Reporter speaks out amid LTIR controversy in Toronto, dismisses claims of cap circumvention

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Mike Armenti
July 30, 2023 (9:39)

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Once again, this summer, it's all about the Leafs. The Buds made a splash this past week, announcing that oft-injured netminder Matt Murray would be headed to LTIR this season, rather than facing a potential buyout. Naturally, this rubbed the rest of the league's fanbases the wrong way and now just about everyone and their dog is claiming that the Leafs are circumventing the cap and demanding that the league take action.

The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. We're not talking about a player who has largely been very healthy for his entire career suddently ending up on LTIR - we're talking about the same Matt Murray who hasn't played 30 games in any of the last 3 seasons and can't seem to stay healthy.

One insider Adam Proteau, however, explains why the Leafs didn't do anything wrong and what would happen if an NHL team broke the rules of using LTIR.

https://thehockeynews.com/news/screen-shots-ottawa-senators-nhl-in-australia-and-matt-murray

Finally, the Toronto Maple Leafs made news this week with their announcement goalie Matt Murray would be placed on long-term injured reserve and be out of the lineup until further notice. The news came as the Leafs had a second buyout window open after goalie Ilya Samsonov's arbitration ruling, but only players ruled to be healthy can be bought out. Some fans were claiming the Leafs were effectively circumventing the salary cap, inferring Toronto management somehow faked an injury to the veteran goalie in an attempt to get cap-compliant. The problem with that theory is the NHL does take LTIR cases extremely seriously � if there were any evidence a team was stashing an unwanted player on LTIR, the league would come down incredibly hard on it, levelling sanctions and penalties to ensure teams never even thought about trying to put one past it. - Proteau on the Leafs and Matt Murray

Both the NHL and NHLPA have seen the medical reports provided by the Leafs and have agreed that LTIR is where Matt Murray belongs; end of story. There's just no way that a team, who is under as much scrutiny as the Leafs are, just tries to stash a healthy player on LTIR and gets away with it.