As rumours of Matt Murray being waived continue to linger, one team that should keep their eyes on the potential prize is: The Montreal Canadiens.
It’s no secret how bad the Montreal Canadiens are this year. In fact, their 12pts through 22 games played are the lowest in franchise history through this stretch. They’ve also got a -32 goal differential which is equally as alarming as their poor record of 5-15-1. Unfortunately the combination of no goal-scoring ability with the teams unforgiving between-the-pipes luck has made for quite the fall from grace for a team that only four and a half months ago were competing in the Stanley Cup Finals. With the team being as bad as they are, the never ending question of, “where does this team go from here?” continues to linger.
While on the topic of ‘falls from grace’, in steps Matt Murray.
From winning back-to-back Stanley Cups as a rookie to being waived by the worst team in the NHL, Matt Murray has seen it all since his NHL debut in 2015. The 27-year old signed a four-year, $25 million contract extension with the Sens in October which makes his being waived even more of a surprise from a financial perspective, but when you’re winless in six starts this season with an 0-5-0 record, .826 save-percentage and 3.26 goals-against average, there leaves little to no doubt as to WHY Murray deserves to hit the waiver wire.
Of course that risk comes with the possibility of other teams taking a chance on the goaltender, even if Ottawa’s goal is to simply give Murray a wake-up call. One of those teams that could be a landing spot for the struggling netminder is the third worst team in the league, the Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal’s goaltending situation was always going to be in question considering Carey Price not playing this year and quite frankly, the teams inconsistent search for a true number two; let alone goalies number three and four which have been required this year due to injuries and simply inconsistent and poor play. With all three goalies who’ve played for the Habs this year posting GAA’s of above 3.00, save percentages of below .900 and only five wins split amongst them, the Canadiens goaltending has been less than admirable this year; it’s been absolute poo-poo. So how would adding yet another mediocre goaltender into the mix help this team? Well, it might not necessarily make an immediate impact and turn the Habs season around, but it would most certainly be the change of scenery that might benefit a player like Matt Murray.
Murray would come into Montreal with basically the second-best stats for goalies on the Canadiens and could make a serious case for taking over the number two spot from Jake Allen. (Yes, we still believe that Price holds the number one goalie spot despite his not having played this season.) Considering Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau have only one win amongst them and share very similar poor stats, taking the chance at Murray would also provide the two youngsters a much needed kick-in-the-ass, similar to what the Sens are trying to do with Murray.
The Thunder Bay native is still considered a young-goalie in the league and given his previous success, we know he has the abilities to be a leader and a true number one goalie in the NHL. Of course, nothing is official until later this afternoon and the possibility of Murray not being waived still remains. However, the fact of the matter is that both the Sens and Habs are in such poor positions in the league standings through the first quarter of the season, that anything to get either the teams’ sparked or merely the team’s players sparked is an opportunity that neither team should turn their back to.
Andrew Stuetz