The Toronto Maple Leafs have overhauled their goaltending this summer, but the contract dished out to Ilya Samsonov has cause for concern.
Quite simply, the Russian goalie is only inked for one season with the Toronto Maple Leafs and while Ilya Samsonov may prove a steal this season, long-term he isn’t tied down.
In fact, should he break out this season, the Maple Leafs will be left in a very tough spot in terms of renewing him at a decent price. After all, they’re only paying $1.8 million for this season.
Perhaps the only saving grace is that when his deal expires this summer, he will still only be a restricted free agent meaning the Maple Leafs retain some hold on his signing rights.
Ilya Samsonov Might Price Himself Out With the Toronto Maple Leafs
Looking at the performances of Ilya Samsonov in some an all too brief post-season run with the Capitals last campaign, there is plenty of hope for the Maple Leafs.
In five play-off games (four as the starting goalie) last season, he was able to deliver a 0.912 save percentage and 2.97 goals against average, against a very offensively-minded Florida Panthers side.
Contrast that with Jack Campbell, who managed a save percentage of 0.897 and goals against average of 3.15 in his seven games versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.
While it’s hard to compare the two given Ilya Samsonov and Jack Campbell were playing behind vastly different teams and against different opponents; the newest member of the Leafs goaltending line-up certainly showed some enough to suggest he can get the job done.
This is where the concerns around his contract begin really. After all, Jack Campbell played for the Toronto Maple Leafs the past few seasons on a very cheap $1.65 million a year deal.
Ilya Samsonov, being paid just $1.8 million this season by the Toronto Maple Leafs, will have every chance of exceeding his value by a significant margin, especially if he sees a decent workload due to his rather injury-prone partner in the team’s goalie tandem.
The only real difference between Campbell and his incumbent is that Campbell’s best NHL season prior to arriving in Toronto saw him put up an elite 0.928 save percentage and 2.30 goals against average in 31 games for the 2018-19 Los Angeles Kings. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
The contrast is that the Russian’s best NHL season was a 26-game run in the Capitals’ net 3 seasons ago, producing numbers around the league’s average; a goals against average of 2.55 and 0.913 save percentage.
As such you have to imagine that Samsonov, even with a strong year, won’t quite be able to command the same $5 million per season that saw Campbell depart the Leafs this summer.
However, there’s every chance he could command an asking price that proves expensive against the Maple Leafs salary cap, especially as they’ll also be carrying Matt Murray’s $4.6875 million next season.
One strong season in Toronto might see his contract demands matching, at the very least, Alex Nedeljkovic, Vitek Vanecek or Alex Georgiev, which puts him around the $3 million a season mark.
That sort of deal would see the Maple Leafs potentially investing $7.5 million on their goalie tandem going forward – a little steep given their roster make-up has $65.6975 million already allocated to just 12 players (including Matt Murray) next season.