With the Toronto Maple Leafs in serious salary cap hell, something had to be done to lower their salary cap hit. NHL trade rumors have been making the rounds that Toronto could trade William Nylander for a first-round draft pick and top prospect to help lower the salary cap.
Instead, the Maple Leafs convinced Matt Murray to go on LTIR and use his $4,687,500 million cap hit to get salary cap relief.
Money is the reason Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Matt Murray agreed to go on LTIR
Former NHL player Carlo Colaiacovo who is a co-host on Toronto’s TSN 1050 radio station gave his reason why Matt Murray went on LTIR.
First, the team, player, and league all must agree that there is an injury. Once there is an agreement, the team can put the player on long-term injured reserve.
Colaiacovo stated in his radio hit that no one really knows what the exact injury that Murray has is, but believes that Toronto Maple Leafs management went to Murray and told him he has a couple of options.
First option: He was told that the Leafs would buy him out and he would lose one-third of the salary owed to him which is $2,666,667. Murray is due a salary of $8 million this year.
Second option: Go on LTIR and we will pay you your full $8 million salary to sit out the year.
With the second option chosen by Murray, the Leafs get some much-needed LTIR salary cap relief and Murray gets his full salary for the year. He would have been a fool not to accept that deal.
Currently, the Leafs are $2,068,950 over the salary cap with a 22-man roster. They can be cap compliant if they go with a 20-man roster or trade William Nylander or TJ Brodie to free up extra cap space.
The NHL really looks the other way when it comes to LTIR. The hard salary cap by the league handcuffs teams and this is a way teams can get away by spending more money on the team.
What are Toronto Maple Leafs fans saying about the Matt Murray LTIR
We all know it is salary cap circumvention. All the big spending money teams do it. Murray gets his $8 million this year, Leafs get cap relief. All is good. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Great move by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yes, he was healthy in the playoffs. But oh well, other teams also take advantage of LTIR.
This needs to be thoroughly investigated by the NHL. No way is he injured.
We don’t know how healthy Murray was in the playoffs. He might have been able to play but 100% is doubtful. A team is never going to admit to an injury during the playoffs. With all his injuries his doctors should be telling him not to play if he wants any sort of life after hockey.
The league is a sucker for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was healthy in the playoffs. Now he is injured.
Ya, and i’m sure you were the first person to say what idiots the Leafs were for picking him up because he’s always hurt!