The Leafs and Ilya Samsonov are set to meet with an arbitrator tomorrow to determine his next contract, unless they come to an agreement over the next 24 hours. Samsonov filed for arbitration with an ask of $4.9M while the Leafs countered with a filing of $2.4M.
Samsonov took over as the Leafs' number one goalie and played in 42 games last season as Matt Murray struggled to stay healthy. In those 42 games, the 26-year-old netminder went 27-10-5 with a 2.33 GAA, .919 save percentage and 4 shutouts.
"I don't think you can meet in the middle at $3.675M. I think you have to start at $4M at the very least for Ilya Samsonov," said Biron. "There's 26 active NHL goaltenders that are going to make over $4M next year. Ilya Samsonov is better than probably half of those guys. He was 8th in the league last year in goals saved above expected per game."
Biron's predicted AAV and Samsonov's ask are both below the predicted AAV that Evolving Hockey has listed for Samsonov. They have predicted a 4-year deal with an AAV of $5.1M, so if the Leafs can sign Samsonov for under Evolving Hockey's prediction and his requested arbitration number, the deal should be considered a win for the Leafs.
