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Yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Matt Murray was out indefinitely and that he was placed on LTIR. Almost immediately, hockey Twitter, or hockey X (according to Mr. Musk) was set ablaze with suggestions of cap circumvention. People pointed out that Murray had been cleared to play in the playoffs and that it wasn’t possible that after seeing no more action, he could be ruled unfit to play.
The fact that a hockey player is dressed in the playoffs doesn’t mean a thing, even during the season, we’ve seen it this year and Kent Hughes even said so himself, sometimes, you’ve got to protect players from themselves. The best example is probably Brendan Gallagher who wants to play so much that he always comes back too early.
We don’t have to look back very far to find a couple of instances similar to Murray’s one either, just back in 2021, Carey Price played in the Stanley Cup final but was then off on LTIR for months before calling it a career. Hockey players want to play and even more so in the playoffs. The same can also be said on Shea Weber, the rugged defenseman played until he just couldn't anymore, he didn't even have surgery in the Summer post playoffs unlike Carey Price.
Sure, the arbitration ruling on Samsonov and the fact that they’re significantly over the cap looks bad, but bottom line, you need a doctor to certify that you are unfit to play before being put on LTIR so even if the league looks into this, I doubt anything will come out of it.
To be fair, when it comes to cap circumvention, I’m much more bothered by teams who put a star player on LTIR for the whole season, go out and get replacement players to fill in for the injured star and then, the activate the injured franchise player in the playoffs once the cap no longer applies. Teams then get to use their original player and his replacement without any issue. This is what the Lightning did with Kucherov and the Knights did with Stone.
I very much doubt that Murray will be all better come playoffs time and lead the Leafs to the promise land, the goaltender is well past his prime and he’s been battling injuries for years now, even when he does play his numbers are very underwhelming. Looks to me like goaltending has taken its toll on Murray’s body, just like it did on Price’s and that’s nothing to write home about.
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