The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Keep Matt Murray for Next Season

The Toronto Maple Leafs have Matt Murray on the books for another season at close to a five million dollar cap hit.

While many Toronto Maple Leafs pundits want to see the team get rid of Matt Murray, they probably should just keep him.

Yes, he’s expensive, and very injury prone.

I still say it’s the right move to stick with him.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Matt Murray

Matt Murray is a talented player with a ton of experience and two Stanley Cups.  If the Leafs are going to go with rookie netminder Joseph Woll next season, it makes sense to stick with Murray as a back-up.

Based on the playoffs, and overall play from this past season, the Leafs starting goalie next season should be Joseph Woll, but he’s a rookie and Murray offers good insurance should he falter, as well as the skills to be a solid back-up, and, most importantly, Murray can act as a mentor.

With Murray and Woll as the Leafs goalies, the cap hit is still  way, way less than most teams spend on goalies, and with the bonus that Matt Murray can be put on the LTIR pretty much any time with no questions asked because he’s a walking injury machine.

So should things not work out, you could put him on the LTIR and pursue another goalie during the season.

There is no upside in getting rid of him – some are even talking about spending assets to get out of his contract.  That’s insane.

If he plays, he’s really good and easily worth the money.

If he can’t play, you don’t have to pay him and can re-invest his salary on other players.

Either way, he’s already here, and you don’t have to pay someone else to take him, or spend money/assets to get someone else.

Goalies are so random that it’s not impossible that Matt Murray is the NHL’s best goalie next season.  At worst, he’s a solid back-up to Joseph Woll.

The fact is, Joseph Woll is the goalie of the future, and the future is now.

Spending money on goalies is dumb.  Woll is on a dirt-cheap contract, making Murray’s cap-hit a non-issue. Personally, I would not spend the money or term to re-up Ilya Samsonov even though he had a great season.

Goalies are too unpredictable, and if you give Samsonov term and money, he’s going to disappoint you.  Hopefully new GM Brad Treleving learned his lesson from signing Jacob Markstrom to such a big deal that he follows the Kyle Dubas Method when it comes to goalies: no term , no money, no problem.