Toronto Maple Leafs: Ilya Samsonov Off to a Great Start

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had their share of goaltending controversy over the past couple seasons.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been plagued by goalie injuries, goalies leaving in free agency, goalies who just couldn’t get the job done, and have seen many new faces between the pipes as a result.

We’ve seen Freddie Andersen, David Rittich, Jack Campbell, Michael Hutchinson, Petr Mrazek, Joseph Woll and now newcomer Matt Murray all face some major adversity without anyone becoming a stable presence in net for an extended amount of time.

I’m giving Erik Kallgren a break because of his inexperience, but he did have numbers similar to Petr Mrazek last season and his game against the Arizona Coyotes this season was terrible.  He really shouldn’t be expected to steal games though.

The season is young.  There is lots of hockey left to play, but for those fans worrying about the Toronto Maple Leafs after such a small sample size, note that during this small sample size, Ilya Samsonov has been amazing.

Ilya Samsonov has been Amazing with the Toronto Maple Leafs

At the very lease, Samsonov (25) has great potential.

He’s a former first round draft pick which is extremely rare for a goaltender.  He played in two U20 World Junior tournaments and was named to the World Junior All-Star team.

His early excellence this season seems to be going under the radar.  The Toronto Maple Leafs have three wins and they all came with Ilya Samsonov in net.

Nick Robertson deserves a lot of credit for their win against the Dallas Stars, but Samsonov was phenomenal in that game.  His win against his former team, the Washington Capitals (the only other NHL team he’s played with), was magnificent as well.

Samsonov is tied for the league lead in wins.  His GAA of 1.96 is third best among the 32 goaltenders who have played at least three games this season, and his SV% of .927 is 9th among goalies with at least three games (Stats from MoneyPuck.com).

Now, goaltending stats can be deceiving.  Wins, GAA and even SV% can be more a reflection of the team rather than the goaltender.  My favorite advanced goalie stat is Goals Saved Above Expected since it reflects the quality of shots saved.  Samsonov currently ranks 10th in that stat out of goalies who have played at least three games.

Again, it’s early in the season, but for anyone still wishing that the Toronto Maple Leafs  signed Jack Campbell to a hefty multi-year extension, please note that after three games he has an atrocious .874 SV% and 5.08 GAA.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Stuart Skinner emerges as Edmonton’s starter this season.