Leafs place goaltender on injured reserve; Petruzzelli added to the team's official roster
During Saturday night's matchup with the Atlantic Division leading Boston Bruins, Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov appeared to tweak his knee on a Brad Marchand penalty shot. Samsonov would finish the second period but would not return for the third, being replaced by Erik Kallgren - who was excellent in relief, making 7 saves on 7 shots to secure the 2-1 win for the Buds.
No update was available on Samsonov after the game, but the Leafs did announce that they had signed Marlies goaltender Keith Petruzzelli to an entry-level contract, which seemed to indicate that the team knew that Samsonov is expected to miss time. Well, now we have our official confirmation that he indeed will miss some time.
Per The Athletic's Jonas Siegel, the Leafs have placed Samsonov on injured reserve, which means that he is not eligible to return for a minimum of 7 days. That would put Samsonov on track to miss, not only Tuesday's game against the Vegas Golden Knights, but also next weekend's double-header against the Penguins and Canucks on Friday and Saturday.
The silver-lining here is that the Leafs did not place Samsonov on LTIR, which would render him ineligible to return for at least 24 days and 10 games. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that he won't be added to LTIR once the extent of the damage is determined. We saw the Leafs take a similar approach with Jake Muzzin in October, when he was first added to IR and then shifted over to LTIR. Samsonov is expected to undergo tests today, so I'm sure we'll have an update on his status rather imminently. Keefe feels the injury will keep him out more than one week.
Siegel revealed that Petruzzelli is now listed on the Leafs' official NHL roster on Sunday, which means that he will back up Erik Kallgren tonight in Raleigh and likely puts him in line to start one of the back-to-back games this coming week, either on Friday against Pittsburgh or Saturday against Vancouver. Kallgren is expected to start tonight against the Canes and very likely Tuesday against the Golden Knights.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 6 | 271 ANSWERS Leafs place goaltender on injured reserve; Petruzzelli added to the team's official roster How will Keefe divide the starts over the next 4 games? | ||
| 3 for Kallgren, 1 for Petruzzelli | 157 | 57.9 % |
| 2 games apiece for Kallgren and Petruzzelli | 99 | 36.5 % |
| 1 start for Kallgren, 3 for Petruzzelli | 15 | 5.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
