Ilya Samsonov signed a one-year, two-way deal with the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday as the former Maple Leafs starter continues to find a way to extend his NHL career.
Samsonov, 29, last played in the NHL during the 2024-25 season with the Vegas Golden Knights, going 16-9-4 with a 2.82 GAA and .891 SV% in 29 games. The former Maple Leafs starter has a career 118-48-25 record with a 2.77 GAA and .902 SV% in 200 career games.
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He will look to be insurance for the Sharks as they employ Alex Nedeljkovic, Eric Comrie and Yaroslav Askarov currently, and that two-way deal allows the Sharks to call him up and send him down whenever - so long as the AHL team plays a game in that span.
Samsonov went from 27 Leafs wins and a $3.55M award to fighting for NHL security
But it's a far cry from where Samsonov once was. He had his best season in 2022-23 with the Maple Leafs where he went 27-10-5 with a 2.33 GAA and .919 SV% in 40 starts, and managed to get a $3.55M deal through arbitration that summer.
Though he declined fairly quickly, and the Maple Leafs shifted gears towards a new goaltending situation headed by Joseph Woll.
Having taken a year off, Samsonov is looking to get himself back in the fold, and his $850,000 deal (and only $225,000 in the AHL) is a steep drop from what he earned previously - but a strong showing this year could earn him a bigger deal next year.
When Toronto decided to let him go, he was only 26 but with Woll playing fantastic and the need for a more veteran presence (which later became Anthony Stolarz and Sergei Bobrovsky) led to them moving on after his expensive second season.
Toronto's decision to move on looks different now than it did in 2024
While no one could have predicted that Samsonov would drop off so quickly after his first season in Toronto, at least they lucked out in the sense that they avoided a further drop-off down the line.
The team quickly moved on after that second season where he dropped from a .919 SV% to a .890 SV% - a steep decline in a year's time. Toronto went with Woll and Martin Jones for 2023-24, and then transitioned to Stolarz in 2024-25, and there was some clear hesitation on Toronto's part on whether they believed Samsonov was their guy.
Samsonov is still young enough to be a reliable piece for the next few seasons, and if San Jose has reservations about how the trio of Nedeljkovic, Comrie, and Askarov - and considering all three finished with average numbers last year - taking a flier on Samsonov isn't too risky.
Toronto once faced criticism for giving up on Samsonov's upside given he was young and just came off a 27-win season. His latest contract suggests the bigger risk may have been betting that his best Leafs season was coming back.
Will Ilya Samsonov help the San Jose Sharks make the playoffs?
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