Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Matt Murray is playing lights-out in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Toronto Marlies right now and deserves a new contract or a new home.
Performing well in the AHL versus the NHL is night-and-day but Matt Murray deserves his flowers for his play right now. In general, Murray deserves all the praise for just being able to play, let alone perform at a high-level, after dealing with multiple injuries, most notably having hip surgery in October, 2023.
Murray went almost two years without playing an NHL game due to injury, so it was such a plesant night when he secured his first win of the season against the Buffalo Sabres on December 20. After Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz suffered an injury that will keep him out almost three months, Murray, alongside Dennis Hildeby have stepped up as back-up's, both doing a fine job.
Hildeby has gained the role as the true back-up to Joseph Woll right now, but Murray deserves to either be called up to the Leafs, re-signed to an NHL contract, or shipped to a place that will give him that opportunity.
Matt Murray is Shining With the Toronto Marlies
Since November 13, Murray has only allowed more than three goals once in 10 starts. Even more impressively is that Murray has three shutouts in that span, as well as 13-save, no-goal performance that he had in relief, on December 14.
As mentioned before, the AHL is not the NHL. We've seen these types of performances before by many Marlies goaltenders, most notably Jonathan Bernier when he was sent down for "conditioning" in 2015-16 season. Bernier was struggling with the Leafs, and then recorded three shut-out's in four games with the Marlies, helping get his mojo back for an NHL comeback.
It was a quick trip to the farm, but Bernier showed that he's way too good for that league and Murray is kind of doing the same. It's been a few years, but when Murray is at the top of his game, he' s arguably a top-five goalie in the world. In a way, he's been a victim to his early success with Pittsburgh, when he won back-to-back Stanley Cup's, as everyone expects him to be that goalie, or he's a bust.
That's not fair to him, because he's still a very good goalie. The only issue is that he hasn't been able to stay healthy and now that he's been healthy all season, he's showing what he's capable of. With a 1.74 GAA and .933 SV%, Murray's stats are right at the top of the AHL and as a result, NHL team's should be calling for his services.
In a perfect world, you'd love to keep Murray on the roster for insurance purposes, but that's not fair to him. I'd still be a little scared that Murray will get injured again, so with that being said, I don't see him moving ahead of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll on the depth chart any time soon.
As a result, I think it's only fair for the team to trade Murray to a team that can use him at the NHL level, or if they do think he can compete with Stolarz and Woll next year, that the team should sign to an NHL contract before he gets snatched up this offseason.