Toronto Maple Leafs: 4 Options for Goaltender Matt Murray

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The Toronto Maple Leafs head into the most important off-season in team history with contract extensions for William Nylander and Auston Matthews as the main priority.

The Toronto Maple Leafs off-season to date has been insane – they were set to bring back GM Kyle Dubas, then they fired him.

After that, they hired Brad Treliving, and he brought in Shane Doan.

The Marlies front office and coaching staff was fired, and Jason Spezza quit. The Leafs Twittersphere has been dominated by talk of trading a big name, and of course, the coach may or may not get fired.

However, on very important move the Toronto Maple Leafs must make is one that is getting put on the backburner of many people’s minds, and that is what to do with Matt Murray.

Former general manager Kyle Dubas acquired Matt Murray and the two remaining years of his contract, along with a third-round pick in this draft and a seventh-round pick in 2024, with Ottawa also retaining just over $1.56 Million.

Murray. had a good season – when he played. Unfortunately, he was injured much of the time and did not play in the playoffs.

What the organization now has is a 29-year old often injured goalie who has a $4.69M cap hit going into the 2023-24 season.

So, the question is what do you do with Murray?

Matt Murray #30 of the Toronto Maple Leafs talks to Anthony Cirelli #71 of the Tampa Bay Lightning (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images) /

Toronto Maple Leafs Options with Goaltender Matt Murray

Option #1 – Buyout
The Capfriendly buyout option shows that if the Toronto Maple Leafs decide to go this route, Murray will have a $687,500 cap hit for the upcoming season, however it jumps to $2 Million for the 2024-25 season.

If the cap hits were the opposite, this option could be a possibility, but with the second year being the season where Matthews and Nylanders new contracts kick in, this should not be an option for the team.

Option #2 – Put on waivers and sent to the Toronto Marlies
The Toronto Maple Leafs can place Murray on waivers with the hopes a team claims him.

The lack of goaltending throughout the league is a concern and an opponent may take the chance of claiming the two-time Stanley Cup champion as he has just one-year left on his contract so the risk could be low for a team not tight against the cap.

Murray has a base salary for this upcoming season of $8 Million with no signing bonus, so if a team were to claim him, they would be on the hook for that entire salary.

A team like the San Jose Sharks or Anaheim Ducks could be in a situation to take this risk with the intention to flip him if he has some success and retain a portion of his salary.

If there is not a team that decides to take him, Murray would play out the season with the Marlies. This is with the intention that both Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll are the two goalies for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

If Murray was sent to the AHL, $1.15 Million would be buried without cap retention, which means the total cap hit on the roster would be just over $3.5 Million.

TAMPA, FL – DECEMBER 3: Details of the mask of Matt Murray #30 of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images) /

Option #3 – Trade Him
The ideal situation is new general manager Brad Treliving can find a trade partner to take on Murray.

Treliving could potentially use the two picks Dubas acquired to help entice a team to take him on.

He could also retain salary which any amount would be better than the $3.5 Million if they bury Murray in the minors.

Option #4 – Play Him
This is honestly the most likely scenario; the team decides to play Murray through Training Camp and he regains his health and ability.

There was a part of the 2022-23 season where fans were screaming praises about how Dubas stole Murray from the Senators and not only got Ottawa to retain salary, but also got draft picks.

Murray had a stretch from mid-November to mid-January where he stayed relatively healthy and posted an 11-3-2 record with a 2.38 GAA and .923 Save Percentage. Shortly after that stretch, Murray had avoiding the injured list and had just one of his last nine appearances where he could finish a game and not allow four or more goals.

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It is likely that Treliving goes with Murray into camp and he either plays well enough to give them a second option for Samsonov or ends up the co-starter (at least to begin) with Joseph Woll if the Leafs do not trade for another goalie and elect not to re-sign Samsonov.

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