Ilya Samsonov
Ilya Samsonov had a tumultuous two seasons with the Maple Leafs. After posting career-best numbers in wins (27), GAA (2.33) and save percentage (.919) in his first year with the club, he somehow struggled mightily to start the 2023-24 season.
His struggles became so prominent that he was even placed on waivers at one point in time so that they could send him to the Marlies to work on his game. Samsonov did manage to come back later and salvaged his season by finishing strong.
However, his overall numbers were still somewhat disappointing despite posting 23 wins, as he compiled a 3.13 GAA and .890 save percentage in 40 games played. More significantly, he was overtaken by Joseph Woll during the playoffs when he struggled once again against the Bruins.
With that, the Leafs decided to move on from Samsonov and turned to Woll as their main man going forward while picking up Anthony Stolarz in free agency. Samsonov would eventually land in Las Vegas with the Golden Knights on a one-year, $1.8 million deal to be their backup. However, he has surprised so far in his four games to date, posting a solid 3-0-1 with a 2.21 GAA and .932 save percentage.
In doing so, he has outshone starter Adin Hill by a wide margin and looks to receive more starts going forward after starting three of the past four games. So it appears that all Samsonov needed was a change of scenery to rediscover his game. He sure would have looked good if still in a Leafs uniform, but at least Stolarz has made it more palatable. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick,com and all salaries from Puckpedia.com)
The Others
As for veterans Martin Jones, John Klingberg and Mark Giordano, they have all yet to find new homes for the 2024-25 NHL season and are still currently hoping for a new deal.
Jones helped backstop the Leafs through the toughest part of their 2023-24 season to keep them afloat when Woll went down to an injury while Samsonov was ineffective at the same time. In the case for Giordano, his game began to slow down over the course of the season as Father Time was finally catching up to him. Added to some ill-timed injuries along the way, he never ended up seeing any action for the Leafs during the playoffs as he had eventually fallen out of favour.
As for Klingberg, he was lost for almost the entire 2023-24 season when he underwent season-ending hip surgery in December of 2023. As a result, having played just 14 games for the Leafs, he never really had the chance to really show what he could provide to the team in the end as he became just a failed experiment.