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'This Guy's Got A Lot Of Experience And He's Won': Maple Leafs Have Decision To Make On Backup Following Matt Murray’s Shutout With The Marlies

nick barden
·3 min read

The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting strong goaltending from Matt Murray in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies.

The 30-year-old goaltender stopped all 27 shots he faced on Wednesday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 3-0 win. Murray improves to 4-1-2-1 and has a .931 save percentage, the best on the Marlies this season.

"That's great for him and the Marlies. This guy's got a lot of experience and he's won," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said on Wednesday night. "So, you know, like I said, we're going to look at everything and make some decisions."

Murray signed re-signed in Toronto this summer, inking a one-year, $875,000 contract with the club on July 1. The veteran goaltender has played 11 games within the last year after having bilateral hip surgery in Sept. 2023.

He signed with the Maple Leafs in hopes of an opportunity to return to the NHL. With Anthony Stolarz out four to six weeks with a lower-body injury, Murray may get a call up given his strong play to begin the season.

"When I refer to the depth, it's not just one guy. We've got three guys that have been playing well [with the Marlies]," Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving said on Tuesday when discussing Toronto's depth in goal.

"Dennis (Hildeby), obviously, had a tremendous year there last year, played well in his time up here. That's why we have Matt too, right? That's why we brought Matt there."

Related: Maple Leafs Ready To Utilize Goaltending Depth Of Dennis Hildeby And Matt Murray After Anthony Stolarz Suffers Injury

At this point, the Maple Leafs have no reason to send Hildeby back to the Marlies. The 23-year-old netminder stopped 24 of 27 shots on Sunday in a 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. And he'll likely get one of two games in Toronto's back-to-back this weekend.

However, after that, it's not entirely clear what happens.

Toronto should find out what they have in Murray at the NHL level. It makes sense for the Maple Leafs to do that with Stolarz out for an extended period. The club could then send Hildeby back to the Marlies to give him more playing time, which he lacked while down there before his second call-up to the NHL this season.

(Hildeby has played six games, the least among the three goaltenders with the Marlies this season.)

It would also give the 23-year-old goaltender a chance to find his game again after he admitted last week that it's not where it needs to be. Essentially, this allows the Maple Leafs to kill two birds with one stone: Murray gets NHL action and Hildeby returns to the AHL so that he can find his game.

Related: 'If We Gotta Use Him, I Have Confidence': Could The Maple Leafs Use Dennis Hildeby In One Of Their Back-To-Back Games This Weekend?

Fraser Minten scored in his first game back with the Marlies after being sent to the AHL on Tuesday morning. The 20-year-old has three goals and two assists for five points in six AHL games this season.

Alex Steeves also found the back of the net, giving him his 15th goal in 16 games with the Marlies this season. There are more records in Steeves' sights after the forward broke the Marlies franchise points record on Dec. 7.

The 25-year-old is 10 goals away from AHL Toronto's franchise goals record of 94, which belongs to Ryan Hamilton. Steeves could also break the record for most goals in a season, currently held by John Pohl, who had 36 goals during the 2005-06 season.

The Marlies play back-to-back games (Friday in Lehigh Valley, Saturday in Hershey) this weekend before returning home for the holidays.