Ilya Samsonov earned the starter’s role for the Toronto Maple Leafs between the pipes to start their crucial first round postseason series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And unfortunately for him and the rest of the team, the first game didn’t go remotely according to plan.
The Lightning jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov. While the Leafs were able to battle back with a pair of power play goals in the second period to cut the deficit to one, postseason assassin Brayden Point would tally twice while veteran Corey Perry scoring one of his own, making it sox goals on the scoreboard for the visiting Bolts.
That would be it for Samsonov, as he was pulled after the second period in favor of Joseph Woll. He would finish the night having allowed six goals on 29 shots against by the Lightning.
UPDATE: The Leafs have officially recalled goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. It’s expected that he’ll be permitted by the NHL to play this evening under emergency circumstances. He’ll be backed up by amateur Matt Onuska, however.
Read below for our earlier report on this developing story.
Earlier this week the Toronto Maple Leafs signed top prospect Matthew Knies from the NCAA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers. It’s a big signing for a big name prospect and it deserves recognition, but the team arguably made a much more impactful signing yesterday that isn’t receiving near the attention.
Because the Leafs have signed Knies and have inserted him into their roster, they no longer have the cap space to call up goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL. This meant that last night Ilya Samsonov was backed up this evening by a beer leaguer on an amateur tryout.
To be fair to Nick Chenard, he’s much better than your typical beer league goalie, but he’s still nowhere near NHL level… or even AHL level. The 21 year old is a former OHL netminder who aged out of the league following this past season. Again, nothing against him and I honestly hope he gets to live out his NHL dreams… but this entire scenario seems like a bit of a farce to me.
What do the Leafs do tonight for their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning? Do they go back to Samsonov? They can’t playy Chenard as he signed a one day amateur tryout. What’s the play?
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman:
What an absolute joke…
I mean… the NHL will prop up a franchise the the Arizona Coyotes, a franchise who is doing everything they possible can to get under the NHL’s salary floor. There’s no punishment for the Coyotes… but the Leafs, a team who is consistently at the top of NHL’s highest salaried teams, has to dress a minor leaguer for cap reasons.
Call me crazy, but I think there’s got to be a better way for the NHL to go about things. Personally, I think every team should be required to carry three goaltenders at all times. I love a good David Ayres or Scott Foster story as much as the next guy, but it’s pretty ‘bush league’ that things have to come to this. I mean, could you ever see the NFL, NBA or MLB allowing a team to sign a beer league accountant or a Zamboni driver take to the playing surface? Not a chance…
But in Gary Bettman’s NHL we get weird, random little things like this that pop up all the time to remind us just how much the NHL actually cares about the sport that it pretends to champion.
Earlier in the day, the Toronto Maple Leafs had two unidentified goaltenders on the ice for their morning skate Tuesday, ahead of that night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team managed to recall Joseph Woll by using the Roster Emergency Exemption (REE), something they were unable to use on Monday after the NHL deemed that conditions for it were not met.
The Leafs finally got the league to allow them to recall Woll despite cap complications, but it sounds like the Leafs are the only ones to blame here. Darren Dreger explained on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN how the NHL might not make changes in the CBA going forward despite the mess in Toronto.
« It’s not going to lead to an imminent change but what it leads to is more speculation and discussions among NHL clubs, specifically NHL general managers. When you’re a cap team like the Maple Leafs, you’re probably looking at that predicament and recognizing that that this is the most important position on the roster.
So it could be that the NHL, inside the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ association, create a specific emergency recall scenario for goalies only. Or at least more allowance and flexibility in what is a very rigid system right now that governs that emergency recall.
For the Maple Leafs, there was an argument that they put themselves in that situation by signing rookie Matthew Knies to his first NHL contract, but they could not control the concussion that goaltender Matt Murray suffered. So, it’s no question it’s problematic and there will be more dialogue required. »
The Leafs did not have the cap space to recall Woll, however the REE allows for a recall with no cap hit.
The Leafs surely couldn’t predict the injuries in between the pipes, but you got to have some room for desperate situations like this! All 31 other teams appear to be able to do so…
UPDATE: The Leafs have officially recalled goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. It’s expected that he’ll be permitted by the NHL to play this evening under emergency circumstances.
Read below for our earlier report on this developing story.
Earlier this week the Toronto Maple Leafs signed top prospect Matthew Knies from the NCAA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers. It’s a big signing for a big name prospect and it deserves recognition, but the team arguably made a much more impactful signing yesterday that isn’t receiving near the attention.
Because the Leafs have signed Knies and have inserted him into their roster, they no longer have the cap space to call up goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL. This meant that last night Ilya Samsonov was backed up this evening by a beer leaguer on an amateur tryout.
To be fair to Nick Chenard, he’s much better than your typical beer league goalie, but he’s still nowhere near NHL level… or even AHL level. The 21 year old is a former OHL netminder who aged out of the league following this past season. Again, nothing against him and I honestly hope he gets to live out his NHL dreams… but this entire scenario seems like a bit of a farce to me.
What do the Leafs do tonight for their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning? Do they go back to Samsonov? They can’t playy Chenard as he signed a one day amateur tryout. What’s the play?
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman:
What an absolute joke…
I mean… the NHL will prop up a franchise the the Arizona Coyotes, a franchise who is doing everything they possible can to get under the NHL’s salary floor. There’s no punishment for the Coyotes… but the Leafs, a team who is consistently at the top of NHL’s highest salaried teams, has to dress a minor leaguer for cap reasons.
Call me crazy, but I think there’s got to be a better way for the NHL to go about things. Personally, I think every team should be required to carry three goaltenders at all times. I love a good David Ayres or Scott Foster story as much as the next guy, but it’s pretty ‘bush league’ that things have to come to this. I mean, could you ever see the NFL, NBA or MLB allowing a team to sign a beer league accountant or a Zamboni driver take to the playing surface? Not a chance…
But in Gary Bettman’s NHL we get weird, random little things like this that pop up all the time to remind us just how much the NHL actually cares about the sport that it pretends to champion.
What initially appeared to be something of a goaltending crisis for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday may actually have been part of a bigger plan on the part of general manager Kyle Dubas and company.
The Maple Leafs backed themselves into that crisis on Saturday after sending goaltender Joseph Woll down to the American Hockey League and calling up veteran Wayne Simmonds, giving the team insufficient cap space to call Woll back up should the need arise. That need would arise when veteran goaltender Matt Murray proved to be unable to back up Ilya Samsonov, forcing the Leafs to sign an amateur goalie for tonight’s game.
While this may not be ideal for the Maple Leafs tonight, it also appears to have put them in an ideal scenario moving forward should the organization have the intent of signing one of their top prospects in forward Matthew Knies in the coming days.
According to Cap Friendly, by playing short tonight the Maple Leafs have created a scenario in which they would be able to sign Knies to a new deal and call Woll back up to the main roster as early as this weekend. After creating an emergency situation as per the rules of the collective bargaining agreement by playing short tonight, the Leafs would have to send Wayne Simmonds back down, sign Matthew Knies to an entry level contract, and recall Woll on an emergency basis to make it all fit… but it could all fit.
Knies will be playing in what could be the final game of his collegiate career tonight in the Frozen Four, and many suspect that the Maple Leafs will be quick to sign him following the conclusion of his season.
Could what looked like an unfortunate situation for the Maple Leafs prove to be a stroke of salary cap genius from Kyle Dubas and the Maple Leafs? Only time will tell.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are once again headed for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and just like last season, they’ll be taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Of course, the Leafs will be looking for a happier ending this time around, as it was Tampa Bay who overcame a 3-2 series deficit to once again break the hearts of Leafs fans everywhere by dealing them a home Game 7 setback.
Four games left remain for the Maple Leafs in the regular season schedule, including one against the Lighting early next week. Ahead of tomorrow’s matchup against the Original 6 rival Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs have announced a roster move. Gritty veteran forward Wayne Simmonds has been called up from the American Hockey League affiliate Toronto Marlies, while goaltender Joseph Woll has been sent down.
Simmonds, who has yet to appear in a game with the Marlies this season, has skated in 17 games with the Leafs in 2022-23, registering two assists along with 40 PIM.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a potential goaltending crisis on their hands, one that appears to be of their own making.
On Friday, the Maple Leafs announced that they would be sending goaltender Joseph Woll back down to the American Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies, a move that was announced in conjunction with the callup of veteran forward Wayne Simmonds.
There is a belief that the move was made out of a desire to give the aging veteran in Simmonds one final game in front of the hometown Toronto crowd, a feel good idea to be sure. Unfortunately it may be one that has left the Leafs in somewhat of a pickle on Saturday.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has now confirmed that the plan was originally to have Matt Murray serve as backup for goaltender Ilya Samsonov tonight, a plan that may be in jeopardy due to Murray’s injury status. Not only did Keefe confirm that Murray’s status for tonight was now a question mark, but he also added that he was unsure of what the Leafs would do in the event of Murray being unable to play.
This is certainly a less than ideal situation for the Maple Leafs, and we will have to wait and see how it all plays out as the day wears on.
This just in, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled goaltender Jospeh Woll on an emergency basis.
This means, more than likely, that starting goaltender Matt Murray is likely to be placed on long-term injury reserve (IR) sometime in the coming days. Murray, of course, suffered yet another freak injury this past weekend in a game against the Detroit Red Wings.
It looks like the Leafs will be relying mostly on Ilya Samsonov down the stretch and into the playoffs, with Erik Kallgren and Woll backing him up. Samsonov, to his credit, has been solid for the Leafs during stretches this season. He has 25 wins in 39 starts and sports a 2.41 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. To be frank, he’s been a much more consistent goaltender for the Leafs than Murray, but that’s not saying a lot. Murray has been plagued by injury and inconsistency for years now and has never been able to recreate the success he had early on in his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
As for Woll, he’s stellar. The 24 year old former 3rd round pick (62nd overall in 2016) has been tremendous at both the NHL and the AHL level this season. With the Leafs he has three wins in four starts with a 2.03 goals against average and a scorching .934 save percentage. With the AHL’s Marlies he has 16 wins in 21 starts and a 2.37 goals against average and a .927 save percentage. Rock solid. Here’s hoping the kid gets a shot on the big stage once and for all.
The big problem with the Leafs in goal, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, is with their contracts. Samsonov has earned a contract extension, but he’s slated to become an restricted free agent this upcoming offseason. While the Leafs have control over his rights, it’s unclear what the path forward is for him in Toronto. Murray though is signed for next season at over $4.6 million. Woll is signed for two more seasons, but is effectively blocked by Murray and Samsonov. It’s clear to me that Murray’s got to go… but at what cost?
