Maple Leafs recall veteran goaltender on emergency basis

With Ilya Samsonov being unavailable for Saturday’s game against Boston due to illness, the Maple Leafs announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Martin Jones from AHL Toronto on an emergency basis.  He will back up Joseph Woll against the Bruins.

The 33-year-old played in 48 games last season with Seattle, posting a 2.99 GAA but his save percentage was just .887, a career low.  As a result, interest was limited in Jones on the open market as he had to wait more than a month to find a contract, eventually signing a one-year, $875K deal with the Maple Leafs to serve as injury insurance.  For his career, Jones has a 2.71 GAA and a .905 SV% in 444 NHL appearances over parts of ten seasons.

With a couple of teams looking for goalie depth at the end of training camp, it came as a bit of a surprise that Jones ultimately went through waivers unclaimed with Toronto assigning him to the Marlies soon after.  Jones has been in a three-goalie rotation with them this season and has played in just five games so far, putting together a 3.37 GAA with a .870 SV%. 

It’s his first action at the AHL level since the 2013-14 campaign when he got into 22 games with AHL Manchester.  With Samsonov likely just being day-to-day with this illness, Jones’ NHL stint will likely be a short-lived one.