Two mystery goaltenders present for Leafs' practice on Saturday; Woll returned to Marlies, Samsonov on the ice
Following a pair of roster transactions, one of which sent rookie netminder Joseph Woll back to the AHL's Toronto Marlies, there was a growing optimism that we could see injured netminder Matt Murray back at practice on Saturday. However, when the Leafs took to the ice for the morning skate, not only was Matt Murray not present, but two mysterious netminders were on the ice, along with Ilya Samsonov.
Per Leafs beat reporter David Alter, one of the netminders at Leafs practice on Saturday is York University goaltender Brendan Bonello. It's not exactly new for the Leafs to invite University players to join them at practice, as we have seen a number of players from the University of Toronto take to the ice with the Buds in recent seasons. Bonello is not an unfamiliar name to the Leafs either, as he was one of the goalies who attended Marlies development day back in March of 2022.
The other goaltender present for today's skate is Andrew D'Agostini, who practiced a lot with the Leafs around this time last year. D'Agostini also spent a brief amount of time with the AHL's Toronto Marlies and Newfoundland Growlers last season - the Leafs' AHL and ECHL affiliates.
I'd imagine we'll have some clarity in fairly short order as to who the Leafs plan to start tonight. In all likelihood, Samsonov will get the nod with Murray backing him up, since Murray has not been placed on IR. If Murray can't go, then my guess is that we'll see one of Joseph Woll or Dennis Hildeby receive an emergency call-up if Murray's injury is still preventing him from being able to play.
The interesting thing here is that only Ilya Samsonov's stall has a nameplate on it in the locker room. Is there a chance that the Leafs plan to play Samsonov and have an emergency backup goalie (EBUG) roll as the backup??
