Matt Murray says Maple Leafs have a keeper in Joseph Woll

The Toronto Maple Leafs took a serious bet on Matt Murray when they traded for him in the 2022-23 offseason. There were some bumps in the road for the goaltender over his three-year tenure in Toronto, but after signing a one-year contract with the Seattle Kraken this summer, he had nothing but good things to say about his experience in the end.

“I enjoyed every second in Toronto… I loved every second,” Murray told the JD Bunkis Podcast on Thursday. “I’m super grateful and like I said, it was the honour of a lifetime to get to wear that jersey and to have my game-worn jerseys that I’ll be able to show my kids one day. They got to see me play. They were young, but they got to see me play for the Leafs, and that’s incredibly special for me.”

The bumps in the road in question involved three separate injuries during the 2022-23 season, followed by hip surgery, a procedure that knocked him out of action for the entire 2023-24 season. Despite the struggles, he stuck around with the team for one more season and appeared in two regular season games and one playoff game.

During his tenure in Toronto, he had a lot of time to get to know current Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll. The veteran commended Woll’s ability to stay even-keel and praised his mental strength along with his overall outlook on life.

“I loved all my time I spent with him, we sat beside each other pretty much everywhere, had a lot of great discussions about all kinds of things, almost never about hockey, to be honest, it was other stuff,” Murray said. “I think that’s one of the things that makes Joe [Woll] so resilient, he has a very wide perspective on life. He’s into a lot of other things outside of hockey which I think is a huge benefit as a goalie. The bigger perspective you have on the world, the better you’ll be able to handle those pressure-packed moments.”

While Murray is set to move on to Seattle, where he’ll find himself in a similar situation from a depth chart perspective, he had nothing but good things to say about Woll and said the Maple Leafs are lucky to have him.

“I’ll miss sitting next to him, but in Toronto, they’ve got a real keeper there, in my opinion.”