This offseason, the Toronto Maple Leafs re-signed goaltender, Matt Murray. With this move, it seems that Murray might make a comeback. General manager Brad Treliving and the rest of the Maple Leafs management made it clear that they want Murray back. They signed him to a one-year contract at $875,000. We’ll see if a Matt Murray comeback is possible.
Matt Murray Seeking Comeback with Leafs
While he would act as the third goaltender on the Leafs roster, Treliving believes the Murray could be useful for them. Martin Jones played that role last year for Toronto. In the 2023 off-season, Jones signed an identical contract to what Murray has for this upcoming season. This deal was one year at $875,000. Typically, third-string goalies don’t see much ice time during the season. However, Jones played a quarter of last season, featuring in 22 games as a Leaf. Joseph Woll was out with an injury, and Ilya Samsonov was not playing up to standards. Jones would even become the starter for a brief stint. He finished the season with a 19-11-8 record with a 2.87 goals-against-average and a .902 save percentage.
For Murray to make a comeback to the NHL, this is an opportunity that he would have to hope for. When he was traded to Toronto for future considerations, he was projected to be in tandem with Samsonov going into the season. It was an interesting move by Kyle Dubas, given Murray’s time with the Ottawa Senators and his contract at the time. In Murray’s first season with the Leafs, he played 26 games, he wasn’t amazing, but wasn’t terrible either. He averaged just over three goals a game and a .903 save percentage. On the road, he was phenomenal that season, with a .915 save percentage and 2.75 GAA in 16 games.
Murray has a Decent Resume
Murray has had a roller coaster of a career thus far. The Thunder Bay native won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017. In those playoffs, he wasn’t carried through by his teammates and rested on the bench. Murray was very much in the fight and was relied on, and in the end he came through. In 2016, he played 21 playoff games, winning 15 of them. With that he had a 2.08 GAA and .923 save percentage to end the playoffs as a 21-year-old. Despite playing less games in the playoffs in the season after that, he was still lights out and in fact had even better numbers. An impressive .937 save percentage and 1.70 GAA was enough to earn his second Stanley Cup.
Even though it may feel like that was forever ago, Murray is only 30 years old. This gives him plenty of time for that potential comeback. His time with the Sens after Pittsburgh weren’t the greatest, but his performances could be justified. Above anything else, it’s tough to be an elite goaltender when the team in front of you isn’t world class by any means. He also faced some injuries and setbacks in his Ottawa days.
Injuries and Setbacks
It’s no secret that Murray has been unlucky in his career due to injuries and other off-ice emergencies. He’s been held back against his will, but he’ll be looking to change that in this coming season. Over the course of his career, Murray has had nearly 20 different occasions where he’s been out of the lineup for reasons he can’t control for the most part. The biggest issue with the goaltender is the amount of injuries he picks up.
On top of that, Murray went through a difficult loss in in January of 2018, and it didn’t involve stopping pucks. He unfortunately lost his father, James Murray in the middle of the season. While he seemed to play his way through the pain in the 2018-19 season, he regressed for the next two seasons. One would think that losing a loved one and role model might have something to do with that.
However, recently on a podcast he revealed that he is feeling much better after receiving hip surgery back in October. He missed the entire season, but progressed through practices with the Leafs once he recovered from the procedure.
“My hips haven’t felt this good in a long time,” he said. “This year is just about proving that I can stay healthy and that I got a nice little reset with the surgery, so proving that I can stay healthy and get the job done.” Murray plans on getting back to his old self and winning hockey games.
Main photo by: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports
