Maple Leafs goaltender set for significant surgery

In July, The Maple Leafs stated that Murray would be placed on long-term injured reserve. The details of Murray’s injury were not disclosed, but GM Treliving said the details of Murray’s injury will be communicated at a later point.

Treliving added that the surgery will require significant rehab, but a timeline for his return to the NHL won’t be provided immediately.

“We’re not necessarily focused on time frames right now,” Treliving said. “This is months, not days or weeks.”

Murray posted a record of 14-8-2 with a .903 save percentage and a 3.01 goals-against average during his first season with the Maple Leafs in 2022-23. After suffering an injury following the season’s first game, Murray returned Nov. 15 and went 8-1-2 over his next 11 games. With Samsonov out of the equation, seeing a healthy, thriving Murray was good. But things started to fall apart from there, with injuries taking him out for a month and a half starting in late January, and consecutive wins seemed hard to come by.

Prior to the announcement that Murray would be placed on LTIR in July, the 29-year-old had been considered a buyout candidate with the Maple Leafs due to their tight cap situation.

Murray has one year left on his deal with a cap hit of $4.69M with Toronto, with the Ottawa Senators retaining an additional $1.56M of the netminder’s contract. He was acquired last summer from the Senators, along with a third-round draft pick in the 2023 draft in exchange for future considerations. Ottawa signed Murray to his current four-year, $25M contract in free agency in 2020.

Murray has been limited to 27 games or less in the past three seasons, pointing to the fact that the goaltender has been injury-prone for several years now. In 272 career games, he has a 146-86-24 record with a .910 save percentage and a 2.79 GAA.

Treliving also confirmed defenceman Jake Muzzin will not play this season, as he remains on long-term injured reserve. The Maple Leafs said at the time the determination from the team’s medical staff came after “follow-up consultations this month with various specialists.”

Muzzin won’t play during the 2023-24 campaign due to a cervical spine injury. Losing Muzzin for a full season is a huge blow to the Leafs defensive core and should allow for other defensemen to receive increased ice time moving forward.

Muzzin, 34 hasn’t played since Oct. 17, 2022, due to the injury. Over his career, Muzzin has 69 goals and 294 points in 683 games played and helped the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup in 2014.