The goaltender was removed from the game for backup goaltender Erik Kallgren to start the third period. There was no update on his the severity of his injury as the Leafs depth at the position becomes massively challenged.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost yet another goaltender to the injury bug.
Ilya Samsonov was removed in the second intermission of Saturday's game against the Boston Bruins with a knee injury and will not accompany the team in Raleigh to back up Erik Kallgren when the Leafs play the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed that Samsonov injured his knee when he fell awkwardly while attempting to stop Brad Marchand's penalty-shot goal in the second period.
During a delayed penalty assessed to Boston's Jake DeBrusk, Samsonov was slow to skate to the bench.
Despite not finishing the game, Samsonov picked up the win as he departed when the score was 2-1 in favor of Toronto and that's how the game ended.. He improved to 6-2-0 this season.
Kallgren said he spoke to Samsonov during one of the TV timeouts in the second period where it was made clear that he might be called upon to play the remaining portion of the game.
The Swedish goaltender will be expected to carry the load in the short-term if Samsonov in unavailable for an extended period of time.
"I feel like I've been pretty good in games but had a few here in there that I haven't been happy with," Kallgren said. "Obviously not the results I wanted here for the first couple of games but a big win today and I'll try to bring that into tomorrow."
Samsonov, signed to a one-year, $1.8 million contract in the offseason, had taken the lion's share of starts in net since Matt Murray went down with an adductor injury on Oct. 15.
Murray is still "a ways away" from returning, according to Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.
Although Joseph Woll would normally be next in line, the goaltender has been dealing with a shoulder injury stemming from last season and is not ready to return.
The only other Leafs goaltender signed to an NHL deal is 2022 fourth-round draft pick Dennis Hildeby, who is currently on loan in the Swedish Hockey League.
"Not many teams in the league are going to have three goalies injured in their system and feel comfortable about that," Keefe said after Toronto's game on Saturday. "It's the reality we have right now and lucky for us, Kallgren being the guy that has to come in and sort of clean things up. It's a position he's been in, our team's been in and w"e are comfortable in that.
Assessing the Maple Leafs options in goal moving forward
The Maple Leafs were afforded some flexibility roughly six hours before Samsonov's injury when Nicolas Aube-Kubel was claimed off waivers by the Washington Capitals. The removal of Aube-Kubel's contract moved the club from the maximum-allowable 50 contracts to 49 and they could use that slot to sign a goaltender.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Leafs have promoted Keith Petruzzelli to an NHL contract, moving the club back to the maximum.
It is expected that Petruzzelli will back up Kallgren on Sunday.