Ilya Samsonov 2022 Report Card

Now that the dust has settled on a largely disappointing 2022-2023 campaign we turn to Ilya Samsonov who is once again a pending free-agent. There were two versions of Ilya Samsonov in 2021-2022, the regular season version who gets an F and the playoff version who gave us all hope that Samsonov was finally turning a corner to be the team’s number one netminder. With all that said, playoffs included, Samsonov gets a D+.

Sure, Samsonov relieved Vitek Vanecek in game two and played well for the Washington Capitals, putting them in a position where they should have eliminated the Florida Panthers but at the end of the series, it was the Panthers who advanced. Simply put, not good enough. Certainly not good enough considering the dismal regular season performance.

For the past two seasons we’ve seen flashes of brilliance from the young Russian netminder, but they all seem to be short-lived. Two stick out in my mind, there was the west coast trip where he had back-to-back shutouts and more recently during the playoffs where the fans rained down “Sammy! Sammy!” chants for the first time.

But do those moments overshadow two years of inconsistency? Absolutely not. If it was the Capitals who were playing the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Finals and Ilya Samsonov was in-net, then of course, the shortcomings of regular season’s past could and should be ignored. However, that isn’t the case. The Capitals were once again eliminated in the first round of the playoffs and Samsonov has done little to inspire confidence in his ability to be an elite-netminder.

Samsonov played in a career-high 44 games in 2021-2022, going 23-12-5 but had a save percentage of only .896 and a goals against average of 3.02. He saved -12.5 goals saved above average and had only 33 percent of his starts classify as a quality start. Those numbers speak for themselves and what they are saying is that Ilya Samsonov is not a quality number one option in the NHL. Not right now, anyway.

There may not be better options for the Washington Capitals to explore in the offseason so the team may be forced, once again, to turn to Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov in-net for 2022-2023 but that’s a story for another time. For now, the DC faithful are left disappointed and wondering “what if?”