Maple Leafs Avoid Bullet With Matt Murray Recovery Time

The Toronto Maple Leafs have avoided a massive bullet cap wise as it was announced today that goaltender Matt Murray will miss 6-8 months after undergoing successful bilateral hip surgery.

The @MapleLeafs announced today that goaltender Matt Murray underwent successful bilateral hip surgery. He is expected to miss a minimum of 6-8 months.
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) October 9, 2023

Murray has had lots of injury problems in his career, so surgery of this kind was definitely needed. His career started much better than it has gone lately, but he was also healthier in his early NHL days. The Maple Leafs anticipated this as Murray missed a lot of time last season, his first with the team.

Whether Murray was healthy or not, it seemed like Joseph Woll was going to take over the backup role in Toronto. Some think we could even challenge for the starting role. The Maple Leafs also brought in Martin Jones. Despite putting him through waivers, he was given a chance to earn a spot on the team. If he clears the Maple Leafs do have a third goalie option to turn to if there's a need.

Murray's return should be between the middle of April to June. This will last the full regular season and allow the Maple Leafs to avoid having to use a valuable asset to dump his contract. They barely have enough cap space as is right now, so him returning to action for Toronto wasn't an option either.