Friday, the Hockey News reported that Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov was nominated by the cities chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association as the club’s Bill Masterton Trophy finalist, which is given to the player that displays “sportsmanship, perseverance and dedication to hockey”.
Samsonov has had an interesting 20 months dating back to the summer of 2022 when the former first round pick had been given up on by the Washington Capitals which was the team that developed him. The Capitals decided not to qualify him at $1.8 Million making him an unrestricted at which point the Toronto Maple Leafs came in and signed him to a one-year contract.
After his first season with the organization, the Russian netminder posted career bests in wins (27), goals against average (2.33) and save percentage (.919) and went into the summer as a restricted free agent where he was hoping for a long term contract with the club. Unfortunately a long extension wasn’t being offered to Samsonov which led to him and the team going to arbitration where he was awarded a one-year deal worth $3.55 Million.
Coming into the season, everyone, including the goalie, team and fans were hoping Samsonov would take the next step and show why he was once a first round pick back in 2015. However that was not the case as although he picked up victories in his first two starts he had surrendered nine goals on just 56 shots and things did not get any better from there. (stats nhl.com).
Unclaimed on Waivers, Regaining Starter Role
Before the calendar turned to 2024, Samsonov had posted a 5-2-6 record with a 3.94 GAA and .862 save percentage through 15 games which included being pulled in three separate starts. He first lost the number one spot in net on the team and then on New Year’s Eve he was placed on waivers; and a day later fans learned that there was not another team that wanted to take a shot on Samsonov.
After clearing waivers, general manager Brad Treliving announced that Samsonov would take time away from the team and work with the Toronto Marlies goalie coach (Hannu Toivonen).
