The Toronto Maple Leafs set to go to salary arbitration this Friday with goaltender Ilya Samsonov. After being signed last summer Samsonov took over the starting job and was the Maple Leafs starting goalie for the playoffs. Samsonov and the Leafs are working hard on a new contract but have yet to come to an agreement.
With the two parties likely to come to an agreement this week, the Maple Leafs will be forced to create cap space. The natural expectation was Toronto would attempt trade or buyout Matt Murray. Unfortunately, it appears that task just became more difficult.
According to Elliotte Friedman, Matt Murray who has struggled with injuries throughout his career may not be able to be bought out. That's because an injured player is ineligible to be bought out. Friedman had the following to say today on the NHL Network.
The Maple always would have the option of placing Murray on long-term injured reserve, but they would be forced to clear cap space once he was cleared for play. This could complicate the Maple Leafs salary cap situation or force the team to use a valuable asset to incentivize a team to take on Murray's remaining deal.
