The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed goaltender Matt Murray on injured reserve after suffering a lower-body injury during practice. The Leafs have set his timetable for a return to a minimum of four weeks.
Matt Murray Placed on IR By Maple Leafs
The @MapleLeafs have placed G Matt Murray on long-term injured reserve. He is expected to miss a minimum of four weeks (adductor injury).
G Erik Källgren has been recalled from the @TorontoMarlies on an emergency basis.
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) October 15, 2022
It didn’t take long, but Matt Murray has been placed on injured reserve. He went down awkwardly in practice and immediately sought out their goalie coach, per David Alter.
Immediately after, he left practice and did not return. Murray will be out for at least a month and will be re-evaluated in November.
In 2 starts with the Leafs, he recorded a 1-1 record, with a 4.05 goals-against-average, and an .826 save percentage. In Murray’s place, they have called up goaltender Erik Kallgren.
What This Means
Although there will be jokes about how early in the season he got hurt, this is a pretty big blow to the Leafs’ goaltending depth. If Kallgren can replicate the same early success he had last season, then the Leafs shouldn’t worry about their success in net too much until Murray can make his return.
The Leafs may also rely on Ilya Samsonov, considering he hasn’t started yet this season. Samsonov recorded 3.02 GAA, with a .896 SV% in 44 games for the Washington Capitals.
Although they lose their bonafide starter, they still retain a decent 1A and 1B to hold them off until Murray makes his return. Although, that 4 week’s timeline was the minimum, as Murray could easily be delayed for a lot longer if he makes no progress, and the Leafs may be stuck without him until December depending on how the injury heals.
It appears as if Samsonov/Kallgren will be the tandem going forward. If this tandem doesn’t perform any better than Murray has, they may not be any better. Toronto may drop a fair amount in the standings compared to where they normally are. Although for now, this is all just speculation.
Matt Murray made 16/16 saves over two periods of action in his Maple Leafs debut as short-handed Toronto defeated the Canadiens 3-0 in pre-season play.
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— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 29, 2022
