After acquiring Matt Murray from the Ottawa Senators on Monday, the Maple Leafs signed 25-year-old unrestricted free agent
Ilya Samsonov
to a one-year, $1.8 million contract Wednesday. Samsonov was 23-12-5 with a 3.02 goals-against average and .896 save percentage with the Washington Capitals last season.
Jack Campbell, who was 31-9-6 with a 2.64 GAA, a .914 save percentage and five shutouts with Toronto last season,
signed a five-year, $25 million contract
($5 million average annual value) with the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. Petr Mrazek, who was 12-6-0 with a 3.34 GAA and an .888 save percentage with Toronto last season, was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks on July 7.
Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas said age and lack of term played a factor in the decision to go with Murray and Samsonov instead of attempting to re-sign Campbell, 30, even though his salary cap hit is only slightly higher than Murray's ($4.6875 million). The Senators will retain 25 percent of Murray's $6.25 million AAV.
"It's a two-year commitment with Murray] and a one-year commitment with Ilya, and they're both young enough that we will give them the runway here to see if they can become the long-term solution in net," Dubas said.
"The difference would just be the term [with Murray]. Once we got through and evaluated, we knew very clearly from Jack's representatives what the combination of terms and dollars would look like. For us, we thought, [Murray] is a 28-year-old goaltender coming in, which was the same age I think Jack was when he came in here, a 28-year-old goaltender with that pedigree."
***[RELATED: [2022 NHL Free Agent Tracker]*
Murray's pedigree that Dubas refers to is winning the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Murray struggled towards the end of his tenure there and battled injuries and underperformance in two seasons with the Senators.
"I think with any player there is always a risk, and any player who has had injuries in the past, that risk, there's no reason to dance around it, it's always greater," Dubas said. "We were able to bring him in and get a full rundown on him, and we feel good about where he is at and the work he is putting in to make sure he stays in that position."
Dubas referenced Murray's improved play, going 5-7-2 with a 2.96 GAA and .912 save percentage after returning from a stint with Belleville of the American Hockey League last season as to why he is confident he would return to the form he showed early in his career with the Penguins.
"The things that were for me the determining factors were, number one, his pedigree, but number two, and more importantly, the way that he performed once he came back up from Belleville before getting injured at the end of the year, so showing the signs of the goaltender that he has been in the past," Dubas said.
Murray missed the final 28 games last season with a concussion.
Samsonov, who did not receive a qualifying offer from the Capitals, impressed Dubas with his willingness to take a one-year contract.
"He seems very highly motivated, and the thing that stood out to me more than anything was that he really wanted it to be a one-year, show me, bet-on-yourself type deal, which is not always common with players coming off the shock of being non-qualified when he wasn't expecting it," Dubas said.
At this point, Dubas said neither Murray nor Samsonov has been given any assurance of being Toronto's primary starter.
"That will be wide open to competition," Dubas said. "We'll give them both a good run here and our hope is that both play well, as well as they can, and we will get to work with them mid September and get them rolling. That would be a great thing for us if both of them play the way we think they can."
