I think the prudent move for the Pittsburgh Penguins is to move on from their two-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender, Mat Murray. The cost to retain in addition to the uncertainty of getting what you paid for makes it an easy decision for me.
I was very vocal about the Penguins needing to move on from Marc-Andre Fleury. Murray’s emergence made it impossible for the Penguins to ignore. Murray was great in the playoffs and is a huge reason they won both championships. He was superb to close out the 2018-19 season. You could even argue he was the main reason the Penguins stayed afloat and made the playoffs in 2018-19 when from December 15th on he was a .943 goalie at 5v5 in 1,868 minutes. Murray’s highs are high and his lows are incredibly blah. At one point he was on track for an 7.5-8Mish AAV deal. He’s definitely not anymore. He didn’t crack .900 this season and Tristan Jarry’s play in Game 4 did nothing to change people’s minds he should have been starting in the first place.
The Penguins should save their money and invest on players in front of the goalie. It isn’t that I think Murray will never have a quality season again. He may have a few of those. After all he is only 26 years old. I just don’t like investing big into goalies and Murray’s sample is too spotty to give me confidence in doing so. Tristan Jarry may not be the guy, but his regular season showed me it is worth giving it a try.
So if the intention is to move Murray what could you possibly do? He’s a pending RFA and hasn’t been playing great. The Penguins do have some leverage here as far as a time frame to shop him since he won’t be hitting the open market. One variable that makes the conversation tough is the goalie market. It is a notoriously tough market to gauge even without the complexities of Murray’s situation (2-time cup winner, also struggling). I don’t usually have a good handle on goalie trade values. I’m not sure many do. One thing I do know is if the Penguins are moving Matt Murray it is because they want to save money. If the market isn’t terrific I don’t think they’ll hold out for the “perfect deal”. They may take a cheap player with some potential upside and not much else. I have an idea in mind which I think would falls in line with that thinking and makes sense for both teams.
I would try to trade Matt Murray to the Edmonton Oilers for Jesse Puljujärvi. Edmonton is rolling out Mike Smith in playoff games. You don’t think Ken Holland would roll the dice with a two-time cup winning goalie who is still in his mid-twenties? The RFA status would be very appealing to the Oilers who have trouble attracting quality free agents (hence Mike Smith). Murray would kind of be stuck as an RFA. He could threaten to hold out, but I personally don’t think it would go down like that.
Puljujärvi is the former #4 overall draft pick by the Oilers who refused to play for them this year and instead went to Europe to play the season. He expressed his discontent with the organization’s handling of his development and said he would like to move on. In fact, he just signed another one-year deal to remain in Karpat for the 2020-21 season. Although, he does have an out clause.
The Oilers don’t have huge leverage here. He’s clearly proven he will leave them and play elsewhere until he is satisfied with his situation. At the same time Puljujärvi still has some trade value and the Oilers won’t have to deal him for peanuts. That’s what Matt Murray is for. Murray is a position of need for Edmonton and he has proven upside. I think the Oilers would trade Puljujärvi’s potential upside for something tangible they’ve seen before.
Puljujärvi played in SM-Liga last year for Karpat. He had a great year. In 56 games he scored 24 goals and 53 points. This is the kind of offensive production that gives Puljujärvi hope for being an NHL player. If he had struggled to put up points it would have been a huge red flag for his 22 year old season. The fact he was close to a point per game in a non-juniors league is encouraging. Now it doesn’t suggest he is going to be a 50-60 point player in the NHL. It does suggest he can be an offensive depth player and I think it is one of the Penguins greatest needs at the moment. If you convert his SM-Liga points per game using
NHLe it comes out to 35 NHL points in an 82 game NHL season. It isn’t insignificant and there is mild room for growth given he won’t hit the peak of the aging curve for another two years.
What really helps is that he is right handed and plays right wing. The Penguins could certainly use another righty and a right wing. Could he be someone who could play the left circle on the power play? It is certainly worth trying out.
If the Penguins are looking to get rid of Matt Murray then I think a player like Jesse Puljujärvi is exactly the kind of risk they should take. Puljujärvi may not reach his perceived ceiling from when he was drafted, but I think you still have an interesting young player who very well could break out. I think it is a good gamble for a player you want to cut for salary reasons anyways. Puljujärvi is an RFA due a new deal. I think his lack of NHL success will keep his number down. I think this makes sense for both sides.
Thanks for reading!
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