Matt Murray Experiment Already A Disaster For Leafs
Kyle Dubas did again. Offseason acquisition, Matt Murray, was supposed to be the goalie reclamation project that took the Leafs past the first round. Murray still has time to turn things around for Toronto but there is no denying that this experiment is going south quickly for the Leafs.
Murray, 28, is back on LTIR again. It’s the seventh time Murray has been placed on IR in the last five years. We knew Murray was damaged goods when Dubas traded for him and he’s still damaged goods now that he’s wearing a Leafs’ sweater.
We knew this was coming. Bagdonas spit it out for you in his post detailing the trade. Why are you taking on 90 percent of that contract by helping your rival go out and then acquire Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat? Declining to pay Jack Campbell was sort of understandable. Replacing him with Matt Murray sure as hell wasn’t.
Matt McKenna at the Daily Faceoff did a really great job breaking down some of the goalie play from Toronto this season. Keep in mind, the Leafs are coming off a loss to the down bad Coyotes because Erik Källgren isn’t good enough. Murray has only made one start for the Leafs but he looks broken beyond just looking at the box score.
Let’s just be honest with ourselves, this thing is done. In your heart, you know it. Leafs did the thing the Leafs always do. Can’t get the goalie right. Over and over again. By the way, Freddie Andersen looks damn good right now in Carolina. What’s the best case scenario here? Hoping and praying to the hockey gods that Samsonov finally figures it out? Very possibly but in the range of outcomes that exist, Matt Murray going out there and putting the team on his back in a playoff series doesn’t look possible. He stinks and is made of glass. Do I have any evidence at this point to say anything other than that?
We can’t keep letting Kyle Dubas away with this. Young hopefully Nick Robertson had to start the year in the AHL because they didn’t even have room for him on the roster via cap reasons until Murray went down. It’s filled with chaos and dysfunction. The only reason he hasn’t been fired yet is because no team was smart enough to buy low on William Nylander two years ago.
Bottom line is the Leafs may very well be able to overcome this. Auston Matthews is a top-three player in the sport any way you slice it. Mitch Marner is also an elite player or at least is paid like one. However, at the same time this is still the Leafs. They have bad karma written all over them and the Universe gives them back exactly what they deserve. You ate the Matt Murray contract and 15 minutes into the regular season we already have to start wondering if Dubas needs to go into witness protection because of this trade. This is bad vibes city.
