Matt Murray Traded to the Ottawa Senators
The Pittsburgh Penguins said goodbye to their goalie who led them to two Stanley Cup Titles. They traded away Matt Murray to the Ottawa Senators for the 52nd overall pick in the NHL Draft which turned out to be goalie Joel Bolmqvist and they also acquired forward Jonathan Gruden.
Murray is only 26 years old and is a restricted free agent. The reason why the Pittsburgh Penguins moved off of him is that General Manager Jim Rutherford signed goalie Tristan Jarry to a three-year deal. His record this past season was 20-11-5 with a .899 save percentage and a 2,87 GAA, along with one shutout in 38 games played and started in all 38 of them though.
Gruden is only 20 years old. He was a fourth0round pick (95th overall selection) in 2018 NHL Draft. Jonathan Gruden played with the London Knights in the OHL last season. He played in 59 games last season and scored 30 goals and recorded 36 assists. His plus/minus was 20. Gruden has the potential to sign an entry-level deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins sooner rather than later and it makes this prospect pool a little bit deeper.
The Ottawa Senators were able to afford to trade away a second-round pick because they had four of them entering the day and Ottawa also has one of the deepest farm systems in all of hockey.
Matt Murray wrote a touching post on his Instagram page thanking the organization for all of the success he had in Pittsburgh. Murray is from Thunder Bay, Ontario, and he gets to return close to home.
Murray has played in 199 career games so far. He started in 193 of them. Matt Murray’s record is 117-53-19 with a .914 save percentage and a 2.87 GAA, along with one shutout.
In his NHL playoff career, he started in 50 games and has appeared in 51 of them. His record was 29-21 with a .921 save percentage and a 2.18 GAA, along with six shutouts. In three postseason games, his record was 1-2 with a .914 save percentage and a 2.50 GAA, along with zero shutouts. Matt Murray was benched in Game 3 after the Stanley Cup Qualifiers before Tristan Jarry took his place in Game 4 and lost 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens and eliminated them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is a busy offseason that continues for General Manager Jim Rutherford. I will have an update about all of the draft picks hopefully on Thursday.
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