Senators: Matt Murray and Walking the Waiver Wire
By Scott Cowan
Matt Murray’s tenure with the Ottawa Senators didn’t get off to the greatest of starts in 2020-21, and the same can be said for its untimely and admittedly expected end. There’s a lot of questions one can take from Murray’s tremendous fall from grace since his beginnings as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ future in net, but the main one, of course, is how the heck did we get here?
After posting a mediocre 10-13-1 record with a dreadful 3.38 GAA and .893 SVP, Murray’s expected reign as the Senators backbone in net has now been usurped by Filip Gustavsson and Anton Forsberg, who, whilst not having played the greatest thus far into 2021-22, have posted Dominik Hasek esque-numbers in comparison to Murray. While he’s dealt with a Covid-19 diagnosis and limited action thus far this season, Murray has similarly yet to win a game, posting an 0-5-0 record with a 3.26 GAA and .890 SVP.
Again, this all begs the question, how the heck did we get here, and more importantly, how did Murray go from back-to-back Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh to walking the delicate and less than sturdy waiver wire, after the Senators ultimately placed him on waivers on Saturday. A product of the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds, Murray struggled for much of his tenure in junior before finding his groove in his over-ager season in 2013-14, posting a 32-11-6 record with six shutouts and a 2.57 GAA. A third-round pick of the Penguins in 2012, Murray bided his time with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins where he posted remarkable numbers as their starting option, with highs of a 25-10-3 record with a sparkling 1.58 GAA and a remarkable 12 (yes 12) shutouts.
Joining the Penguins late in the 2015-16 season as the third goalie behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Jeff Zatkoff, Murray eventually usurped Zatkoff as the backup and, come playoff time, Fleury as the starter. Whilst the Penguins posted a solid record after head coach Mike Sullivan took over for Mike Johnston, they weren’t necessarily Stanley Cup favorites heading into the post-season yet rode Murray and a timely offense comprised of superstars like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, to not one, but two consecutive Stanley Cup titles.
While the Penguins have since come back down to earth in recent years, utilizing Crosby’s innate ability to make those around him better, and a surprising amount of offensive depth to quell worries about their future, Murray largely wasn’t a part of that. Now, it seems as though there’s a high chance, he won’t be a part of any team’s future, barring in mind a claim from the NHL’s basement dwellers. After showcasing his potential in both the playoffs and his first season as the starter in 2016-17, Pittsburgh ultimately decided to bet on Murray as the future in goal, exposing Fleury to the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 Expansion Draft.
Whilst Fleury went on to have a career resurgence, leading the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season, Murray struggled without the presence of Fleury, as the Penguins’ main option in goal. After two seasons with less-than-ideal GAA’s of 2.92 and 2.87, Murray also ultimately wound up losing the starting gig to Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry at different points. With the Thunder Bay native having been set to become a UFA at season’s end, Pittsburgh ultimately decided to stick with Jarry and DeSmith going forward, sending the 27-year-old to the Senators in exchange for a second-round pick and prospect Jonathan Gruden.
Now having once again been usurped in Ottawa, the question remains, where does Murray go from here? In most cases like this, players like Murray often find themselves with opportunities for a fresh start with a struggling team in need of support. Yet, unfortunately, Murray doesn’t carry the price tag of a player who’s exhibited such a fall from grace, being locked down for two more years at an eye-watering $6.25 million AAV, with a 10-team no trade clause.
For any other starting goalie in the NHL, these numbers would be justifiable, but unfortunately for Murray, he’s nowhere near the caliber of a starting goalie at this moment, and in my mind, is in need of some serious soul searching which I just don’t feel as though he’ll be able to find at the NHL level just yet. For the majority of this season, the Arizona Coyotes have been tip-toeing the edges of the NHL’s salary cap floor, sitting dead last in the league currently with a complete lack of offense and lack of a true starting option in goal. Whilst it would make sense for Arizona to take a flyer on Murray and give him a chance to re-assert himself, I’m still not sure if that AAV is something they’d want to risk taking.
Murray’s numbers have basically made him contract-repellant for the majority of NHL teams, and it’s something that will likely ultimately prevent him from getting another, immediate, NHL shot. Should he be sent down to the AHL’s Belleville Senators, Murray’s AAV doesn’t change, and it’s not exactly a great look for your team to have a $6 million goalie in the AHL, especially if Murray’s struggles continue. In many ways, this entire situation seems like a revolving door with no ends, but it’s up to Murray and Murray alone, to change that.
Should he be able to rebound and post similar AHL numbers to his earlier years (ridiculous cap hit aside) Murray could see another opportunity with a Senators team that has again struggled in the NHL’s cellar as a Covid outbreak and lack of consistency have continued to plague them. Yet, it seems as though they regardless want to move on from Murray, and if he clears, it’s likely AHL, buyout, or bust for this once Stanley Cup champion.
In what has been yet another bizarre start to the NHL season as Covid-19 continues to impact the league and its teams, there’s been a similar number of feel-good stories as there are tremendous falls from graces. Along with the Jeff Petry’s and Phillip Grubauer’s that have made up this start to 2021-22, it looks as though Matt Murray will be yet another casualty, of the walk across that o so precarious, waiver wire.