Murray re-enters goalie equation
Netminder helps Marlies clinch spot in return to action
Goaltender Matt Murray isn’t all the way back, but he’s closer.
The Maple Leafs assigned Murray to the Marlies on Saturday night, and he backstopped the AHL team to a 6-5 shootout win over Syracuse that clinched a playoff spot.
“He made the big, timely saves,” Marlies head coach John Gruden told reporters in Syracuse, after Murray stopped 22 of 27 shots. “A few of those I couldn’t see. They had good net-front (presence) and there was nothing he could do about those; shots just found their way through.
“When the time mattered in the third period — in the three-onthree (overtime), shootout — he was outstanding. Good for him. It was good to have him. The guys liked him, and I’m pretty sure he was excited about being back as well.”
The game tape is sure to be devoured by Murray, who hadn’t played since double hip surgery in October, as well as the goaltending coaches led by Curtis Sanford as the Leafs try to figure out the next step.
The 29-year-old Murray remained a fixture around the Leafs throughout the season, even on the road. In private moments with people close to him, he said he’d be back — this season. For the Leafs, it seemed too much to ask for. But here he is.
“It’s been tremendous, how he’s gone about things,” said Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. “You see him in there every day. You see him working. For most of the season it’s often by himself, and it’s often odd hours when there’s not a lot of people around. You see him doing his thing.
“You have a good appreciation for how long a road it’s been, but also the mindset that he’s maintained all the way through, to do everything that he can to be ready and give himself an opportunity to, you know, get in the net this season.”
A regular on the injured list in his first season with the Leafs in 202223, Murray was expected to miss six to eight months after the hip surgery. Now the Leafs are days away from the Stanley Cup playoffs with Ilya Samsonov, Joseph Woll, Martin Jones and possibly Murray as options in net.
Stanley Cup experience (he won it twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins) was part of the reason the Leafs acquired Murray from the Ottawa Senators in the summer of 2022. Last year, the Leafs opened the playoffs with Samsonov, but finished with Woll, backed up by Murray, after Samsonov’s injury.
“He’s been working extremely hard,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said of Murray. “It’s a long road back when you go through what he went through, but he’s been at the rink. Every day I’ve been there, he’s been there. And on the road, he’s there. He’s been putting in a lot of time, lots of hard work, so to see him back on the ice with us at practice was great. And for him to get some game action, that’s pretty cool.”
The Leafs had known in the summer that Murray would miss significant time. They put him on longterm injured reserve and were able to use the average annual value of his contract ($4,867,500 U.S.) to sign other players under the salary cap. He went 14-8-2 with .903 save percentage last year.
If nothing else, getting into a game gives Murray hope for another contract when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer.