Ilya Samsonov Signing: Sharks Offer a Two-Way Lifeline

Ilya Samsonov is back in the NHL. The fine print says he still has to earn a spot in it.

Sharks general manager Mike Grier announced Tuesday that San Jose signed the 29-year-old goaltender to a one-year, two-way contract for 2026-27. Financial terms were not released.

Two-way is the operative word. Yaroslav Askarov owns the starter’s net in San Jose, and Alex Nedeljkovic and Eric Comrie are set to fight over the backup job behind him. That leaves Samsonov looking at the San Jose Barracuda, where Kyle Keyser is already in the picture.

His last NHL work came with Vegas in 2024-25. He went 16-9-4 in 29 starts with a .891 save percentage and a 2.82 goals-against average as Adin Hill’s backup.

Then came Sochi. Samsonov signed there in November and was terrific in his debut, stopping 30 of 31 shots against Spartak Moscow for a .968, before asking out at the second intermission because he had nothing left.

He explained the decision that night:

“I realized that if this continued, I might end up in an ambulance and go straight to the hospital. I spoke with the doctor. He said that if I didn’t stop, things could end badly,” Samsonov said, per RMNB.

It did not get better from there. Samsonov finished with 14 games, a 3-8-0 record, a 3.27 goals-against average, a .903 save percentage and one shutout for a Sochi club that went 16-2-8-42 and finished dead last.

That is a long way from where he started in that league. Samsonov won a Gagarin Cup with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2016 as a teenager and posted a .924 save percentage across 87 KHL games from 2015 to 2018.

The NHL resume is real, too. San Jose is getting a goalie with 200 regular-season games, a 118-48-25 record, a 2.77 goals-against average, a .902 save percentage and 15 shutouts.

Camp opens next week. Samsonov has that long to make Grier rethink the depth chart.