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A Former Capitals goalie to Roll the Dice in Free Agency after a Year in Vegas
Photo credit: thehockeywriters.com
A former Washington Capitals Goalie will test free agency as the Las Vegas Golden Knights backup goaltender Ilya Samsonov has announced that he will not be re-signing with the Golden Knights for the 2025-26 season and instead will test free agency once the free agency period begins on July 1st.
Ilya Samsonov is coming off a campaign where he only played in 29 games for the Vegas Golden Knights, and was on the bench as the 3rd string goalie backing up Akira Schmid and starter Adin Hill.
For the season Ilya Samsonov would have a 16-9-4 record with 2.82 goals against average and a .891 save percentage.
From the 2019-20 season until the 2021-22 season Ilya Samsonov was in net in Washington for the Washington Capitals.
Samsonov through 3 seasons in net would play in 89 regular season games, and went 52-22-8 in goal for the Washington Capitals. Ilya Samsonov would also play in 8 playoff games during his time in Washington.
Vegas Goalie to roll the dice in free agency
Ilya Samsonov's services will be in demand, but despite looking for a starting position, Samsonov's services will most likely be for a team looking for a quality backup goaltender.
This past season Ilya Samsonov was on a very cap friendly one-year $1.8 million contract with the Vegas Golden Knights.
For the 2025-26 season a similar low risk high reward type contract will likely be in the cards for Ilya Samsonov as he looks to work his way back to more frequent starts in front of the net.
Ilya Samsonov has 200 career National Hockey League starts currently under his belt. With a 118-48-25 career record. Ilya Samsonov also has a career 2.77 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.
The 29-year-old Russian goaltender still is in the prime of his career, so it will be interesting to see which NHL team elects to sign him in a backup role or as a veteran 3rd string netminder that would be stashed in the American Hockey League.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 21 | 14 ANSWERS A Former Capitals goalie to Roll the Dice in Free Agency after a Year in Vegas Where will Ilya Samsonov play in 2025-26? | ||
| NHL | 6 | 42.9 % |
| AHL | 2 | 14.3 % |
| KHL | 6 | 42.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
