The Toronto Maple Leafs had a couple of players safely make it through the waiver, confirmed on October 7.

Third goaltender Matt Murray and depth defenceman Marshall Rifai were both placed on waivers on Sunday October 6, with Murray fresh off of signing a new one-year contract and Rifai with a two-year extension of his own. They both cleared the waiver cycle and will now report to the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Toronto Marlies.

Murray was originally acquired by the Maple Leafs by former general manager Kyle Dubas, bringing him over in a trade with the Ottawa Senators to play in a tandem with Ilya Samsonov. He posted decent numbers in a limited sample size with the Maple Leafs (better than anything he was able to do with the Senators, anyway) with a record of 14-8-2 along with a goals-against average (GAA) of 3.01 and a save percentage (SV%) of .903. He missed the entirety of the 2023-24 season after undergoing bilateral hip surgery around this time last year, but he’s ready to return to game action and will likely share the Marlies’ crease with prospect Dennis Hildeby.

Rifai, 26, has seen quite an upward turn in his trajectory with the Maple Leafs since signing a one-year AHL contract with the Marlies back in 2022. The former Harvard Graduate quickly earned some extra minutes with the Marlies due to his defensive game and physical presence and even managed two games with the Maple Leafs in 2023-24, not looking out of place whatsoever.
He’s had a good training camp do date, with team captain Auston Matthews commenting on his game at practice a couple of weeks ago.

“He had some games up with us last year and he worked so hard,” Matthews said. “You can just see he wants it and continues to progress, and I’ve been pretty impressed with him and the way he plays hard on both sides of the puck.”

Rifai will almost certainly start the season with the Marlies, but you can expect him to be one of the first call-up options barring any injuries.

The Maple Leafs open the season on the road against the Montreal Canadiens October 9.