Washington Capitals: Early 2021 expectations for Ilya Samsonov
The time is now for Washington Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov.
With yesterday’s news about Henrik Lundqvist not being able to play for the Washington Capitals this season due to a heart condition, it opens up an opportunity for Ilya Samsonov. No pressure, kid.
First of all it’s sad that a future hall of fame goalie won’t be able to mentor the young Samsonov who enters his sophomore season. But it’s important that he gets the treatment that he needs so he can recover from his heart condition.
As sad as the news is, the Caps have to get ready for the season regardless and win it for Hank. The Caps will need to find a second goalie but the time is now for Samsonov. It’s his net.
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Sammy, as the fans would call him, was selected in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft and even with Braden Holtby already well established, there was conversation that he could someday be the starter. Now he gets that opportunity.
Samsonov made his NHL debut last season and finished with a 16-6-2 record with a .913 save percentage and 2.55 goals against average. He was honestly a better netminder last season than Holtby was which made things easier for the team to move on from the Holtbeast.
Samsonov could’ve benefited from splitting the duties with Lundqvist but now it’s likely he is going to get 75% of the starts in a 56 game season. The team felt like a veteran could help them between mentoring Samsonov and splitting the starts. Now that second goalie option is up in the air.
The Caps could look in house to Vitek Vanecek or Pheonix Copley. Both goalies are under contract or they could eye one of the free agent goalies still on the market like Craig Anderson or Ryan Miller. None of those guys seem like a threat and don’t have the competitive drive like Lundqvist.
Samsonov is going to need to play to the level of a number one goalie no matter what the Caps do to address their net situation. We don’t know what to expect from someone with less NHL experience and the most games he’s played in a season is 37 games with the Hershey Bears in 2018-19.
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That season he split the net with Vitek Vanecek and they became a goalie tandom. Vanecek has zero NHL experience, however, so a lack of experience in goal on both parties does raise a bit of a concern.