Same money, same cap hit. Nothing changes for the Senators after Toronto places Matt Murray on LTIR.
Last year, the Ottawa Senators paid goalie Matt Murray just over $1.5 million to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. This year, they'll continue paying him just over $1.5 million to start the year on Toronto's long-term injured reserve list (LTIR).
By sticking their enigmatic, oft-injured goalie on the LTIR, the Leafs get cap relief. On LTIR, players don't count against the cap.
So surely that's good news for the Sens, who should get a little cap relief as well, right? After all they're paying 25% of Murray's salary, which counts against Ottawa's cap, so if he's now on Toronto's LTIR, the Sens should get a cap savings too.
Yeah, not so fast.
The rules say the only team that can realize cap savings from a player going on LTIR is the team that put him there. So it's dead in the water right there.
There are other LTIR rules that might also negate cap relief. For example, if Murray were still here and the Sens wanted to punt him onto LTIR, they would have to be right up against the cap to receive cap relief. Right now, they are now.
According to Puckpedia, they still have almost $5.8 million to work with in 2023-24.
In any event, $1.5 million in cap relief or not is nothing Senators' fans will be losing sleep over. It's more the principle of the matter. With their unlimited budget, no one outside of Toronto wants to see the Leafs get any breaks when it comes to spending.