The Washington Capitals tendered qualifying offers to restricted free agents Ilya Samsonov and Lucas Johansen before Monday’s 5 PM deadline.
The move allows the Capitals to keep the rights of both players heading into free agency.
Vitek Vanecek, the Capitals starting goaltender last season, was tragically snatched up by the Seattle Kraken in the Expansion Draft on Wednesday. Vitek will form a battery in net with Chris Driedger (FLA) and Joey Daccord (OTT).
During the night, tributes poured in from Vitek’s former (sigh) Capitals’ teammates.
By Ian Oland 7 days ago
Caps senior writer, Mike Vogel, reported on Friday that the Washington Capitals will lose $472,927 of cap space during the 2021-22 season due to performance bonuses earned by defenseman Zdeno Chara and goaltender Ilya Samsonov.
Someone keeps sabotaging Ilya Samsonov’s career. hot-dog-tim-robinson-trying-to-find-the-guy.gif.
By Peter Hassett 1 month ago
During his rookie season in the NHL, Ilya Samsonov was impressive and garnered Calder Trophy consideration. But once the pandemic struck, everything seemed to go sideways.
Samsonov missed the 2020 playoffs reportedly due to an injury he suffered while riding an ATV in Russia. When he rehabbed and returned for the 2020-21 regular season, he missed long stretches of time due to two different stays on the COVID-19 Unavailability List. The first stint, hanging out maskless with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin, and Dmitry Orlov in the same hotel room, caused the Capitals to endure a $100k fine. Samsonov tested positive for COVID-19 and had trouble walking and breathing. Months later before the playoffs, Samsonov was suspended by the team for behavioral issues along with Kuznetsov. Samsonov was unable to play until Game Three of the Capitals’ first-round series against the Boston Bruins. He lost three consecutive games, punctuated by a Game Four double-overtime loss where miscommunication with Justin Schultz led to the game-ending turnover.
With the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft weeks away and Samsonov a restricted free agent after that, a split between player and team seemed possible. But Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan threw cold water on that notion during Capitals’ Breakdown Day.
“I think we’re going to give him another opportunity to grab [the number one starting spot] and run with it,” MacLellan said of Samsonov.
The official Hockey Russia Twitter announced this morning that the Washington Capitals have not approved Ilya Samsonov to join Team Russia at the 2021 World Championship.
Russia Hockey states that Samsonov was disappointed because he could not represent his country and he will rehab for two weeks in Washington.
By Cara Bahniuk 2 months ago
The hockey season is not over yet for Dmitry Orlov and Ilya Samsonov. The two Capitals, whose NHL season ended last night after being eliminated by the Boston Bruins, will join Team Russia for the 2021 World Championship being held in Minsk, Belarus, and Riga, Latvia, until June 6.
Alex Ovechkin, who missed seven games down the stretch of the regular season, will not participate “due to injury.”
The still-super-banged-up Washington Capitals have taken the ice and Medstar Capitals Iceplex before Game Four.
Lars Eller is on the ice, but TJ Oshie is not, and it looks like Caps coach Peter Laviolette will once again turn to Ilya Samsonov to start in net.
By Peter Hassett 2 months ago
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov spoke to the press on Thursday for the first time since being suspended by the team for disciplinary reasons and landing in COVID protocol for nearly two weeks.
During the chat, Kuznetsov gave insight into his quarantine, which kept him out of Games One and Two of the Capitals’ first-round series against the Boston Bruins.
Kuznetsov revealed that he ended up contracting COVID-19 for a second time.
As Chris said, the Washington Capitals played pretty darn well against the Boston Bruins in regulation of Game Three. With nine minutes left in rego, the Caps had a lead and roughly an 80 percent chance to win the game. A win in Game Three would have given the Caps somewhere around a 7-in-10 chance to win the series, except obviously that didn’t happen. Marchand got that gritty goal to force OT, and then the Bruins took over.
Still, until Smith’s wraparound, the Caps had a coin-toss’s chance to get that pivotal win. Pivotal is the part I need to emphasize, as it’s hard to overstate how bad the Justin Schultz–Ilya Samsonov goof-up was.
By Peter Hassett 2 months ago
