The latest on Leafs goaltender Matt Murray
When today's waivers announcement came out and Matt Murray's name wasn't mentioned, it led some to believe that a Murray trade was on the horizon and could happen at some point on Thursday during the 2nd day of the NHL draft. Well, now we're through 4 rounds and Murray has still not been dealt by the Leafs.
With the NHL's buyout window set to close tomorrow, there was some concern that the Leafs would miss their chance to buy out Murray, and that if they can't trade the veteran netminder or buy him out, the team would likely be forced to move one of Joseph Woll or Ilya Samsonov. However, that's not the case.
Per CapFriendly, even though the NHL's buyout window closes tomorrow, players can still be placed on waivers for the purpose of a buyout tomorrow.
There still exists the possibility that the plan could also be to have Murray ride out the last year of his deal on LTIR, which would save the Leafs a buyout penalty for the next 2 seasons and would also make it so that they didn't have to give up assets to move the last year of Murray's deal.
Murray is slated to earn $4.687M next season, but carries an actual salary of $8M, which is believed to be one of the reasons why the Leafs have had a tough time moving him.
