Bad News As Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltender Suffers Injury
The Toronto Maple Leafs have suffered yet another depth injury that will be a situation the team will now have to navigate with.
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray left during the first period of the Toronto Marlies game against the Laval Rocket, appearing to aggravate himself after a play. The news was originally reported by Nick Barden of The Hockey News on X.
According to the Marlies, Murray will not return to the game although they did not specify what the specific reason for Murray's exit was. He was replaced in net by Dennis Hildeby.
Matt Murray's Journey With Toronto
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Murray to a one-year, $875K contract in the offseason. Murray was previously signed to a four-year contract worth $6.25M annually, a deal he signed with the Ottawa Senators in 2020 shortly after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
A two-time Stanley Cup champion who was a consistent playoff performer, Murray was expected to be Ottawa's long-term franchise goalie.
Instead he found himself shipped off to Toronto just two years later after compiling a 15-25-3 record with a 3.23 GAA and a .893 SV% while the team failed to make the payoffs with Murray between the pipes.
Ottawa traded the struggling Murray to the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, reuniting the former Soo Greyhounds netminder with his former head coach Sheldon Keefe and GM Kyle Dubas in the NHL.
Murray was expected to compete with fellow recent addition Ilya Samsonov for the starting role with Toronto, with the likelihood being the two would be in a joint 1A/1B tandem situation.
Murray did well as the rotation backup to Samsonov, appearing in 28 games for Toronto in the 2022-23 season, with a 14-8-2 record along with a 3.01GAA and a .903SV%.
Injuries continued to hinder Murray throughout his time in Toronto, later undergoing hip surgery in 2023 that had him sit out the final year of his big-money contract, seeing just 3 games in the AHL as his workload, having a 4.03 GAA and a .846 SV% with a 1-2-0 record.
There is no details on the severity of Murray's injury, but leaving a game in the first period is never a good sign, especially for a player like Murray who has been plagued with setbacks due to injuries.
The move means the Leafs can't rely on a veteran in Murray as a call-up if an injury happens to their two main netminders, Joseph Woll & Anthony Stolarz, leaving the net open for rookies Dennis Hildeby, Artur Akhtyamov and Vyacheslav Peksa.
| POLL | ||
Who should be the first goalie called up for the Toronto Maple Leafs in case of injury? | ||
