The Future of Matt Murray

[deantime419]

I made a big investment in Matt Murray this offseason in a multi-cat keeper. It's a 16 team league and typically the best teams have two quality starters so the math would tell you how valuable goalies are in our league. I now have to decide how long of a contract to sign him to.
Basically, if he doesn't have (what appears to be) a starters gig by this time next year, I suspect his value will be significant less and if I were to trade him away in order to open up roster spots for assets who could help me win asap, I would probably not get an equivalent return compared to the draft pick I used on him. If he completely flops or settles in as a backup/timeshare, I'd be forced to leave him on my roster until his contract runs out, or he'd have to be bought out which would come at the expense of other contract years I could be using to re-sign valuable members of my team. Lots of teams are burdened by poor decisions they make signing players to contracts.
On the flip side, if he does pan out and looks the part of a 55+ game starter before the 2017/18 season, the more years he has left the better for my team (as I won't have to re-sign him until much later thus allowing me to keep other quality assets) and for his trade value.

We have 8 years each offseason to give players whose contracts expire that year (so lets call it ~150 players being kept each offseason).

All in all, the simple question is how much do you believe in Matt Murray moving forward and how long until he's a starter in the NHL?

I think the better Fleury plays this year the easer it will be to trade him (or trade Murray if they can get a huge return for him) so in the short term maybe I should be rooting for both of these goalies to perform.

Thanks in advance. Will give out rep where I can.

[Sulla]

Perssonally I see him on the same trajectory as he was on before the Stanley Cup win. This season he should cap out at 30 games (unless something major happens) but next season onwards, post expansion draft, he should have his starters opportunity

[The Bottlenecker]

Hard to bet against a Stanley Cup winner, even if he is a rookie, but I'm not convinced he will be the automatic starter in Pittsburgh this year or next. MAF has a a partial NMC, and there are no guarantees he will be gone. Also, I'm not convinced Murray will ever be an elite starter. While he had some great games for the Pens in the playoffs last year, I think he scored some wins on the strength of the Penguins offence and not on his play. I think guys like Hellebuyck and Vasilevskiy are better goalies but that Murray was the right guy at the right time.

[rangerfan2430]

Even though this season might be a little rough, his future is fine. He's the Penguins goalie of the future and should get time

[deantime419]

Hard to bet against a Stanley Cup winner, even if he is a rookie, but I'm not convinced he will be the automatic starter in Pittsburgh this year or next. MAF has a a partial NMC, and there are no guarantees he will be gone. Also, I'm not convinced Murray will ever be an elite starter. While he had some great games for the Pens in the playoffs last year, I think he scored some wins on the strength of the Penguins offence and not on his play. I think guys like Hellebuyck and Vasilevskiy are better goalies but that Murray was the right guy at the right time.

I agree re Hellebuyck and Vasilevsky. I like Murray's game a tad better than Gibson's though.

Thanks.

[kevinsrangers]

fantrax has Murray down for 47 games. not that that really says anything.