Player Discussion Matt Murray (G) - 4 years, $6.25M AAV

[bicboi64]

I think Murray's bound to have one "not crap" stretch of games before the Seattle draft, hoping the Kraken take him then

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

This goalie contract is on par with the zibanejad move.

So many horrendously bad moves that blew up in his face.

 

[OD99]

I think Murray's bound to have one "not crap" stretch of games before the Seattle draft, hoping the Kraken take him then

I am comfortable saying there is 0% chance he is taken in expansion draft.

He needs to be exposed because he is a freebie for us.

Very, very strange signing and only person who didn't think so is GMPD.

 

[DaveMatthew]

I am comfortable saying there is 0% chance he is taken in expansion draft.

He needs to be exposed because he is a freebie for us.

Very, very strange signing and only person who didn't think so is GMPD.

I'm quite confident Dorion will protect him because "what kind of message would that send?".

 

[OD99]

I'm quite confident Dorion will protect him because "what kind of message would that send?".

This is my fear as well but hopefully someone gets him to understand the proper business decision.

What's going to happen? Murray loses his confidence and gives us sub .900 goaltending?

 

[aragorn]

I doubt Ottawa is able to move that contract now & they will easily give him another yr to turn his career around at least.

 

[DrEasy]

I'm quite confident Dorion will protect him because "what kind of message would that send?".

Yeah, hopefully a new GM will get to make those decisions, someone who's not invested in the mistakes of the current regime.

 

[Tuna99]

Will be very tricky with him in expansion. His agent spoke of his lack of confidence and fan attention in Pitt. If they don’t protect him he might take it personally and could be ugly.

but I’d protect Daccord over Murray. The team will protect Murray but it won’t be the right decision

 

[Laphroaig]

For the record I liked the Murray trade and signing. I still think it's going to work out when it really matters.

 

[Icelevel]

Can we just swap Murray and daccords name strips on their jerseys?
Problem solved.

 

[Sun God Nika]

would be a clown decision to protect murray. He is not getting claimed seattle will have cheaper options for goalies he is not getting claimed worst case scenario murray realizes where he is at in his career for being offered up for free and not being taken and plays with a chip on his shoulder.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

I’m just not sure what Dorion was thinking. Did he think Murray was going to do insane things on a short term deal and then demand 8-10 million on a 6-8 year deal?

Dorion is thinking he has another Anderson. New team. Fresh start. Play like a star.

Two out of three ain't bad.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

would be a clown decision to protect murray. He is not getting claimed seattle will have cheaper options for goalies he is not getting claimed worst case scenario murray realizes where he is at in his career for being offered up for free and not being taken and plays with a chip on his shoulder.

It would be a clown decision. But Dorion could use it as a vote of confidence. Which would be clown like.

 

[BondraTime]

Similar to the Gerber signing, both guys stood on their head against the Sens, both struggle with Sens

 

[Tuna99]

Similar to the Gerber signing, both guys stood on their head against the Sens, both struggle with Sens

the post season press conference where Muckler said he was interested in brining back Hasek amd Murray followed up with ‘no Hasek, we need someone we can rely on’

Power struggle that Murray won, but if only Murray had the sense to bring the Dominator back. And the caveat being Murray traded Vermette for Leclair who was the NHL’s least reliable goalie

 

[Silencio]

the post season press conference where Muckler said he was interested in brining back Hasek amd Murray followed up with ‘no Hasek, we need someone we can rely on’

Power struggle that Murray won, but if only Murray had the sense to bring the Dominator back. And the caveat being Murray traded Vermette for Leclair who was the NHL’s least reliable goalie

If Hasek comes back in 06-07 do you think Ottawa wins the cup? I don't remember goaltending being a real difference maker in the Ducks series but I could be wrong.

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

If Hasek comes back in 06-07 do you think Ottawa wins the cup? I don't remember goaltending being a real difference maker in the Ducks series but I could be wrong.

No because Chris Philips was playing as our #1 dman which he never should have been. We also had Redden declining going up against their hall of fame pairing and hall of fame 1st line.

 

[Tuna99]

If Hasek comes back in 06-07 do you think Ottawa wins the cup? I don't remember goaltending being a real difference maker in the Ducks series but I could be wrong.

Emery was amazing that year, and in the finals he was solid. Team had a ton of confidence so it’s hard to say. But Emery/Hasek would of been better then Emery/Gerber.

side note that having Hasek probably means Emery doesn’t get his huge contract so quickly just based on the fact he wouldn’t of gotten the starts. I think when Emery got that contract what happens to so many players happened to him - pressure, other worlds open up for you, interests outside of hockey nip away at your game and then what you were - a starting NHL goalie slowly skips away and you have to start over. Ray did all this things and got his game back, won a Cup.

but yes, Hasek here would of been the best for everyone.

hasek was pushed out by Murray because we were winning a game like 6-2 and Heater and Spezza kept playing offence and the other team started getting chances - Hasek shut the door but came off the ice and critiqued the big line saying they aren’t playing to win they are playing to score and nobody is reigning them in (Murray) and that kind of kicked off the bad blood and Hasek’s lose of heart and faith in the team.

it happened too when Redden was injured, the game he came back we were winning and ended up losing because Heater and Soezza only wanted to keep playing offense despite having enough goals to win. Redden lost it on them and apparently reemed them out and gave a presser saying the team wasn’t playing to win and needed to refocus. They kinda did but it was obviously always a struggle between the veterans who knew how to win and the kids who thought they were there to only play offenders and score goals.

aflie touched on this on the Wally show. He said Spezze saw himself as an offensive guy and he and Alfie didn’t see or play the game the same way.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

If Hasek comes back in 06-07 do you think Ottawa wins the cup? I don't remember goaltending being a real difference maker in the Ducks series but I could be wrong.

lol, not a chance. We weren't good enough, and the ice was tiled by the league.

 

[DrakeAndJosh]

As disappointing as he’s been, I’m really not worried about his contract at all. Plenty of time for him to turn it around, he’s young and I’m sure when we have a competence defence in front of him he’ll come close to being worth his contract. We’ve certainly seen a good chunk of games where he’s played extremely well, just a matter of consistency. I’ll be angry if Daccord isn’t protected in the expansion draft though.

 

[Xspyrit]

For the record I liked the Murray trade and signing. I still think it's going to work out when it really matters.

Yeah, and most goalies need a better structure in front of them. Here's what I said recenty on the subject :

"He's actually very similar to Carey Price, who is also a solid positionnal/technical goalie (but more game-breaking ability). That's why these guys (Price/Murray) had very big highs in their career, when there's some type of structure in front of them. I was listening to Stephane Waite interview the other day and he was asked if Carey Price could still have a 0.925 SV% type season and he answered "yes, depending on the structure in front of him". That's coming from the guy that was coaching Carey Price for the last 8 years."

Speaking of Waite, here's another comment he made recently (sorry it's in french)

"Si Carey joue devant une équipe bien organisée défensivement, il va redevenir fort. C’est la clé pour tout gardien de but. Si tu joues bien devant lui, il va automatiquement devenir meilleur. Et de beaucoup. Si l’équipe se replace défensivement, il n’aura plus besoin de se concentrer sur autre chose, de tricher, de vouloir en faire trop, alors il va redevenir meilleur"

I also said this recently :

"If you provide NHL defense to Matt Murray, he's going to make the saves and keep your team in the game or keep the lead. Like I said before, he can be extremely solid but he's not a "miracle" goalie ala Hasek/Fleury"

So as long as this team is rebuilding, his numbers won't look good but if the team improves and become more structured and "consistent", he's going to be more consistent in his performances too and then he'll flirt with 0.915+ SV% again


Some stats I provided recently (before last night's NHL/AHL games). As you can see, major problem defensively on the road :

Home : 36 GF - 36 GA
Road : 36 GF - 69 GA

Matt Murray Home : 0.909 SV%, Road : 0.846 SV%

First 5 games on the road (to close out January) :

Matt Murray 0.797 SV%
Marcus Hogberg 0.840 SV%

Rest of season :

Matt Murray 0.897 SV%
Marcus Hogberg 0.873 SV%

2020-21 vs 2019-20

Matt Murray 0.885 SV% vs 0.899 SV%
Marcus Hogberg 0.859 SV% vs 0.904 SV%
Joey Daccord 0.867 SV% vs 0.915 SV% (AHL)
Filip Gustavsson 0.882 SV% vs 0.889 SV% (AHL)

Thinking all these 4 goalies suddenly became much worse this year is pure denial. It's not a "coincidence" either

 

[Silencio]

hasek was pushed out by Murray because we were winning a game like 6-2 and Heater and Spezza kept playing offence and the other team started getting chances - Hasek shut the door but came off the ice and critiqued the big line saying they aren’t playing to win they are playing to score and nobody is reigning them in (Murray) and that kind of kicked off the bad blood and Hasek’s lose of heart and faith in the team.

Wow ths is the first time I'm hearing about that, don't remember this incident at all. Can't say I disagree with Hasek.

 

[Sun God Nika]

so how do we get out of this one?

 

[Hale The Villain]

so how do we get out of this one?

There's no getting out of it.

No team with money will take on his cap hit when he's looking more like a backup than a starter.

No team without money will take on his salary because of how frontloaded his deal is (7M average salary last 3YRs).

We've got to hope he turns it around (doubtful after two straight sub .900 seasons) or that Daccord ends up a #1 by next year.

 

[inthewings]

so how do we get out of this one?

There's no getting out of it. The only thing to do is leave him unprotected, and then roll with him and Daccord next year and hope he improves.

If course I think there's better than even odds Dorion protects him because of his massive ego.