The Toronto Maple Leafs placed goaltender Matt Murray Long-term injured reserve Saturday for adductor injury. He is expected to be out for at least four more weeks.
Murray had “groin discomfort” earlier in the day and left the team’s morning skating session. Sheldon Keefe later called it “groin discomfort”. Murray was to start on Saturday in Toronto, Murray’s former home team.
Ilya Samsonov The call will be made now by Erik Kallgren, a rookie from the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies. He is being called on an emergency basis to provide back-up.
Now that Murray is off LTIR, the Leafs now have less than $4 million of cap space to recall players. Toronto is still at its 50-contract limit. Therefore, bringing in another goaltender would require that the Leafs make a move to fill that spot.
In July, Murray was traded to Toronto from the Senators. He will be taking over Murray’s final two seasons on his four-year contract worth $25 million. Ottawa retained 25% of Murray’s salary in the exchange.
Toronto chose Murray over resigning the incumbent starter Jack CampbellEdmonton’s unrestricted free-agent, Campbell, signed a five year, $25 million deal. Campbell’s former backup was also traded by Campbell. Petr Mrazek Chicago to Chicago in July. This opened the door to a completely new goalie pairing to take over.
Murray’s time with the Leafs has been almost a worst-case scenario. Murray has only played in one game. It was a 4-3 loss to Montreal in the season’s opening game. Murray scored the winning goal. Josh Anderson With 19 seconds remaining in regulation.
Samsonov, now that Murray isn’t available, will be Toronto’s main net. After not being offered a qualifying offer by Washington, the 25-year old signed as a free agent with the Leafs last summer. Samsonov was with the Capitals for his entire NHL career. He shared the net last year with Vitek Vanecek Posting a record of 23-12-5 with.896SV%.
Murray, 28 years old, has a Stanley Cup-winning pedigree that he has with the Pittsburgh PenguinsHe won back-to-back club championships in 2016 and 2017. Murray was a restricted-free agent in Oct 2020. Pittsburgh traded Murray to Ottawa. Murray was instantly extended his current four-year contract.
Murray’s injury problems caused a rift between Murray and Senators. Murray was forced to miss the second season of his Ottawa stint due to a concussion and other injuries.
The history of Toronto put Murray’s trade for him under scrutiny. Murray, who posted a.906 SV% in Ottawa’s last season of limited action, can still be very effective when healthy. He has a history playing for Keefe’s Leafs’ general manager Kyle Dubas. Murray played for the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds between 2010-14, when Keefe & Dubas were respectively coach and GM of that team.
Murray’s injury-plagued history made playing with the netminder more risky, something that even Ottawa coach DJ Smith acknowledged Friday.
Smith said that Matt, unfortunately, was injured at all times. He is our hero. He was just constantly hurt. He was plagued by bad luck.