Toronto Maple Leafs: The Pros and Cons of the Matt Murray Trade
Feb 2, 2020; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray (30) in goal against the Washington Capitals during the first period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Toronto Maple Leafs Matt Murray Pros
Given that the Leafs are a much better team than those that Murray was a part of, I am not too worried about his performance for the team as long as he stops all the shots he’s supposed to, no soft or leaky goals.
However, his performance in the playoffs are a whole new story: Murray has a 2.18 GAA and a 0.921 save percentage. (Stats hockey-reference.com).
Once again, if he stops all the shots he’s supposed to and not allow any soft or leaky goals, then the Leafs should be fine. Again, Murray was a huge part of the Penguins winning their back-to-back cups, alongside Marc-Andre Fleury. However, each team needs their backup to come up huge if their starter his a snag, and the Penguins possessed a strong 1A/1B tandem.
The Leafs also had a decent choice of goaltenders from free agency which includes Jack Campbell. While I personally would have rather kept Campbell, his requested term is too long for comfort, and Darcy Kuemper is too expensive. John Gibson, another offseason suggestion, has less past success and a much worse fall of, not to mention a worse contract. So, I guess given the options , Murray isn’t the worst that they could do.
In the end, the Leafs are building for the playoffs and Matt Murray has a proven record, being a two-time Stanley Cup champion. A goaltender needs poise to perform at the highest level and Murray has that, hands down. His regular season play and his last trip to the playoffs were not impressive to say the least.
Another thing to mention is that the goaltending coach is Jon Elkin, who has a long history with Murray. I hope that that longtime relationship will help bring Murray back to his glory days with the Penguins.
So, what are the pros?
- Poise
- Winning pedigree
- Solid if not injured
- Longtime student of goaltending coach Jon Elkin
Honorable mention: Really can’t do any worse with question mark goaltenders on the market.
Now, what are the cons?
And now the cons and, I’m sad to say, there are a few.
First is Murray’s price, which is luckily 25% less than it would have been, but it is an expensive contract for the Maple Leafs to take.
On top of this, the chances of Murray having a bad start to the season to become derailed by an injury is pretty high. He has been plagued by injuries throughout his career and the last thing the Leafs need is an expensive, fragile, underwhelming goaltender.
Another would be his inability to keep his job on a specific team after 2017. He was replaced by the Penguins, then he was sent to the AHL for a two game stint. I never considered him to be the sole goaltender of the Penguins either given the Stanley Cups being a full joint effort. He would then lose his job to a young Tristan Jarry, who would then lose HIS job to Casey DeSmith due to a lacking glove hand.
Murray would then find himself traded to the Ottawa Senators and his streak of injury-plagued seasons would continue as he would only play 20 games. I don’t consider him to be a dependable, long-term choice in net and the Leafs have to expect the worst and sign another goaltender such as Ilya Samsonov , just in case.
The Toronto Maple Leafs just got out of Petr Mrazek’s contract after a subpar 2021-22 campaign which was ended short due to injury. Now, they have a guy who costs even more than Mrazek did with injury problems. This can either end really well or really bad.
So, here are the cons:
- Injury prone
- Expensive
- Consistency
To conclude, here are the pros and cons of trading for Matt Murray. While I do think that he would be a great guy to have in the postseason, I just don’t know if he will stay healthy for the Maple Leafs when it matters and whether or not there is enough space to sign a replacement.
The Leafs did not have stellar goaltending last season, but it was good enough to help them push the Eastern Conference Champs to the limit. Jack Campbell dueled Andrei Vasilevskiy amazingly, making the series close and competitive. The points I shared were on Matt Murray specifically, and could he stay healthy and stay in form to help the Leafs finally win a playoff series?
The main issue here is Murray’s durability, which has been put in question more often than not. And yes, Murray could go on LTIR if he does get injured but who will the Leafs bring in just in case?
All in all, this move isn’t that bad for the Leafs, so it wasn’t a mistake for them to acquire him. Murray can be a solid goaltender when he is on form but, again, he is injury prone. This is the main risk AND the Leafs will have to find ways to bring in another starter while making sure that they have enough cap for when Murray could return.
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There are many question marks here that will only be answered when the season begins.