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Waived: Ilya Samsonov - Recalled by the Leafs 1/10/24

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Desperate GM's do desperate things.

It reeks of desperation this team constantly cutting corners with the most important position in the sport. They had to have known this was coming. Think about it this way: why did they even take Samsonov to arbitration in the first place?

Because they didn't think he was worth what he was asking.

Which wasn't much. But they felt Samsonov didn't deserve the same as other starting goaltenders. In other words they didn't even think Samsonov was league average.

But they went with him anyway.

Sounds pretty stupid when you put it like that now doesn't it. Especially since they were right. Now Samsonov has been waived and the Leafs are forced to go with the worst goaltender in the league last year as starter.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.
 
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Darcy Tucker said:
I just saw a report that he's no where to be found and did not report to the Marlies yet. He must have gotten into the special powder again over new years.
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Dude I used to think like you until my daughter started with depression and anxiety in her teens and we told her it was all in her mind .. once she said she wanted to off herself then it will bring you to your knees and f*ckin fast too .. and now 15 years later and i understand this is manageable with drugs and support .. even da brightest of people in this world suffer badly .. and they will often tell you they are fine when they are not fine .. again it can bring you to your knees it is so painful .. it can take down da biggest and toughest of us .. you are lucky it has not affected you .. best thing for Sammy is what I told you guys a month ago .. R&R and get away from pressure for awhile until he can function again .. just practice man .. glad Tree took my advice
 
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CaptainCrunch17 said:
Dubas on the other hand, seemed to be the alter-ego of Burke where Dubas wanted to do nothing more than pick up more and more offence first players and to me, that wasn’t going to work either.

So hopefully Treliving can build a team that is less one dimensional and more well rounded and is able to play different ways depending on the situation.
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I can't believe I just read this. All of those offence first players like Engvall, Kerfoot, Malgin, Marchment, Mikheyev, Spezza, Shore (Nick), Boyd, Barabanov, Vesey, Thornton, Kase, Ritchie (the bad one), Simmonds, Bunting, Acciari, Aston-Reese, Aube-Kubel, Jarnkrok, Lafferty, O'Reilly, Ceci, Holl, Bogosian, Lyubushkin, Giordano, McCabe, Schenn? (I've included dmen because pretty much none of them are offensively oriented). Most of those guys I would call blah before offensive, and overall the guys who were actually good at offence tended to be 2way types.

One of the staples of Kyle Dubas' tenure was his inability to bring in scoring depth, and being forced to rely on the core 4 to generate all of the offence in the playoffs. Almost all of his good signings were either depth players who had actual defensive talent, or younger players who had yet to really establish themselves.
 
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theathletic.com

Marlies notebook: Working with Samsonov, injury updates on Leafs prospects, Gruden to Sens?

Can an atmosphere of positivity help Samsonov re-discover his own jovial demeanour — and success?
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Marlies goaltender coach Hannu Toivonen has been thrust into the spotlight this week.


Toivonen will work one-on-one on the ice with Ilya Samsonov, who was assigned to the Marlies after he cleared waivers. Toivonen was absent from Marlies practice Tuesday, where he usually works with the Marlies goalies. While the focus of Samsonov’s time away from the Maple Leafs will be on the mental side of his game and re-discovering the confidence that led him to success last season, Toivonen’s sessions with Samsonov shouldn’t be discounted. As of now, Samsonov is not projected to practice with or play for the Marlies.


And so, Toivonen’s work could end up being a boon to the struggling goalie.


Toivonen is a former NHL goalie who spent three seasons with the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues before bouncing around through the AHL, ECHL and European leagues.


What’s most notable about Toivonen is his attitude: his cheery demeanour has constantly been noted by the likes of Joseph Woll and Dennis Hildeby as having benefitted them.


Woll, in particular, credited Toivonen’s attitude to helping him overcome multiple injuries in 2022.


“(Toivonen) basically said, ‘F— it. Let’s just go play,’” Woll said. “Hannu has played in the NHL. Whenever a coach has the sort of experience you’re trying to gain, it’s natural to be receptive to his teaching.”
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Sounds like he's going to be in good hands
 
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TMLBlueandWhite said:
Desperate GM's do desperate things.

It reeks of desperation this team constantly cutting corners with the most important position in the sport. They had to have known this was coming. Think about it this way: why did they even take Samsonov to arbitration in the first place?

Because they didn't think he was worth what he was asking.

Which wasn't much. But they felt Samsonov didn't deserve the same as other starting goaltenders. In other words they didn't even think Samsonov was league average.

But they went with him anyway.

Sounds pretty stupid when you put it like that now doesn't it. Especially since they were right. Now Samsonov has been waived and the Leafs are forced to go with the worst goaltender in the league last year as starter.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.
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I think he was signed to the backup unless he bounced back really hard. It was a show me deal as in show me the playoffs weren't real and that you can have two strong regular seasons in a row. They thought Woll could be the #1 and that looks correct.

Samsonov was a .919 goalie in 42 games last season. Does it make sense to let him walk based on the 9 game playoff sample? I don't see how they had much of a choice because there is nothing in the guy's history that says he would bring this years numbers. He wanted $4.9M so of course they didn't think he was worth that, They also didn't have the money but was there another .919 goalie available at $3.5M? I think without the imploding he would have played out the year and walked and they would have gone with Woll or a TDL add for the playoffs. I still expect that.

They seem desperate because they have no cap space to do more but that's every year. And how many clubs can thrive losing their #1G? Tampa went with Jonas Johanasson and Tomkins. Carolina had to play Raanta for 15 games and he is as bad as Sammy.
 
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nuck said:
I think he was signed to the backup unless he bounced back really hard. It was a show me deal as in show me the playoffs weren't real and that you can have two strong regular seasons in a row. They thought Woll could be the #1 and that looks correct.

Samsonov was a .919 goalie in 42 games last season. Does it make sense to let him walk based on the 9 game playoff sample? I don't see how they had much of a choice because there is nothing in the guy's history that says he would bring this years numbers. He wanted $4.9M so of course they didn't think he was worth that, They also didn't have the money but was there another .919 goalie available at $3.5M? I think without the imploding he would have played out the year and walked and they would have gone with Woll or a TDL add for the playoffs. I still expect that.

They seem desperate because they have no cap space to do more but that's every year. And how many clubs can thrive losing their #1G? Tampa went with Jonas Johanasson and Tomkins. Columbus had to play Raanta for 15 games and he is as bad as Sammy.
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My point was that Samsonov isn't a legit starting goalie and the team knew that.

Can't count on Woll for obvious reasons. And Jones has been hot garbage for years. So knowing all this why didn't they figure out a way to bring in a good goalie.

Instead of running the carousel again this year like every other time when it's clearly worked so well in the past?
 
TMLBlueandWhite said:
My point was that Samsonov isn't a legit starting goalie and the team knew that.

Can't count on Woll for obvious reasons. And Jones has been hot garbage for years. So knowing all this why didn't they figure out a way to bring in a good goalie.

Instead of running the carousel again this year like every other time when it's clearly worked so well in the past?
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Did one legit starting goaltender change hands in the offseason across the entire league?

The best one to my mind is Cam Talbot. And he's basically a Martin Jones type story.
 
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Stephen said:
Did one legit starting goaltender change hands in the offseason across the entire league?

The best one to my mind is Cam Talbot. And he's basically a Martin Jones type story.
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Just because nothing happened doesn't mean something couldn't have happened.

But they didn't even try anything so we'll never know. Rumour is Hellebuyck was wanting out of Winnipeg. A Nylander for Hellebuyck trade straight up sure would have solved a lot of problems.

Even just a run of the mill league average goalie to provide stability and instill confidence in the back end would have been better than what they went with.
 
TMLBlueandWhite said:
Just because nothing happened doesn't mean something couldn't have happened.

But they didn't even try anything so we'll never know. Rumour is Hellebuyck was wanting out of Winnipeg. A Nylander for Hellebuyck trade straight up sure would have solved a lot of problems.

Even just a run of the mill league average goalie to provide stability and instill confidence in the back end would have been better than what they went with.
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Here's some fun with numbers in response to your doom and gloom:

Goalie A 2.37 GAA .926 SV%

1704319861621.png


Goalie B 2.33 GAA .920 SV%

1704319838648.png


Goalie A is Martin Jones. Goalie B is Connor Hellebuyck. Obviously Hellebucyk is the Vezina caliber goalie and Martin Jones is Martin Jones, with a sample size of 27 games to 9. But the point is something did happen in the summer. The Leafs got a cheap little insurance policy for nothing, managed to protect it, and over 9 games it has given us Hellebuyck level goaltending.
 
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Stephen said:
Here's some fun with numbers in response to your doom and gloom:

Goalie A 2.37 GAA .926 SV%

View attachment 795269

Goalie B 2.33 GAA .920 SV%

View attachment 795266

Goalie A is Martin Jones. Goalie B is Connor Hellebuyck. Obviously Hellebucyk is the Vezina caliber goalie and Martin Jones is Martin Jones, with a sample size of 27 games to 9. But the point is something did happen in the summer. The Leafs got a cheap little insurance policy for nothing, managed to protect it, and over 9 games it has given us Hellebuyck level goaltending.
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That's great.

But what does Jones playing well in a few games have anything to do with Samsonov sucking? My point was that the Leafs knowingly went with a below average starting goaltender in Samsonov. Jones was brought in for relief and has done a good job at that.

But if the Leafs are hoping Jones is gonna carry this team to a cup his history suggests the numbers he has posted these past few games won't last.
 
Hopefully that means to shut him down for the season due to mental health and let him really work on his game and be ready for next season wherever that may be.
 
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