Samsonov Is in Camp. The Crease Question Isn't Closed.

Ilya Samsonov signed a one-year, two-way contract with San Jose on Monday, returning to North American hockey after a season in the KHL. It's a low-risk depth add for a team that has spent the summer stacking its blue line — Trouba, Kesselring, Nurse, Stenberg at No. 2 overall — and the Samsonov signing fits the same defensive-first logic. You shore up the structure in front of the net, then you find someone to mind it.

The crease situation, though, is genuinely unsettled heading into camp. Logan Couture remains on injured reserve on the forward side, and the goaltending picture carries its own uncertainty. Samsonov was a capable NHL starter not long ago — he had a strong run with Washington before his time in Toronto — but a year in the KHL and a two-way deal puts him squarely in the competition-and-depth category, not the answer category. That's fine. That's what this signing is.

The broader offseason arc for San Jose has been coherent and aggressive in a way the prior two seasons — 19 wins, then 20 — gave no reason to expect. The defensive spending was real, the Celebrini extension was done, Graf is locked in. The Sharks went 22-13 in one-goal games last year and still missed the playoffs, which tells you the structure around those close wins needed fixing more than the clutch execution did. The front office read that correctly. Samsonov is the last piece added before camp opens, and it's a sensible one — just not a settled one.