For the last several weeks, Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray has been skating with the team as he works his way back from bilateral hip surgery performed back in October.
He’s now taking the next step in the rehab process as the team announced that it has assigned Murray to AHL Toronto on an LTI Conditioning Loan.
At the time Murray had the surgery, the expected recovery timeline was six to eight months and it appears the 29-year-old will be on the shorter end of that.
Last season, Murray was limited to just 26 games where he posted a 3.01 GAA and a .903 SV percent and didn’t play at all in the playoffs after suffering a late-season concussion; he was relegated to third-string status upon his return.
That had the veteran as a speculative buyout candidate but the hip injury would have taken that option off the table had the team tried to pursue it.
Instead, they elected to do with surgery, delaying that procedure until the start of the season, which helped the Maple Leafs from a salary-cap perspective as they were able to spend his $4.6875M AAV in full on replacement players rather than having to keep it available for a midseason return.
With this being an LTI loan, there are some more stringent rules than a typical conditioning assignment. Murray can be with the Marlies for up to three games and six days and if he needs more time, the team can request a one-time two-game extension.
That should be ample time to assess if Murray has indeed fully recovered and if the original allotment is enough to get through the end of the regular season with him still on LTIR, removing any salary-cap concerns.
Even if Murray does well in that stint, it would be surprising to see him see any action with the Maple Leafs in the postseason, who are set with Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll as their tandem with veteran Martin Jones waiting in the wings as well.
But a decent showing there could certainly help his cause as he’ll test unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer.
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