Toronto Maple Leafs: The Matt Murray Gamble Will Pay Off

Whether you love the trade or not, Matt Murray is now, at least potentially, the starting goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs looked at the goalie market and decided to bet on upside, rather than pay for past performance. Only time will tell if this bet pays off, but it should.

If you’re going to bet on a goalie, you may as well go all-in on a 28-year-old one who has already won two Stanley Cup’s as a starter, right? At $4.6M, the contract isn’t going to kill your salary cap either, so if this pay’s off, it could be the trade of a lifetime.

In fact, combine it with the paltry sum required to sign Ilya Samsonov, and the Leafs have two high-upside goalies for less than what most teams spend in net.

It’s been three seasons since Murray has been the player that we all remember. But, a lot of factors have to do with that.

In a span of three years, Murray joined a new team, the pandemic happened, injuries occurred and his father passed away, who he was extremally close to. Regardless of how rich or famous you are, all   of these factors can have a major impact on your life and it can impact your job performance.

From the OHL, AHL and then now NHL, Murray has succeeded everywhere he’s went. So, when adversity hits you as hard as it hit him over the past three years, it’s hard not to falter, especially at such a young age.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Betting on Matt Murray

Murray has a career .911 SV% and 2.77 GAA, which if he averaged that last year, would put him near the mid-20’s of NHL goalies.

That’s obviously not amazing, but if you look at his career playoff stats, they get way better: .921 SV% and 2.18 GAA. (stats: hockeyreference.com)

The Leafs aren’t trading for Murray and hoping that he’s the best regular season goalie. As shown over the last few years, the Leafs are a good enough regular season team to make the playoffs. Instead, they need stability in the post-season and in 50 career playoff games, Murray has shown that he’s one of the best goalies in the NHL.

Speaking of the best goalies in the league, the two names that stick out as the best in the world over the past decade are probably Carey Price and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Here are their career playoff stats:

• Carey Price: 919 SV%, 2.39 GAA
• Andrei Vasilevskiy: .923 SV% and 2.30 GAA

Murray has practically the same save percentage as both Vasilevskiy and Price, but has an even better goals against average! How many people bashing Murray over the past few days have thought this about him?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have the best doctor’s in hockey and spend more money than anyone else on player development. If Murray is going to get back to his old form and be healthy for the playoffs, don’t you think it’ll happen again in Toronto?

What has Dubas shown you over the past three years that doesn’t make you think he’ll make the right decision? Dubas has continued to buy low on players who out-perform their contract value and I think that’s going to happen again with Murray.

We’re going to have to wait another 10 months to find out, but once this team gets into the playoffs, Murray is going to be a rockstar and show the world that he’s still that Stanley Cup winning goalie.

I can’t wait for everyone to eat their words about this trade, as Murray is going to come back healthier and better and prove that he’s great again.