Insider Provides Grim Future For Leafs Goaltender
The Toronto Maple Leafs have three capable goalies on their roster when healthy in Ilya Samsonov, Joseph Woll, and Matt Murray. Almost all NHL teams only carry two goalies full time on their roster. This means Maple Leaf's management is going to have to make a tough call next season.
Matt Murray was given the keys to the starters role at the beginning of the season but hasn't been able to stay healthy. Murray hasn't seen game action since a late April regular season game against the Detroit Red Wings in which he suffered a concussion after an accidental collision with forward Lucas Raymond.
Samsonov has taken over the net posting the best numbers of his career, 27-10-5 record with a .919 save percentage and 2.33 GAA. Rookie goalie Joseph Woll has been stellar when his name has been called, posting a 6-1-0 record with a .932 save percentage and 2.16 GAA.
Woll has earned the confidence of head coach Sheldon Keefe. When Samsonov got hurt in Game 3 and couldn't start a must win Game 4, Keefe didn't call on two time Stanley Cup winning Murray instead going with the rookie Woll. It turned out to be the correct call by the coach as Woll was stellar turning aside 24 out of 25 shots to force a Game 5 on Friday.
With Murray being pushed down the depth chart to third string goalie, what does his future look like with the blue and white?
NHL Insider Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff beleives the Leafs could elect to put Murray on Long Term Injured Reserve, or what some hockey fans and analysts like to refer to as the dreaded "Robidas Island", named after former NHL defenseman Stephane Robidas.
Murray is under contract for one more season with a cap hit of $4,687,500. Toronto currently has $6,612,717 in cap space available for next season with a long list of pending UFAs Ryan O'Reilly, Michael Bunting, Noel Acciari, Alex Kerfoot, David Kampf, Wayne Simmonds, Zach Aston-Reese, defenceman Luke Schenn, Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson. This list doesn't include the raise pending RFA goalie Samsonov will be looking for after his first season in Toronto,
To say things will be tight is an understatement. Murray's over $4.5 million salary on LTIR would help the Leafs immensely on trying to bring some of their UFAs back.
| POLL | ||
Out of the list of pending UFAs who would you want Toronto to re-sign most? | ||
| Ryan O'Reilly | 610 | 56.4 % |
| Michael Bunting | 91 | 8.4 % |
| Justin Holl | 40 | 3.7 % |
| Luke Schenn | 341 | 31.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
