The Leafs and goaltender Ilya Samsonov haven't had the start to their summer that I'm sure either side had hoped. The two sides were unable to come to terms on a new deal, with a reported $2.5M gap between player ask and team offer. On Friday, Samsonov took the Leafs to an arbitration hearing, where the team stated their case for a $2.4M award, while Samsonov and his camp argued for a $4.9M award.
We could have a decision from the arbitrator as early as today and as late as tomorrow, but what we do know is that no matter where the award lands, one side won't be thrilled with the decision. One side will view it as either an overpay or an underpay.
There's another problem, though, with going through the arbitration process. Feelings get hurt. No player would enjoy hearing their team state their case as to why they're not worth the money they're asking, pointing out all of their flaws and knocking them down to a neutral third party to try to nail down the lowest possible award. As one former Leaf pointed out back in August of 2014, it was enough to turn him off completely to continuing his relationship with the team.
Former Leaf and current TSN analyst, Jeff "O-Dog" O'Neill, revealed on Twitter during the summer of 2014 that he despised the arbitration process, which instantly soured him on his team at the time.
The problem that the Leafs are going to have with Samsonov is that the maximum award for him, given his age and contract status, is only one year. There is no two-year option for the team, which basically means that if the process was a negative experience for the 26-year-old goaltender, he can simply walk away from the team next summer and sign elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent.
