Leafs placing Matt Murray on LTIR causes cap issue for Senators
On July 11th of last year, the Leafs acquired Matt Murray, and third and seventh round picks from Ottawa. Ottawa also agreed to retain 25% of Murray's remaining salary over the final two years of his deal. That meant the Leafs only had to use $4.68M in cap space on Murray instead of the full $6.25M.
Many had believed the Leafs were going to buyout Murray yesterday when their second buyout window opened following the settlement of Ilya Samsonov's new contract. The Leafs surprised everyone yesterday when they instead announced that Murray would be going on LTIR in 2023-24, joining Jake Muzzin and clearing $4.68M in cap space. It was the best-case scenario for the Leafs as they did not have to take on a $2M dead cap hit next season like they would have if they bought him out and they did not have to give up a prospect or pick to offload his final contract year.
By placing Murray on LTIR, it not only helps the Leafs, but also affects the Senator's cap situation for next season. Unfortunately for the Sens, they will not get any relief with Murray on LTIR and will still be saddled with the full $1.562M cap hit from the 25% of salary they retained to complete the trade. Instead of having $6.5M in cap space, the Senators will only have $5M in cap space. Yes, they still have room under the cap to make a fairly significant addition if they choose to, but they'll have less room to work with now. According to CapFriendly, Ottawa would have gotten cap relief had Murray been bought out by the Leafs or had he retired.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 27 | 271 ANSWERS Leafs placing Matt Murray on LTIR causes cap issue for Senators Will the Ottawa Senators make the playoffs next season? | ||
| No | 110 | 40.6 % |
| Yes | 161 | 59.4 % |
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