During Tuesday’s edition of Insider Trading, TSN’s Chris Johnston was asked about the state of the Leafs’ crease and who else will be getting into some games while Stolarz recovers. He noted that the team wants him to get into some games first given he had a recent setback but the path is there for Murray.

“That would be Matt Murray. It has been 625 days and counting since he made an appearance in the NHL in the regular season. It’s obviously disappointing news for Anthony Stolarz and the Leafs that Stolarz has a knee injury that’s going to keep him out four-to-six weeks, the sense is that it’s going to open up an opportunity for Murray to at some point return to the Leafs’ crease.
He missed all of last season after having hip surgery, and he played a couple of games at the very end in the AHL. He’s been down in the AHL this year and recently returned, from what was described to me, as a minor injury. So the Leafs want to see him get a few more starts there. He’ll start Wednesday for the Marlies in Wilkes-Barre. Assuming everything goes well, I do think that everything is in place for Murray to get a chance to come back to the NHL after more than a year away.”

It is encouraging to hear that the undisclosed ailment that Murray suffered on December 7 will not keep him out of the lineup for long and that it proved to be a minor bump on the road to his return to the NHL. During that contest, he was seen grabbing his left leg after making a save and was moving gingerly around the ice for the rest of the shift before quietly leaving the game during the commercial break.

General manager Brad Treliving spoke with reporters after Tuesday’s practice where he confirmed that Murray is going to be an option for the Leafs and that the aforementioned injury was not severe enough to hold him out of the lineup for long.

“Absolutely. Like I said, when I refer to the depth, it is not just one guy, right? We’ve got three guys who have been playing well down there,” he said. “Dennis [Hildeby] had a tremendous year there last year and played well in his time up here. It is why we got Matt, too, right? Now he was dealing with a little bit of an injury, but touch wood, we anticipate that he is going to get in the net tomorrow there in Wilkes-Barre. And then we’ll go from there.”

While there is no clear timeline on when Murray gets called up, the sense is that the moment he is ready he will get brought up to replace Hildeby who is waiver exempt. Of course, this doesn’t mean Joseph Woll’s workload is going to be lighter but it does highlight that the Leafs prefer to have Murray up there so Hildeby can continue to develop in the AHL.

John Tavares extension talks

In the same segment of Insider Trading, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun noted that there remain ongoing extension conversations between John Tavares and the Leafs while noting nothing is imminent at this time.

“Another piece of business for the Maple Leafs, of course, is the ongoing dialogue between the Leafs and their former captain John Tavares, a pending UFA on July 1. I don’t think anything is imminent there at this point. I think part of that ongoing dialogue is certaintly both sides want to see where the salary cap is headed. We were at the Board of Governors meetings last week with Gino and we know there’s two possibilities there. $92.5 million next year or a higher cap, and every dime counts for the Maple Leafs.
Contract comparables that I know have been talked about in that negotiation are Claude Giroux at 3X$6.5 million that he signed inn July 2022, and Anze Kopitar with a two-year extension at $7 million a year. Those are contracts certianly that I think are in the ballpark of what Tavares and the Leafs are talking about. However, one contract that I don’t think Tavares’ camp has brought up was Steven Stamkos at four years, $8 million a year. I think that Tavares aims to be lower than that if this gets done with Toronto at some point. They want to be fair and they also want to remain a Maple Leaf so both sides I think mutually would like to get something done at some point before July 1.”

This remains consistent with what Johnston reported on November 28th when he said the two sides have been talking regularly while adding Tavares has little interest in hitting the open market. There were even discussions of the contract potentially including deferred salary to keep the cap hit down akin to what the Leafs did with Jake McCabe’s extension.

The main takeaway is that it remains likely that Tavares re-signs with the Leafs at some point but a deal likely won’t get done until the NHL unveils what the salary cap is going to be for next season. Given this also impacts their other key negotiations in Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies, they want to ensure they have a clear picture of how much space they have to work with so that further business can get done in the summer beyond the three major contracts needing attention.

It isn’t a matter of if Tavares can get a deal done with the Leafs, but when it happens and how much the contract will be valued at.

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