Samsonov on point in his debut
Rookie goaltender makes 25 saves in 1st career win
Barry Trotz was at the draft table in 2015 when the Washington Capitals made a surprising choice with their first-round selection, taking a goaltender that high for the first time in nearly a decade. But Trotz, then the team’s head coach, had heard that Ilya Samsonov was special from people outside of the organization — that, at 18 years old, the Russian was ahead of where Tampa Bay star netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was at that age.
“He’s a tremendous young man,” said Trotz, now the head coach of the New York Islanders. “He’s got size; he’s athletic; he’s been coached very well. I know he’s got a real bright future.”
It started Friday night, when Samsonov made his NHLdebut against the Islanders in a 2-1 win for the Capitals. He finished with 25 saves in a game could one day mark the start of a new era in net for the Capitals. The team reassigned incumbent backup Pheonix Copley to the American Hockey League after he cleared waivers Thursday, settling on Samsonov in large part because with Braden Holtby in the final year of his contract, Washington wants to see what it has in Samsonov before deciding on Holtby’s future.
“Finally, it’s my first game in the NHL,” Samsonov said in a Russian-language interview Thursday. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this, working toward this for a long time. It was a tough road to get here, playing in the AHL for a whole year.”
That experience and Samsonov’s hot finish to his first and only season in the AHL — from Jan. 12 on, he posted a 15-3-1-1 record with a 1.78 goals against average and .948 save percentage — is what convinced Washington he was ready for this promotion. He skated onto the Nassau Coliseum ice all alone for warmups, a tradition for players making their bigleague debut. Rather than take a solo lap, he skated right over to a spot in front of Washington’s bench and started stretching, flashing that poised, cool presence Coach Todd Reirden has praised so often.
But after forward Jakub Vrana lifted the Capitals to a 1-0 lead with his second goal in as many games, the first goal-against of Samsonov’s career was the epitome of a bad bounce. A pass from New York’s Devon Toews deflected off two Washington players before then caroming off defenseman Radko Gudas’s skate and past Samsonov 12:27 into the game. T.J. Oshie restored the Capitals’ lead with a powerplay goal in the second period, and that held up as the game-winner.
With Holtby due to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, Washington felt urgency to see Samsonov in NHL games and discover if he really is the team’s goaltender of the future. The trade-off for promoting Samsonov to the big club is that his playing time is largely limited to spelling Holtby, either when the Capitals have two games in two nights or in relief if Holtby’s hurt or struggling.
Samsonov was tabbed the starter for Friday night’s game because Washington wanted to save Holtby for its home opener Saturday, and after this set of back-to-back games, the Capitals won’t have another until Oct. 24 and 25, potentially a 20-day wait until Samsonov’s next start. Holtby, a Vezina Trophy winner in 2016, has played in at least 54 regular-season games for each of the past five seasons.
Samsonov is waivers-exempt, so the Capitals could shuttle him to Hershey and back occasionally to keep him playing regularly, but that doesn’t appear to be their plan at this point. Reirden said the team has a projected goaltending schedule for the season, but it’s flexible depending on how Samsonov performs.
“He’s going to get some games, but the goal is to continue to develop and learn and grow,” goaltending coach Scott Murray said. “Obviously, it’s a different league, but he’s gotten better his whole career. That’s the goal, and it’s not stopping now. And he’s got to continue to earn his ice time, just as he’s done.”
Across the ice from Samsonov was Semyon Varlamov, the last goaltender the Capitals drafted in the first round and someone Samsonov has long looked up to. Samsonov said the two had dinner together once in Russia and exchanged a few texts and phone calls in the past, with Varlamov offering advice on how to get used to life in North America and in the NHL. Samsonov will now get to experience it all for himself.
“Now it’s all about performance,” Reirden said Friday morning. “It’s a guy who we believe a lot in.”