Leafs expect ‘wide-open competition’ in net after signing Ilya Samsonov

When general manager Kyle Dubas spoke about the Maple Leafs’ new goaltending tandem, words such as “hope” and “if” kept coming up.

Dubas emerged from the first day of NHL free agency with netminder Ilya Samsonov, who has as many question marks hanging over him as Matt Murray, the goalie he traded for on Monday.

They’re both former No. 1s who lost the confidence of their coaches — Murray was waived by the Ottawa Senators and sent to the minors at one point — and have landed in Toronto on the cheap in hopes of salvaging their careers and reputations, neither guaranteed the top job.

“It will be a wide-open competition,” Dubas said Wednesday. “We will give them both a good run, and our hope is that both play as well as they can.”

The Leafs signed Samsonov to a one-year, $1.8-million (U.S.) deal. Just a week ago, the Washington Capitals suggested they would give him a qualifying offer to keep him around. But when push came to shove, Samsonov popped free and became part of the day’s goaltending carousel.

“He seems very highly motivated,” Dubas said of Samsonov. “The thing that stood out to me more than anything was that he really wanted it to be a one-year, kind of ‘show me, bet on yourself’ type deal, which is not always common with players coming off the shock (of not getting a qualifying offer). That was impressive to me, combined with the evaluation of our player personnel department of what he can become if we can work with him and get him on the right track.”

Samsonov, drafted 22nd overall by the Capitals in 2015, went 23-12-5 with an .896 save percentage and 3.02 goals-against average this past season.

Samsonov is 25, Murray 28. The Leafs’ departing goalies, Jack Campbell (to Edmonton) and Petr Mrázek (to Chicago), are both 30. Campbell was named to the all-star game last year, but Murray has two Stanley Cup rings from his days with the Pittsburgh Penguins. All four have warts to their game, and all but Samsonov have had trouble staying healthy for a full season.

Dubas also talked about Murray for the first time since Monday’s trade that brought him, two draft picks and 75 per cent of his salary-cap hit ($4,687,500) to Toronto for future considerations, which often amount to little more than a thank-you card.

“The determining factor for me, No. 1, is pedigree,” Dubas said of Murray. “But more importantly, it’s the way that he performed once he came back up from (AHL) Belleville before getting injured at the end of the year. He was showing the signs of the goaltender that he’s been.

“It’s a two-year commitment with (Murray) and a one-year agreement with Ilya. They’re both young enough that we will give them the runway here and see if they can become the long-term solution in net. But we also have our own young goaltenders on the way. We’re hopeful that over the course of the next two seasons that these guys can all push themselves and begin to run with it.”

One of those young goaltenders is six-foot-six Swede Dennis Hildeby (whose nickname will surely be Hilde-Beast if he ever makes it in the NHL). The Leafs drafted him in the fourth round last week, and signed him to an entry-level deal on Wednesday. He’ll be part of the team’s development camp starting Sunday.

On the whole, the first day of NHL free agency was a bit underwhelming for the Leafs, who also added a couple of low-risk, low-reward depth forwards in Nicolas Aubé-Kubel (one year, $1 million) and Adam Gaudette (one year, $750,000).

The 26-year-old Aubé-Kubel had 11 goals this past season with the champion Colorado Avalanche. He’s five-foot-11 and a product of the Quebec junior league, drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2014.

His claim to fame this year was dropping the Stanley Cup — denting the base — as he skated in for the team picture after the rest of the players had paraded around the ice with it. He has played 169 NHL games, with 21 goals and 29 assists.

Dubas said Aubé-Kubel’s speed and forechecking are similar to ex-Leaf Ilya Mikheyev, who signed with Vancouver.

Gaudette, 25, is a bit undersized at five-foot-10. He was drafted in the fifth round by the Canucks in 2015 and had 27 goals and 43 assists in 218 career regular-season games with Vancouver, Chicago and Ottawa.

Illness has held him back, Dubas said, but he’s healthy now.

“It’s one of these bets that we make a few times every summer,” Dubas said of Gaudette. “He’s a guy that we can work with and see what happens.”

There was more work to be done for the Leafs: getting restricted free agents Pierre Engvall and Rasmus Sandin to sign, and continuing to hunt through the bargain bin — which paid off with forwards Michael Bunting and David Kämpf last year.

Dubas said he’s still looking for a physical depth defenceman and any mix of depth forwards.

“I don’t think that we’re done,” he said. “We’ll just see how things shake out. They’re obviously going to have to be guys that look at our situation and say, ‘I can go there for a year or two on relatively low dollars and the group would be a fit for me to have success,’ and then parlay that into something greater.”

That’s the path that worked for many familiar names who cashed in elsewhere. Mikheyev got a big raise in Vancouver (four years, $19 million). Ditto defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin in Buffalo (two years, $5.5 million). And of course Campbell in Edmonton (five years, $25 million), joining ex-Leafs Zach Hyman and Tyson Barrie. That prompted one questioner to ask Dubas if he’d consider banning Oilers scouts from Leafs games.

“I’m happy for (Hyman and Barrie) and was happy to see the success for them this season. Sometimes it’s just the way it goes,” the GM said, before adding with a smile: “I don’t think we’ll be banning anybody — yet.”

SHARE: