The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ilya Samsonov couldn’t agree on contract negotiations, causing the 26-year-old restricted free agent to file for arbitration. The Toronto Maple Leafs were looking for a contract close to $2.4 million while Ilya Samsonov wanted around $4.9 million. Both teams were far from reaching a middle point which resulted in both parties going ahead with salary arbitration.
Ilya Samsonov was awarded a one-year contract worth $3.55 million dollars for the 2023-24 season. This number comes to $1.35 million below Samsonov’s asking price and $1.05 million over the Leafs asking price. The 22nd overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft has had a journey over the past four seasons. The Washington Capitals had Ilya Samsonov who had the potential to become the starting goaltender for that team. However, Washington didn’t see a lot of promising numbers from Samsonov after he played 44 games in the 2021-22 season where he posted a goals-against average of 3.02 and a 0.896 save percentage.
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Ilya Samsonov was not given a qualifying offer in the 2022 NHL Offseason which allowed the restricted free agent to become an unrestricted free agent. Samsonov would sign a one-year contract worth $1.8 million with the Toronto Maple Leafs and he would take that opportunity and run with it. Samsonov played in 42 games during the 2022-23 season with the Leafs where his numbers would drastically improve. Samsonov posted a 2.33 goals-against average and a 0.919 save percentage, most importantly, Samsonov helped the Leafs defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
With the Toronto Maple Leafs salary cap situation pushing the absolute maximum, it will be interesting to see how general manager Brad Treliving makes this all work out ahead of the 2023-24 season.
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