This wasn’t the plan for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but with starter Joseph Woll on the sidelines and backup Ilya Samsonov‘s struggles snowballing, GM Brad Treliving had to shuffle up the position.
So, on Sunday, the team waived Samsonov, who had a 5-2-6 record, .862 save percentage and 3.94 GAA in 15 games. With a $3.55 million cap hit through the rest of this season before becoming UFA eligible, Samsonov will be assigned to the Marlies now that he has cleared waivers.
In Samsonov’s place comes up Dennis Hildeby, a 22-year-old drafted in the fourth round (122nd overall) just in 2022, when he was 20 years old. Passed over in a few drafts, Hildeby was picked in his last year of eligibility — a true late bloomer.
In the 2020-21 season, after the Swedish U20 league’s playoffs were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hildeby underwent surgery on both of his hips to fix a lingering issue, which likely contributed to him going undrafted at 19.
This season has been Hildeby’s first in North America, moving on from Farjestad, where he played in 2022-23. With the Marlies this season, the huge six-foot-seven, 223-pound netminder has a .919 save percentage and 2.20 GAA in 15 games, both marks among the best in the league.
For now, we’d expect Martin Jones to be Toronto’s No. 1, with Hildeby serving as the backup until Woll is ready to resume to his top duties. The Maple Leafs will face a back-to-back right away, too, with games in Los Angeles Tuesday and Anaheim Wednesday. Will we see Hildeby in one of those?
Our in-house scout, Jason Bukala, shares his scouting report on what the Maple Leafs have in the still-developing Swedish netminder Dennis Hildeby.
SCOUT’S ANALYSIS
The scenario the Leafs find themselves in with their goaltending obviously isn’t ideal.
Hildeby is developing nicely at the AHL level, but he requires more time to season with the Marlies before becoming a full-time option for the Leafs. Unfortunately, Toronto has no choice but to call on Hildeby with the struggles that Ilya Samsonov has encountered.
Here’s my scouting report on Hildeby:
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NHL PROJECTION 2A GOALIE  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Provided By: Jason Bukala, The Pro Hockey Group / CapFriendly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Massive goaltender Takes up a ton of net – good feet / balance When he squares up he is difficult to beat from range When down in the butterfly he sits tall enough to take up the upper quadrants of the net Reads the play very well – surprisingly quick moving side to side – pucks find him in traffic / screens – needs to make sure he plays between his posts and inside the paint to take full advantage of his size – barely adequate playing the puck – #2 on projection at this time – needs AHL seasoning | ||||||||||||||||||
Provided By: Jason Bukala, The Pro Hockey Group / Sportsnet / CapFriendly | ||||||||||||||||||
You can follow Jason Bukala on X at @ProHockeyGroup for more analysis.
