“My hips haven’t felt this good in a long, long time,” was the encouraging statement from Matt Murray in an interview with Travis Ridgen earlier this week. The comment certainly has some “best shape of his life” vibes to it, but given the goaltender that Matt Murray used to be and the current state of the Maple Leafs goaltending depth chart, this is a situation where Maple Leafs fans will want to believe.
Murray was shut down for the entirety of last season, save for an AHL conditioning stint at the end of last season that didn’t go particularly well. Again, we are talking about a season and a few seasons’ worth of rust being on Murray and still likely approaching the situation with some caution, so we’ll skip the heavy judgment but carry forward some residual concern. Essentially Murray is an optimistic question mark.
While being optimistic that Murray might have more to give the Leafs in 2024-25 there also needs to be some consideration given to the importance of his role on the Maple Leafs depth chart. Last season, Anthony Stolarz set his career best with 24 starts and was one game off his career best 28 games. Joseph Woll set his career best with 23 starts in 25 games. It is very reasonable to expect that both these goaltenders, even if not 100% healthy will combine for more than 47 starts this season, but there is no denying that 35 game gap from a full season. With Dennis Hildeby still yet to make his NHL debut, and his readiness for that responsibility still not yet known, that seemingly puts the focus on Matt Murray and what he can do to make sure the Leafs’ net is covered throughout the full season. Matt Murray is also five seasons removed from playing more than 30 games.
The question becomes, should the Leafs pursue yet another goaltender before the summer is up or at least consider inviting an experienced NHL veteran to training camp on a professional tryout?
I’d suggest the answer is yes and it’s worth looking at who is still available:
- Martin Jones is the easy option to point to given his previous experience in this exact role for the Leafs and the fact that he even managed to put together a short-lived hot streak where he seemed to be an asset for Toronto.
- Antti Raanta is also no stranger to playing a role further down the depth chart than in his heyday but seems less capable of delivering on the results that the Leafs received from Martin Jones last season. It might be because of his worse results that he would be willing to step into a role that would potentially slot him in behind Matt Murray.
- Kevin Lankinen is probably the best option of this bunch but also the least likely to accept this role. He had the best results while playing the most games and seems like a player who will immediately be picked up after the first goaltender training camp injury.
Beyond this trio, the field opens up substantially. Goaltenders like Ivan Prosvetsov, and Evan Cormier offer some potential experience options with faint hope of upside and could be worthwhile cap invites. Others like Malcolm Subban, Oscar Dansk, and Dustin Tokarski represent clear AHL options that come with some risk of unnecessarily taking time away from prospects in the AHL for a minimal upside over testing an unproven goaltender in the NHL.
While none of the options seem exciting or particularly good, it seems like the Maple Leafs should go the PTO route with the best willing candidate and possibly see if there is any interest out there in an AHL contract.
The Stolarz/Woll tandem gamble is a reasonable one, Dennis Hildeby shows a lot of promise, and Matt Murray’s optimism about his healthy is encouraging, but there have also been too moments in recent memory that support the idea that the Maple Leafs need to hedge their bets in goal.
