GM: Murray’s new deal won’t impact Fleury
“We have a young goalie that’s had a very good career, he’s won a Stanley Cup, played extremely well, and we feel has a bright future ahead and a long future ahead of him.” — Jim Rutherford, Penguins general manager on goaltender Matt Murray
he is a terrific person, he’s a terrific player, and I think that assumption, we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.” OK, so let’s back up. What Murray’s signing means is that the Penguins have a promising young goaltender under contract through the 2019-20 season. Still just 22, Murray went 9-21 last year in the regular season with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage. He led the Penguins to their fourth Stanley Cup with 15 postseason wins, a 2.08 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage in the playoffs.
He is still recovering from a broken finger in last month’s World Cup of Hockey but rejoined his Penguins teammates for practice this week.
Murray’s new deal will kick in next season, and he will make an average of $3.75 million for the three seasons under the extension.
Murray’s camp and the Penguins began negotiations during training camp, and there always was a general sense that this sort of deal would get done.
“We’ve been talking for maybe about a month or so,” Murray said. “Nobody was in any big hurry, I don’t think. We both wanted a fair deal. I think in the end it worked out pretty well for both sides.”
The deal falls in line with the one Tampa Bay signed with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy this summer (three years, $3.5 million annually). The Lightning were in a similar situation to the Penguins, with an established veteran (Ben Bishop) under contract, a promising young goalie in Vasilevskiy and the expansion draft for Las Vegas looming next summer.
While many NHL teams have begun to eschew these shorter-term so-called “bridge contracts” — instead opting for long-term deals to lock up young stars — Rutherford said it made sense in this case.
At least for the next three years, having a potential franchise goalie on the books for $3.75 million annually could greatly help Rutherford and the Penguins navigate the NHL’s salary cap.
“It’s why you do the bridge contracts,” Rutherford said. “Sometimes you’re right and sometimes you’re not. We have a young goalie that’s had a very good career, he’s won a Stanley Cup, played extremely well, and we feel has a bright future ahead and a long future ahead of him.”
Discussing the future, though, is where Fleury comes back into play. He is under contract for $5.75 million next season and committing more than $9 million to goaltending seems like an untenable situation, especially for a team that brushes up against the salary cap as often as the Penguins.
If both goalies are on the roster at the end of the season, the Penguins would be able to protect only one from the expansion draft. Unless he’s willing to waive his nomovement clause, it would have to be Fleury, leaving Murray open to be selected. If the Penguins want to protect Murray, it would likely mean trading Fleury before the end of the season.
Rutherford, though, said he wasn’t necessarily worried about that right now. The immediate goal is for the Penguins to win another Stanley Cup this season, and having both Murray and Fleury on the roster certainly seems to help with that objective.
“Our focus this year is winning, and we’ll deal with the expansion draft at the appropriate time,” Rutherford said.
“This signing of Matt doesn’t go hand-in-hand with any of that.”