evgeny Kuznetsov Raves About Maple Leafs Goalie Ilya Samsonov
Despite playing his best hockey this season friend an former teammate Kuznetsov says Samsonov hasn't reached his peak.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Evgeny Kuznetsov is thrilled to be in Toronto playing against former teammate and close friend Ilya Samsonov.
The two players talked daily as both players endured their own battles with adversity. Kuznetsov is playing in his fifth game with the Hurricanes on Saturday after he was dealt by his original club, the Washington Capitals. This was shortly after the Caps placed the Russian forward on waivers after he returned from leave while enrolling in the NHL and NHLPA player assistance program.
Samsonov struggled with his performance to begin the 2023-24 season and also had a stint on waivers. He eventually got his game going again and has won 10 of his last 11 starts.
Kuznetsov feels the language barrier between Russian to English helped Samsonov not absorb too much criticism that occurs in a hockey-rich market like Toronto.
"You guys have been so hard players here in general over the time. I’m so happy that he doesn’t speak English so well so he doesn’t understand everything and that’s huge for him. There’s a lot of talk about this hockey team in general. That’s life here. More than the life for me probably, right?" Kuznetsov told reporters on Saturday morning.
"I’m so happy that he doesn’t watch that all the time. He doesn’t read everything. Which is pretty hard to do sometimes. I’ve stayed off social media for over 61 days. I have no idea what’s outside of this locker room. I have no idea what the trade was like. Who is playing where.
"It’s kind of nice to live on the other side."
Samsonov will become an unrestricted free agent this season and is on a one-year, $3.55 million contract that was awarded in salary arbitration this summer. If there was any place the goaltender had to endure criticism, it was in the courtroom where he heard arguments from the Leafs about why he deserved less money.
But to the club's credit, they helped him out of a jam when he found his game again after seemingly looking like his game was gone for good in December.
Kuznetsov feels Samsonov hasn't peaked yet.
"I haven’t seen him at his best because his best game is ahead of him," he said ."I’m pretty sure people will see his best version. If he can get confident, can get comfortable, you guys can have a very good goalie."
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