The Toronto Maple Leafs made a brilliant move in the summer, showing that sometimes it pays to be the smartest team in the room.
While everyone else in the NHL is overtly concerned with perception, the Toronto Maple Leafs admitted what everyone deep down already knows : Goalies are too random to spend money and assets on, and thus it’s better to go cheap in net and spent your money where you can get a better ROI.
So this meant letting Jack Campbell walk. While Dubas took heat from the stuck-in-the-past mainstream media, the Leafs GM kept his mouth shut and let time embarrass his critics, as it always does.
The Brilliance of the Leafs summer wasn’t who they got, it’s who they didn’t sign.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Shut-Down Matt Murray
But who they did sign was also pretty brilliant. And not because Samsonov has been among the best goalies in the world. It was the though process, not the result.
The Leafs took two out of fashion goalies they knew were talented, and which circumstances made cheap. They signed Samsonov to a show-me deal, then were paid to take a goalie with two cups.
Let’s repeat that because it seems so stupid: a team that is worse than the Leafs gave the Leafs their best goalie, and retained 25% of his salary, and paid the Leafs 2 draft picks to do it.
Hilarious.
Now here we are in January and you know what? I’d be perfectly fine starting Matt Murray, Ilya Samsonov, Erik I Saved the Season Kallgren, or Joseph “Rising Stock” Woll in the playoffs.
It’s clear the Toronto Maple Leafs are among the best defensive teams in hockey and it really doesn’t matter who their goalie is. All goalies will play well in front of them, normally. If a guy is off or cold, they have other options.
Shut Murray and Muzzin down for the year, take their $10 million, trade Kerfoot and you've got nearly $14 million to go nuts with.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) January 28, 2023
And Matt Murray is now out with an ankle injury. They say it’s been an issue for a while. So does that mean a trip to the IR? Does that mean the Leafs trade for another goalie, or bring up one of their suddenly viable goalie prospects?
Who cares?
That’s the point. It’s goalies. Whatever happens happens. The Leafs are in a good position because if one of their guys goes down, who cares?
The Leafs season doesn’t hang in the balance of Matt Murray’s fragile body. In fact, that fragile body may just save the season.
I mean, he has a cap hit of $4.6 million dollars. Who is going to question it if he is shut down? A confrontation with a daddy longlegs could send this guy for surgery, so who are we kidding here?
Shut him down, lean on Samsonov, and bring in Kallgren to backup. Or Woll, who cares?
Use the money to load up what is already one of the best teams ever assembled in the cap era.