Toronto Maple Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov has received a $3.55MM award (one-year) in his arbitration case, according to The Athletic’s James Mirtle. Samsonov had filed for $4.9MM, while the Maple Leafs had filed for $2.4MM.
This award comes just under the mid-point between the two parties’ filings and is just a little bit less than the $3.75MM we projected in our detailed breakdown of Samsonov’s arbitration case.
The Maple Leafs don’t have much cap space to work with, especially after signing players such as Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, John Klingberg, and Ryan Reaves to NHL deals this summer.
That’s why they were likely hoping Samsonov’s deal would fall closer to their filing, though those hopes may have been a bit optimistic given Samsonov’s performance.
The 26-year-old 2015 first-rounder made the most of his one-year change-of-scenery deal from last summer, winning the number-one job in head coach Sheldon Keefe’s crease.
In 42 games he went 27-10-5 with a .919 save percentage and 2.33 goals-against-average. He even helped Toronto to the playoff series victory they’d long been aching for, his 31-save performance in Game Six against Tampa Bay leading the way.
With this decision made, the most important and valuable thing the Maple Leafs have gained is cost certainty. They now know exactly what their expected tandem of Samsonov and Joseph Woll will cost them next season, which will help guide what they do moving forward in the offseason.
They still have Matt Murray on their books at a $4.687MM cap hit, and are likely to pursue avenues to remove Murray’s deal from their cap sheet. A 72-hour buyout window will open for the team to utilize, and buying out Murray would reduce Murray’s cap hit to just $675.5k for next season at a cost of $2MM in dead money in 2024-25.
They could also elect to try to trade Murray, though the modified 10-team no-trade clause he possesses on his contract could make finding a trade at this stage of the offseason difficult.
For Samsonov, this contract is a compromise between what he filed for and what the Maple Leafs wanted to pay. It’s more of an opportunity than anything else, as he’s set himself up to hit unrestricted free agency next summer. If he can have another strong season between the pipes in Toronto, he may set himself up to be the top UFA goalie on the market behind Connor Hellebuyck.
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Fair enough, smart move with a bigger payday in the horizon if he has a good year.
They’re going to have to buy out Murray, will or nil. Only one team left needs to get to the cap floor. Chicago’s the only other team left with lots of cap space to bury deadweight contracts; even Arizona’s down to $9 MM cap space left.
Finally. I like the cap hit, every dollar counts. Now it’s time to move forward and make the other moves they need to make to clear cap and round out the roster.
I hear they are contemplating Shanahan as a top 6 winger on a min salary, if they cannot make the cap work.
He would still make a league minimum right? At least? So we still couldn’t afford him so how does that help? We need to shed cap not add another player
Clearly a joke a to lighten the mood… But I’m sure they could make the money work.
What’s the LTIR equivalent for management shitting the bed? ;)
The boys club needs to end. Comically bad when the oldest and youngest GMs leave your franchise, and you’re still left with Sheldon n Shanny poisoning the well.
They should have removed Shanny altogether I agree, Sheldon I’m ok with giving him one more year but with a different type of team then what he has had to work with under Dubas.
Just feels like he stuck around as the “scapegoat” option. Gives Shanny someone to fire before pointing the finger at himself.
Buyout time for Murray.
A fair and equitable outcome and well deserved. They need to figure out Murray to achieve CAP stability. Samsonov has some good seasons in front of him.
Perfect. The leafs only need to clear 12.38M by opening day to be cap compliant. That should be easy to accomplish.