Toronto Maple Leafs: Expect Competition for Starting Goalie Job

With the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending shuffle this summer, it’s easy to see that people have immediately marked Matt Murray as the new starting goalie but this might not be the case.

After all, Ilya Samsonov deserves just as much chance to prove himself as the number one goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs, given his record last season looks no better or worse than Murray’s.

Perhaps the sole reason that Murray is being touted as the number-one is the fact that he has history with the both Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe dating back to his junior days.

If that’s the only thing giving him the inside track, the starting goalie spot is right there for Ilya Samsonov to stake his claim to.

Toronto Maple Leafs Have Time To Decide

The Toronto Maple Leafs have time to make their decision, as thankfully their offense tends to keep them in games. After all, conceding more goals than 17 other teams, the team’s goal differential was still the league’s sixth-best last season.

Ultimately, that gives the team options not just in pre-season, but in the early weeks of the season to assess both their goaltenders and work out who starts more games moving forward.

Perhaps it actually pans out to be a relatively even-split; it’s hard to tell without seeing how they settle in behind the likes of Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and T.J. Brodie on the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line.

Of course, there is a desire to look at both goalie’s past records but to do so would be an unfair evaluation.

Matt Murray shone as a rookie winning two Stanley Cups sharing the net with Marc-Andre Fleury in Pittsburgh, before finding himself routinely struggling to stay fit and ending up behind a rebuilding Ottawa Senators outfit that didn’t exactly inspire confidence in it’s team defense.

Likewise, Ilya Samsonov came through with the Washington Capitals backing up Braden Holtby in the 2019-20 season before taking the net as starter the following year, only to find himself fined for transgressions involving the league’s COVID-19 protocols.

That put paid to a greater opportunity, though last year he managed to finally take the reigns playing just over half the Capitals’ games last season behind a stronger group of players than those Murray lined up behind.

Both players have clearly had challenges to face and the media spotlight that the Toronto Maple Leafs play under is certainly a hotbed if you’re hoping to find your game.

Samsonov has a career NHL record that certainly reads as if he’ll be second-choice. A save percentage of 0.902 and 2.98 goals-against-average doesn’t scream starting material.

However looking deeper at his career, Samsonov is a proven quantity in the KHL; he had a 0.920 save percentage and goals-against-average of 2.13 in Russia.

Matt Murray by contrast and in spite of his struggles with the Ottawa Senators has a save percentage of 0.921 in his NHL career and goals-against-average of 2.18 (per HockeyDB), ably supported for much of that by the Pittsburgh Penguins’ team defense.

The number one spot this year is going to be about whether Ilya Samsonov can get back to his KHL form behind the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line or whether Matt Murray is better protected, both in terms of health and in terms of play, behind a better defense.

Kyle Dubas has sought to bring two new faces in with the hope that they push each other to perform at their absolute best. Right now, neither has the inside track until we see them behind the Toronto Maple Leafs line-up.

Up until we’ve seen that, it’s pure speculation. It’s up to the individuals themselves to make their claims in training camp and then back it up come game-time.