Leafs only dressing one goaltender tonight due to cap-related reasons
The Toronto Maple Leafs will reportedly dress just one goaltender ahead of tonight's game against the Montreal Canadiens due to cap-related reasons. Leafs' top prospect Matthew Knies' collegiate season is coming to an end tonight when the University of Minnesota faces off against Quinnipiac in the National Championship and need the cap space available in case he signs his entry-level deal this weekend.
The Maple Leafs have yet to place goaltender Matt Murray is currently hurt and they sent Joseph Woll back down to the Toronto Marlies and called up Wayne Simmonds. In other words, Murray is still technically on the roster and the Leafs technically have two goalies - just one might not dress. Murray also can't be placed on the LTIR because his injury occurred with less than 10 games remaining in the season, which is the minimum amount of games you have to miss when placed on the long-term injured reserve.
Toronto used two local minor leaguers at Saturday's morning skate in Andrew D'Agostini of Scarborough and Brendan Bonello of Mississauga in Murray's absence.
Sheldon Keefe spoke on the Matt Murray following this morning's skate, relaying the following info to the media who were present:
"[Murray's] been progressing. He's had some good days here of late, so thought he was gonna be available to back up tonight, possibly. So, we'll see. That may not be the case here now, but working with the medical team just to figure out exactly where that's at."
When pressed about Murray's availability and who would be backing up Samsonov, Keefe said:
"He has not been on the ice, no. I don't know because that wasn't the plan."
In other words, the Leafs are very likely going to dress Ilya Samsonov and have the emergency backup on standby for tonight. Fortunately for the Leafs, they have already locked up home ice advantage ahead of the first round, so the remaining games don't hold as much importance or merit. This also isn't the first they have found themselves in this precarious position. Back in 2021, University of Toronto student Alex Bishop suited up with Petr Mrazek going down with an injury.
Keefe finished things off by saying:
"The salary cap and roster limitations both provide challenges in terms of what you're capable of doing. It's an 82-game schedule, and you gotta get through it."
