Former NHLer shares why it's bad Maple Leafs and Samsonov went to arbitration

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Cooper Godin
July 22, 2023 (11:28)

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After being unable to reach an agreement on a new contract over the last several weeks, the Toronto Maple Leafs and goaltender Ilya Samsonov went to arbitration on Friday morning.

Both sides were pretty far apart when their arbitration filings were made public, with Samsonov at $4.9 million USD, while the Maple Leafs countered with $2.6 million USD.

Many seem shocked that the Maple Leafs and Samsonov even got to this point and weren't able to reach an agreement on a contract before Friday morning and one of those people who was surprised was former NHLer Frank Corrado.

Corrado tweeted on Friday that he was shocked to hear that the two sides were heading for an arbitration hearing and that it's not going to be a good feeling for Samsonov, Toronto's starting goaltender, to sit and hear negative things about himself from the Maple Leafs.

"Surprised Samsonov and the Leafs got to arb. Not ideal that the starting goalie for next year is going to have to hear about how bad of a goaltender he is for a few hours today from his own team. Not great for any player let alone a goalie. Both sides should've been able to figure it out." Corrado said.

Samsonov, 26, was a big reason the Maple Leafs made it into the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season for the first time since 2004. During the regular season, the Magnitogorsk, Russia native appeared in 42 games where he sported a record of 27-10-5 with a 2.33 goals against average, a .919 save percentage and four shutouts.

An announcement on Samsonov's new contract should be revealed on Saturday or early Sunday morning as the arbitrator has to come to a decision within 48 hours of the hearing.