Senators To Sign Samuel Ersson

Last month, the Senators flipped a fifth-round pick to Toronto to acquire the RFA rights to goaltender Samuel Ersson, then opted to non-tender him on Monday.  However, he will be Ottawa’s backup goaltender next season as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports (Twitter link) that the two sides are close to a contract. Terms of the deal, believed to be a two-year pact, have not been disclosed.

The 26-year-old has shown some flashes of upside over his four-year stint in Philadelphia but his performance there was mired by inconsistency.  He was thrust into the starting role early in his career and wasn’t able to establish himself as a legitimate full-time number one, resulting in recent moves to see them sign Daniel Vladar and acquire Joseph Woll from Toronto.  Those moves pushed Ersson out of a spot with the Flyers, resulting in him being tacked onto the Woll swap.

Last season, Ersson played in 33 games with Philadelphia and had a rocky showing, to put it lightly.  He had a 3.12 GAA and a .870 SV% in those outings, the second-lowest save percentage in the NHL.  The one netminder who was lower?  Leevi Merilainen, who started the season as Ottawa’s backup before being sent to the minors once they added James Reimer and Linus Ullmark returned from his leave of absence.

Ottawa is banking on Ersson being more like the netminder he was in the previous three seasons.  In those years, he played to a 2.98 GAA and a .888 SV% over 110 appearances, numbers that are at least closer to league average.  While that might not seem appealing on the surface, that would still represent a notable upgrade on how things went last season.  Ersson’s experience handling a starting workload should also give the Sens some comfort as durability has been an issue for Ullmark, who has yet to play 50 games in a single season in his career.