The goaltender injured his groin during the morning skate ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs game against the Ottawa Senators and must be out a minimum of 10 games and 24 days retroactive to the last time he dressed.
It took just a few days into the regular season for the Toronto Maple Leafs' goaltending situation to become a big storyline, and now Matt Murray is on the shelf for at least three weeks.
The Maple Leafs placed the goaltender on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) on Saturday after he injured his adductor ahead of his scheduled start against the Ottawa Senators.
The team says Murray will miss a minimum of four weeks with an adductor injury.
LTIRs are retroactive to the last day a player was in a lineup, so the earliest Murray can return — even if he makes a quicker recovery — is Nov. 8 against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Maple Leafs called up goaltender Erik Kallgren, who will back up Ilya Samsonov against the Senators. Kallgren's callup is only possible after Murray went on long-term injured reserve. A shorter-term injury would have forced the Maple Leafs to dress a goaltender on an amateur tryout.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported earlier today that Jett Alexander was the player set for that role.
With Murray on LTIR, the Maple Leafs will have increased roster flexibility. With Murray's $4.875 million salary cap hit entered into the LTIR pool, the Leafs can add up to three additional players on their roster ahead of their first long road trip next week that sees the club go to Winnipeg, Las Vegas and California.
More to come...