The San Jose Sharks have added another goaltender with NHL games on his resume to the team’s roster. The Sharks have signed Ilya Samsonov to a one-year, two-way contract. According to PuckPedia, the goaltender has a $850,000 cap hit whether he’s playing in the AHL or the NHL that drops down to $225,000 if he’s playing in the AHL.
The 29-year-old Samsonov played in the KHL last season, where he appeared in 14 games of HK Sochi and finished the season with a 3.27 goals-against average and .903 save percentage. He also had one shutout.
Prior to going to Russia, he played six seasons in the NHL, most recently with the Vegas Golden Knights, where he played 29 games in the 2024-25 and finished the season with a 16-9-4 record, 2.82 goals-against average and .891 save percentage. In the NHL, he has a career 200 games played and 118 wins. He also has 15 shutouts, 2.77 goals-against average and .902 save percentage.
What does Samsonov bring to the Sharks?
Even though Samsonov hasn’t played in the NHL for more than a season, the former first-round pick brings the Sharks options. With Eric Comrie, Alex Nedeljkovic, Yaroslav Askarov and now Samsonov in the fold, the Sharks now have insurance. If, for some reason, a long-term injury forces the team to call up either Comrie or Samsonov, the team can put the player back on waivers while still having a backup goaltender in the AHL if another team makes a waiver claim. It’s good insurance for a low price.
What’s more, it gives the San Jose Barracuda some assurances in the net. The Barracuda will not have to rely on a rookie netminder, or Kyle Keyser, the 27-year-old who split his time between the ECHL and AHL last season. A combination of Comrie and Samsonov is a much better option for the Barracuda overall, hopefully giving the youngsters a chance to make some mistakes without paying for it on the scoreboard.
Potential high reward signing
The Sharks are also gambling on the possibility that Samsonov rediscovers the form that he not so recently had in the NHL. In the 2024-25 season, while he only played 29 games, he was still better than the team in front of him at even-strength, as you can see from Evolving-Hockey’s player chart.
MoneyPuck shows that he finished the season with 0.8 goals saved above expected, the worst on the team. That was the same season that Adin Hill finished with 14.5 goals saved above expected.
Of course, the season before that was tough for Samsonov and it was ultimately the reason that he was not re-signed in Toronto. In 2023-24, Samsonov was worse than the team in front of him at even strength and much, much worse on the penalty kill.
As MoneyPuck reports, that was the season he was a minus-8.1 goals saved above expected.
That said, he’s not that far removed from the 2022-23 season when he was lights out for Toronto. As you can see from Evolving-Hockey’s chart, the netminder was better at both even-strength and shorthanded.
He was the top netminder for Toronto that season, finishing with 18.0 goals saved above expected.
If the Sharks are super, super lucky, Samsonov could find some of that form once again and turn into a potential trade chip down the line.
