Today's waivers announcement and what it means for the Leafs and Matt Murray
With the NHL's buyout window officially open, Chris Johnston reports that no players have been placed on waivers for purpose of a buyout. There have only been a handful of teams to execute a buyout on the very first day of the window, so it's not entirely panic-worthy at the moment that the player you want to see bought out hasn't been placed on waivers just yet.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will exhaust all options on the trade market to see if there's anything that makes sense in regards to Matt Murray before they make the ultimate decision of buying him out. He carries a cap hit of 4.687 million for only one more season, which is usually pretty easy to trade away but a draft pick or prospect has to be attached.
Kyle Dubas left the Maple Leafs draft cupboard a little empty on his way out to Pittsburgh as they only have a first round pick, fifth round pick, and sixth round pick this year. They are missing their second round picks until 2027, they don' have a third rounder next year, first round pick in 2025, or even a fourth round pick that year either.
The buy-out won't cost them as much either as the cap hit for the 2023-24 season will be $687,500 but 2 million in 2024-25. However the salary cap has been projected to rise in the next coming seasons so the dead cap hit should be mitigated with the raise.
The Leafs have until the end of the month to make a decision regarding Matt Murray with the buyout window closing on the 30th of June. All signs point to the Leafs parting ways with the failed experiment after one season, however it's not all doom and gloom as Joseph Woll took the opportunity and ran with it this season, so much so that he should be implanted as the backup in 2023-24.
Signing Ilya Samsonov will be a priority, shouldn't cost too much, and he's an RFA which should help soften the blow just a little bit. The goaltending tandem combined should cost less than Matt Murray's 4.687 cap hit and that's extremely beneficial for a team that is always near the top of the salary cap leaderboard.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 16 | 921 ANSWERS Today's waivers announcement and what it means for the Leafs and Matt Murray Will Murray be bought out by the Leafs during this buyout window? | ||
| Yes | 750 | 81.4 % |
| No | 171 | 18.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
