Maple Leafs forced to sign new goalie due to injuries.
The Leafs add another goaltender.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed a new goaltender, but only because they weren't left with much of a choice in the matter.
According to a report from National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs have signed goaltender Keith Petruzzelli to an NHL deal, likely due entirely to the fact that they only had Erik Kallgren under contract for tonight's game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
In something of a fortunate twist of fate, the Leafs were able to sign Petruzzelli due to the fact that they lost Nicolas Aube-Kubel on waivers earlier in the day, bringing them down to 49 of a possible 50 NHL contracts. That final contract slot of course has now been used up by the signing of Petruzelli.
Petruzzelli, a former third round pick (88th overall) of the Detroit Red Wings at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft has no current NHL experience and was currently playing for the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. This season Petruzzelli has appeared in 6 games for the Marlies and boasts a 2.31 goals against average and a .922 save percentage over that stretch of play.
On Saturday night, the Maple Leafs picked up a huge win over the Boston Bruins, who boasted the best record in the Eastern Conference coming into this game, but it was a win that would come with a pretty significant cost. When the third period rolled around many were quick to notice that goaltender Ilya Samsonov was no longer in the crease, having instead been replaced by backup goaltender Erik Kallgren.
The Leafs would later confirm that Samsonov had been injured during the second period, with the team describing it as a knee injury.
At the time of the announcement I had speculated that the knee injury could have occurred during a Brad Marchand penalty shot, this in spite of the fact that Samsonov would remain in the game and finish the 15 minutes remaining in the second period. The Leafs have since confirmed that the knee injury did in fact occur during the penalty shot, which reinforces my belief that Samsonov hurt his knee when falling awkwardly after getting beat by Marchand.
Here's the replay of the penalty shot:
