Latest update on theory that Leafs faked Matt Murray’s injury

This week’s news still has folks talking as the Toronto Maple Leafs announced on Wednesday that they had placed goalie Matt Murray on long-term injured reserve prior to the start of the 2023-24 season, the final one on Murray’s contract with the team…

It’s the type of situation where you’re stunned, but also not. When the announcement was made, Toronto had a second buyout window open after goalie Ilya Samsonov’s arbitration ruling, but then, news emerged that Murray was injured and out indefinitely. Adam Proteau of The Hockey News understands how “fans were claiming the Leafs were effectively circumventing the salary cap, inferring Toronto management somehow faked an injury to the veteran goalie in an attempt to get cap-compliant.”

However, he doubts that this is the case. Why?

Because it is apparently very hard to stash an unwanted player on LTIR.

“The problem with that theory is the NHL does take LTIR cases extremely seriously – if there were any evidence a team was stashing an unwanted player on LTIR, the league would come down incredibly hard on it, levelling sanctions and penalties to ensure teams never even thought about trying to put one past it.”

Proteau adds how Murray is known to be injury-prone, recently dealing with a concussion history.

By operating as an LTIR team, Toronto avoids a $2 million salary cap charge for the 2024-25 season. While he admits that “putting Murray on LTIR is a godsend for Toronto’s cap predicament”, Proteau wonders if maybe we had seen Murray play with the Maple Leafs for the last time.

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