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Matt Murray (b. 1994)

Evening Snapshots: Murray, Avalanche, Callahan

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray makes his first start tonight since suffering a lower body injury on December 28th. Murray actually returned to action last night against the Washington Capitals but rode the pine as Marc-Andre Fleury’s backup. The Penguins welcome Murray back as he’s earned a .928 SV% and a 2.18 GAA in 19 games this season. That is in contrast that with Fleury’s .908 SV% and 3.12 GAA. Every point matters in the tight Metropolitan division this season, and right now Murray gives the Penguins that best chance to win in the season’s second half.
  • Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic wants to reboot the team to get younger and faster, reports TSN’s Pierre LeBrun this evening (video link). The expectation is that a number of players currently in the AHL with the San Antonio Rampage are ready to step up. But Sakic also admitted that he has been in talks with other teams about undisclosed players. We mentioned here and here that both Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene are also rumored to be traded.
  • Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan will miss his second straight game tonight as he deals with a lower body injury. While the team did not disclose the nature of the injury, many think it’s related to his hip after he underwent surgery on it this season. Callahan is struggling this season, scoring only 2G and 2A in 18 games.

Minor Transactions: 1/11/2017

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There has been a flurry of roster transactions so far today with several players recalled from or reassigned to the minor leagues. We’ll keep track of those moves in this post:

  • According to Eric Stephens of The Orange County Register, the Anaheim Ducks recalled forward Stefan Noesen and blue liner Shea Theodore from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. In a corresponding move, defenseman Brandon Montour was reassigned to the Gulls. Montour made his NHL debut after initially being recalled on December 28th though he failed to register a point in five appearances. Noesen has one goal on the campaign in seven games while Theodore has a goal and five assists in 21 contests this season for Anaheim.
  • Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News tweeted this morning that Jamie Oleksiak is dealing with a hand injury and will likely be “out for a bit.” He goes on to say that fellow defenseman Stephen Johns will take Oleksiak’s spot in the lineup for tomorrow’s game at home against Detroit. With eight defensemen on the roster – Patrik Nemeth is currently playing for the AHL Texas Stars on a conditioning assignment though remains on Dallas’ official roster – no call-up is expected to be made. In a later tweet, Heika adds that with Texas playing at home, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff would easily be able to bring Nemeth back from his assignment if necessary.
  • After adding forward Derek Grant via waiver claim from Buffalo today, the Nashville Predators reassigned fellow forward Frederick Gaudreau to Milwaukee of the AHL, according to The Tennessean’s Adam Vingan. The 23-year-old rookie has made nine appearances for Nashville this season, the first NHL action of Gaudreau’s career, and has tallied a single assist. In 24 contests with the Milwaukee Admirals, Gaudreau has netted five goals and 14 points. Vingan speculated that Gaudreau’s reassignment might indicate that either James Neal or Colin Wilson could be ready to return to the lineup. Neal was placed on IR retroactive to 1/3 and is currently eligible to be activated. Wilson last played on 1/6.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled blue liner David Warsofsky from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while reassigning net minder Tristan Jarry to the Baby Pens. Jason Mackey, who covers the club for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reported on the moves and added that with Jarry back to the minors, Matt Murray should be ready to at least serve as Marc-Andre Fleury’s back-up for tonight’s game against Washington.
  • Defenseman Slater Koekkoek and goalie Kristers Gudlevskis were both returned to the AHL Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay’s top minor league affiliate, tweets Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. Koekkoek’s assignment might seem odd on the surface as the blue liner had appeared in 12 of the last 13 Lightning games. But, as Smith points out, Koekkoek does not need to clear waivers to be sent to the minors while fellow defenders Luke Witkowski and Nikita Nesterov do.
  • The Washington Capitals announced they have sent forwards Paul Carey and Liam O’Brien to Hershey of the AHL, according to the team’s official Twitter account. The assignments leave the team with just 12 forwards on the active roster, a fact that suggests T.J. Oshie will be back in the Caps lineup tonight. That was later confirmed by Capitals head coach Barry Trotz.
  • Two days after sending the fourth overall selection in the June entry draft, Jesse Puljujarvi, to Bakersfield the Edmonton Oilers have assigned fellow forward Anton Lander to the same club. Called up from the Condors was forward Jujhar Khaira, who has eight goals and 18 points in 24 AHL games this season.

Penguins Notes: Fleury, Pouliot, Jarry

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With the news that Matt Murray is out again and considered “week-to-week” with a lower body injury, Marc-Andre Fleury will again resume the duties of starting goaltender for the Pittsburgh Penguins. However, the question of the net share for the Penguins now needs to expand beyond just the next few weeks. With yet another injury this season, Murray is beginning to get a reputation of being “fragile”. Still technically a rookie, it’s too early for any definitive judgement on Murray, but his injury tendencies need to be considered when planning for the near future. As was discussed earlier this season, the Penguins face one of the more difficult Expansion Draft scenarios this season, as they would be forced to protect Fleury, due to his no-movement clause, and leave Murray exposed to selection should both remain on the roster into June. Many have thus presumed that Pittsburgh will trade Fleury at all costs this season. With growing concerns about Murray’s reliability, that may no longer be the plan. Even though Murray has been vastly superior to his veteran teammate in 2016-17, Fleury still represents a far better option than most potential replacements on the market right now. If the Penguins, surely a Stanley Cup contender again this season, trade Fleury and Murray goes down again, it would cripple their title chances. Same goes for next season as well. Although teams like the Dallas Stars or St. Louis Blues will likely make plays for Fleury in the coming months, Pittsburgh will likely now look at options that include keeping both keepers through the end of this season. More confusion being added to one of the most intriguing stories of the season.

  • With Murray out again, the Penguins have recalled goalie Tristan Jarry from the AHL. The player headed back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is defenseman Derrick Pouliot. Once thought to be the future on the blue line in Pittsburgh, Pouliot is struggling again this year and has seen limited play time, prompting his move to the minors for the second time this season. Although he is an analytics darling, Pouliot’s possession ability has not translated into meaningful production at the NHL level. The eighth overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, Pouliot was a superstar with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks as a junior player. He was expected to contribute right away at the highest level, and did play in 34 games in Pittsburgh in his first pro season. However, that dropped to just 22 regular season games and 2 postseason games for the eventual Stanley Cup champions last season and just seven game thus far in 2016-17. Over that time, Pouliot has just two goals and 12 assists (zero points this season) in 63 games while posting a career rating of -10.  He also has no points and is a -4 in seven AHL games this year. In a normal season, this could simply be written off as a promising 22-year-old defenseman developing slowly and any premature judgement would be unwarranted. However, this is not a normal season, with the Expansion Draft looming this off-season, and the Penguins need to make a decision on Pouliot. If, as expected, Pittsburgh chooses to protect seven forwards and three defenseman rather than protecting eight skaters overall and risking losing a Patric Hornqvist or Carl Hagelin, then Pouliot appears to be the odd-man-out on the back end. Kris Letang, Olli Maatta, and Brian Dumoulin are the obvious choices to be protected by the Penguins. With good defensive depth on the roster and even more NHL experience down at the AHL level, Pittsburgh is not desperate for blue line help right now. While that may change down the line with injuries, the Penguins may still need to look at trading Pouliot while they can. If he fails to move the young defenseman, GM Jim Rutherford will likely lose him for nothing to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, who will certainly be intrigued by a recent top ten pick. On the other hand, if Pouliot continues to play this poorly, the Penguins may not lose him after all.
  • Meanwhile, Jarry will get his first real NHL experience with Murray out of the lineup. Although Jarry has spent time on the Pittsburgh roster both this season and last, he has yet to make his debut. The Penguins claimed Mike Condon off of waivers earlier this season when Murray was first injured, and he performed well as the backup to Fleury before being traded to the Ottawa Senators. With no such option this time around, expect Jarry to get his first start in the next week or two in relief of Fleury, who has adjusted to part-time work in 2016-17. A 2013 second-round pick of the Penguins, Jarry was a standout prospect from the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings and has played well in his first two pro seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Matt Murray Out Week-To-Week With Lower Body Injury

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Penguins goaltender Matt Murray, who left yesterday’s game in Carolina early, has been diagnosed with a lower body injury and is out on a week-to-week basis, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters, including Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link).

The rookie netminder has picked up right where he left off after a stellar postseason performance, posting a 13-3-1 record this year  in 19 appearances with a 2.18 GAA and a .928 SV% along with two shutouts, taking over as the undisputed starter from incumbent Marc-Andre Fleury.

Murray has long been viewed as Pittsburgh’s goalie of the future and signed a three year, $11.25MM extension in mid-October.  That has called Fleury’s future with the team into question, especially with the expansion draft coming up in June.  Fleury has struggled considerably this year with a subpar 3.13 GAA and a .908 SV% but could help his potential trade value with a strong showing in Murray’s absence.

The timing of this could be worse for the Penguins who play just once in the next ten days as they are one of the first teams to receive the CBA-mandated ‘bye week’ at the beginning of January.

In the meantime, Pittsburgh has called up a top prospect, Tristan Jarry, who is off to a strong start with their AHL affiliate this season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, posting a 2.15 GAA and a .921 SV% in 19 games, to serve as Fleury’s backup.

Aleksander Barkov, Matt Murray Leave Games Early

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Midway through the second period of the Florida Panthers-Toronto Maple Leafs game on Wednesday night, Aleksander Barkov disappeared from the bench and would not return. The 21-year old sniper is one of Florida’s few bright spots this season, following up his 59 point season with 27 in his first 35 games.

In his absence, Nick Bjugstad has been promoted to the top line. Hopefully it’ll spark the 24-year old, who only has two points this season. After three successful campaigns and in the second year of his six-year deal, Bjugstad has been a disaster. Injury and ineffectiveness have stolen the first part of the year, though perhaps skating with Jaromir Jagr will turn it around.

Heading into the third period in Pittsburgh with his team down 2-1, Matt Murray was replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury in net with no explanation from the team (in fact, the team’s Twitter account was at a loss for words). While there was contact on an earlier goal by Lee Stempniak, Murray finished the period.

After missing the first part of the season with a broken hand, he’s come back just as strong as ever. A .928 save percentage, 2.14 goals against average and a 13-3-1 record has Murray among league leaders again in his sophomore season. If he misses any more time, it only makes the Pittsburgh decision on whether to keep both goaltenders through the expansion draft even harder.

Penguins Notes: Pouliot, Ownership, Expansion

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The Penguins will soon be facing a tough decision with their defense corps, writes Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Derrick Pouliot has been on injured reserve since October 21st with a lower body injury.  However, he has been practicing since the middle of November and is nearing a return to the lineup; he recently completed a three game conditioning stint with their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with no setbacks.

At the beginning of the year, the 22 year old found himself routinely as a healthy scratch.  He has only played in one game this season, the one he was injured in.  That’s hardly an ideal spot for any young blueliner to be in, especially one that was a first round pick and is expected to be a key part of Pittsburgh’s future plans.

Head coach Mike Sullivan acknowledges that Pouliot is nearing a return and that they are working on a game plan that will allow him to see more game action when he’s activated off of injured reserve.

The tough decision moving forward will be who comes out of the lineup.  Kris Letang is their top rearguard and won’t be sitting while Trevor Daley isn’t likely to sit either.  Ian Cole and Justin Schultz have formed a strong third pairing which leaves Brian Dumoulin and Olli Maatta, who are third and fourth in ice time per game for Pittsburgh defenders.  Both of them take regular turns on the penalty kill, an area that Pouliot doesn’t typically play.

[Related: Penguins Depth Chart]

Suffice it to say, the Penguins are going to be hard pressed to find regular ice time for Pouliot.  It’s one thing to give a player a night off here and there but that’s not the type of playing time that is needed to develop a young player.  Pouliot admitted that he hasn’t given any thought to the possibility of a trade yet but acknowledges his immediate future may be a bit murky moving forward:

“I’m not too sure (of what the future holds). We’ll have to see where things go down the road here. Trades happen. You never know what could unfold.”

Other news from Pittsburgh:

  • The Penguins are in discussions to add a minority owner, notes Dave Molinari, also of the Post-Gazette. Owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux are in talks with Ventas Inc. CEO Debra Cafaro about a $25MM stake in the team.  Last year, Burkle and Lemieux noted that they were looking into their options, including selling a small stake or potentially selling the franchise.  They will, however, retain the controlling interest in the club if this potential agreement comes to fruition.
  • ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun takes a closer look at Pittsburgh’s expansion draft situation. Their biggest concern comes between the pipes where Marc-Andre Fleury has a partial no-move clause (that can be waived) while Matt Murray needs to be protected as well; teams can only protect one goaltender though.  Accordingly, LeBrun is among many to expect that Fleury will be traded before then.  If that happens, they then would be without a goalie to leave exposed and since all teams must leave at least one goalie unprotected, GM Jim Rutherford would still have a bit of work to do to meet that requirement.

Possible Goaltending Options For Vegas Golden Knights

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When the expansion draft comes around this June, George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon will have some tough decisions to make all over their team. They are having mock-drafts each month to prepare for the event, but there is one position that shouldn’t cause any headaches over how many solid options there are.

With each team only able to protect one goaltender, front offices around the league will have to either move a netminder before the draft, or risk losing one for nothing. While that would protect them from losing anyone else, it’s been clear this year more than maybe any other that an all-world goaltender can make your team special right from day one.  Here are a few options for Vegas in net come the summer.

Pittsburgh – Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray

In what will be the most interesting situation around the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins are currently required to protect Fleury over Murray due to his no-movement clause. While they’ve said time and again that they’re fine with keeping both through the year, Murray’s play at such a young age makes him a mouth-wateringly attractive asset.

It’s in Fleury’s court at this point, as he’ll have the option to waive his clause for any trade before the deadline or prior to the draft to make him eligible. If he does, it’s not certain that the Vegas team would select him, but he’d obviously be an elite option. At 31, Fleury is having one of the worst seasons of his career, but is still a two-time Stanley Cup champion with an impressive life-time record.

The Penguins must find a way to protect Murray, or he’ll surely be the pick to start in game one at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas.

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Patric Hornqvist Suffers Concussion

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According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Patric Hornqvist suffered a concussion last night against the Washington Capitals and is listed as day-to-day. The Penguins’ forward blocked a Brooks Orpik shot with the side of his head in the dying minutes of the second period, which may possibly be the cause of the injury.

While it doesn’t sound like Hornqvist will be out for a great deal of time, this comes just after the publication of a Boston Globe article with Marc Savard and his fight with concussions. In it, Savard talks about seeing nothing but black even though his eyes were open, and describes in detail his battle which includes once being labeled as suicidal at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Between this article, and the recent piece by Gabriel Landeskog at the Players’ Tribune, the spotlight has never been greater on brain injuries and concussions in hockey. Just last night, fellow Penguin Matt Murray was forced out of the game by spotters in the arena after his helmet was knocked off by teammate Evgeni Malkin.

The Savard piece is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of the game, or youth hockey. Obviously, the game isn’t going to eliminate contact entirely, but hearing first-hand about the horrors Savard had to endure is a hard, but important thing for everyone involved in the game.

Penguins Notes: Murray, Sheary, Hagelin

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will take on the San Jose Sharks tonight in a rematch of the Stanley Cup Final from last season, and there will be a familiar face in net. Matt Murray will make his second start of the season after allowing just a single goal in his debut against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. Even though Marc-Andre Fleury has played exceptionally well to start the year, head coach Mike Sullivan says both netminders will continue to play, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

We’re fortunate. We have two really good goaltenders that we know are going to give us a chance to win. We’re going to do our best to keep them both in the mix. We’ll go from there. These situations always have a way to work themselves out. Inevitably performance is always the dictator.

Mackey expects that Murray’s play tonight will factor large in the decision of who to start on Tuesday at home, though it’s up in the air from that point. The team doesn’t have another back-to-back situation until November 18th and 19th.

  • The Penguins will get some help up front to try and score some goals for Murray, as Conor Sheary will return from a seven game absence to play tonight. Sheary suffered an eye injury last month in Montreal and has been itching to get back into game action.  According to Mackey, he’ll start on the fourth line with Matt Cullen and Eric Fehr, though he could quickly ascend back up the lineup. Sheary has one goal and two assists on the season in just four games.
  • The ’HBK’ line (Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel) is officially broken up, according to Adam Gretz of NBC. The trio that was so dominant in the playoffs is now spread out over the Penguins top three units, with Hagelin skating alongside Sidney Crosby and Patrick Hornqvist.  As Gretz notes, Hagelin brings a lot of the same aspects that Pascal Dupuis added so effectively to Crosby’s wing over the years. Hopefully it will spark something in the speedy winger, as he only has two points on the season so far.  Kessel on the other hand is off to a great start this season and now finds himself skating alongside Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz. #81’s ten points this year trails only Malkin on the Penguins, and he leads the team in assists.

Injury Notes: Hammond, Letang, Pietrangelo

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After dealing for Mike Condon today to give himself some insurance, Ottawa Senators’ GM Peter Dorion says that Andrew Hammond is out for at least another week dealing with a groin injury. Hammond was placed on injured reserve last week.

While Hammond is out with a known injury, Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen reports that the Craig Anderson situation is “very fluid”, meaning the goaltender may miss additional time during the year. Condon will fly to meet the Senators in Ottawa for tomorrow’s game against the Canucks.

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