Report: Leafs had no real choice in Ottawa's 25% salary retention on Matt Murray
Much has been made of Dubas and the Leafs being unable to have Ottawa or a third team retain more than 25% on Matt Murray's contract. Many people said that Dubas should have just given the extra $250K to Campbell and resigned him given the Leafs will be paying $4.68M of Murray's $6.25M salary. While Dubas said they tried to have the Senators or a third team retain more salary, the cost would have been prohibitive.
According to Chris Johnston, however, the Leafs had no choice but to accept the 25% retention from the Sens as he reports the Senators had another offer for Murray where the team was willing to take him at 25% retained. Hearing that, if you thought Dubas got fleeced by Dorion, now you'll realize that his hands were tied. It was either Matt Murray or no one. And this was 48 hours before anyone knew that Ilya Samsonov would be available. With Edmonton and Washington already having deals in place for Campbell and Kuemper, that's not exactly a great spot to be in.
From the beginning the Leafs didn't want to give term to Campbell because of uncertainty so they certainly weren't going to give term and nearly equal money to Darcy Kuemper. Any other option on the trade market would have cost the Leafs picks and prospects or even a roster player, something Dubas did not want to give up.
The Leafs now have 2 NHL caliber goalies, who are both looking to redeem themselves after sub-par seasons for a total of $6.5M instead of having one of Campbell or Kuemper and a backup of Joseph Woll or Erik Kallgren. Having Murray and Samsonov also ensures that both Woll and Kallgren will be able to continue to sharpen their skills and develop further at the AHL level this season.
