Ilya Samsonov is headed back to North America.
The former Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender has signed a two-way contract with the San Jose Sharks after spending the 2025-26 season in the KHL with Sochi. His NHL salary will be $850,000 against the cap, according to PuckPedia.
Samsonov’s time in Russia didn’t unfold the way he may have expected. He made just 14 appearances for Sochi, putting up a .903 save percentage and a 3.27 goals-against average.
His last NHL action came in 2024-25 with the Vegas Golden Knights. In 29 games that season, the Russian netminder went 16-9-four while posting a .891 save percentage.
Before that, Samsonov spent two seasons with Toronto, and the results were wildly different from one year to the next. He arrived in free agency ahead of the 2022-23 season on a one-year, $1.8 million deal and quickly became a strong presence in the Leafs’ crease alongside Matt Murray. That first year, he appeared in 42 games and finished with a .919 SP, a 2.33 GAA and a 27-10-5 record.
The follow-up season was a different story. Samsonov signed another one-year contract with Toronto, this time carrying a $3.55-million cap hit, but his numbers dipped sharply. In 40 games, he recorded a .890 SP and a 3.13 GAA.
With the Sharks, Samsonov is expected to sit behind Yaroslav Askarov, Alex Nedeljkovic and Eric Comrie on the goaltending depth chart. That means the 29-year-old will likely spend most of 2026-27 with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.
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