After acquiring their new starting goaltender Matt Murray from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Ottawa Senators have worked quickly to lock him up long term. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the two sides have come to terms on a four-year, $25MM extension. The deal will keep Murray under contract through the 2023-24 season at a whopping $6.25MM AAV.
Murray, 26, was a restricted free agent for the final time this off-season, so his new contract buys out three UFA years. However, this is still a substantial raise from his $3.75MM AAV in Pittsburgh, despite performance and injury struggles over the past few years. In fact, Murray currently has the seventh-highest goalie AAV in the NHL. His contract also contains a ten-team no-trade list that kicks in in year two.
Part of the reason why Ottawa was so willing to commit money to Murray is that the team is still short of the salary cap floor. With a deep prospect pipeline, the Senators are hoping that many of their roster spots are filled by affordable young players. In order to meet the cap floor, the team will need to commit sizeable amounts of cap space to those few veterans that have concrete roles. Murray, who is still young himself, is clearly the top man in net for years to come and the Senators were comfortable paying him as such.
Yikes. I’m a big fan of Murray, but that’s way too much.
While I would not be surprised if he rebounded and played well for the Sens, Murray might have already peaked. Risky deal.
He’s 27 and really only had one bad season. Pittsburgh fans act like he’s been bad for years
Most of our fans are morons. That much is true.
But, I’ve watched Matt as closely as anyone and I have no idea if he’ll be an All Star or out of the league or just middling 3 years from now.
He was never very athletic, but he’s lost just enough quickness and flexibility that it’s concerning. Moreso, his strength when he started was reading the play and battling for every save. Now, he just plays with passionless technique.
But, I like Matt and hope he regains his form. We do NOT win those Cups without him.
Is bet on him rebounding due to him being decently young. Anyone can have one bad year
Wow! I guess Ottawa was REALLY serious about signing Murray when they traded for him ..
2 BAD seasons out of 3. This is a HUGE mistake contract.