Toronto Maple Leafs
'No Indication Yet As To Their Plans': Ilya Samsonov Likely Heading to Free Agency as Maple Leafs' Actions Speak Louder Than Words
While all signs point to the Russian goaltender moving on, a source tells The Hockey News the club hasn't shown their hand either way.
All of the signs are there.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were reportedly one of the teams trying to land Jacob Markstrom. But the goaltender was traded to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
With all the other names in goal being floated out there (Laurent Brossoit, Anthony Stolarz, etc..) there hasn't been a word on Toronto's current goaltender and pending free agent Ilya Samsonov. The Russian netminder has been presumed not to be in the Maple Leafs' plans just based on reports, but the club hasn't told the player if he should be prepared to test the market when he becomes a free agent on July 1 or if there is any chance at a return.
"No indication yet as to their plans," a source close to Samsonov told The Hockey News on Thursday.
The silence from the Maple Leafs, combined with all the noise of the club's interest to acquire another goaltender signals that a change is likely coming between the pipes. Although Joseph Woll has long been seen as the future in Toronto, injuries have limited the goaltender to 36 regular season games over three seasons.
Samsonov, in his two seasons with the Maple Leafs, played 82 games while posting a .905 save percentage. He helped backstop the Leafs to their only playoff-round victory in 20 years after a six-game series defeat of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2023.
Last summer, the goaltender was subject to salary arbitration, a process in which the Maple Leafs categorically broke the player down in a courtroom to keep his salary down. There was no way for Samsonov to avoid it. The collective bargaining agreement requires that the player undergoing the process must be in attendance.
The goaltender later admitted that the arbitration process led to some of the mental struggles and lack of confidence he experienced in the net during the first half of the 2023-24 season, a tumultuous campaign that saw the goaltender placed on waivers.
In the end, Samsonov found his way back with a stronger second half. He got the first crack in the net for the playoffs over Woll before the latter came in for Games 5 and 6.
At the end of the season, Samsonov indicated his desire to return to Toronto but did want some term after back-to-back one-year deals with the club.
So why haven't the Maple Leafs shut the door on Samsonov entirely?
It's clear the Leafs don't want to close any door if they don't have to. When you look at the other unrestricted free-agent goaltenders in the open market, including some of the names mentioned earlier in the article, are any of them that much better than Samsonov? It's not definitive. So if free agency opens and the Leafs aren't able to find an upgrade and Samsonov doesn't get a multi-year deal elsewhere, maybe the two sides circle back?
But it's clear that while Samsonov loves Toronto, both he and the team have different ideas of what that would look like. That's why all signs point to a different direction..
According to AFP Analytics, Samsonov is projected to earn a one-year contract worth $2,349,600 on the open market, more than a million less than his $3.55 arbitration awarded for 2022-23.
Related
News from THN.com