With the first three instalments in Capitals Outsider’s ‘Getting To Know You’ series being based around active members of the Capitals roster, it is time to turn our attention to one of the organization’s most promising young goaltender prospects. Currently recording some impressive statistics, especially in recent games with the Hershey Bears, 21-year-old Russian goaltender Ilya Samsonov is on the right path to success, following Braden Holtby and Pheonix Copley on the Caps’ depth chart.
Hailing from the industrial city of Magnitogorsk (translating to ‘city of the magnetic mountain’), situated in Oblast, Russia, Samsonov has proved impressive from an early age, debuting in the KHL in 2014 in a relief game for Metallurg Magnitogorsk before spending his first season with the club’s junior equivalent Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk, recording a .