Fantasy Impact: Ottawa Acquires Matt Murray

Dobber

2020-10-07

The Pittsburgh Penguins traded goaltender Matt Murray to the Ottawa Senators for Jonathan Gruden and the 52nd overall draft pick.

The Senators get: Their starting goalie. Murray will be their starting goaltender of the future if he can stay healthy this season. Murray will be their stopgap solution if he gets hurt – yet again – this season. Yes, the three-time Cup winner Matt Murray is a bit of a Band-Aid Boy. And by "bit of", I mean "most definitely".

The Penguins get: A salary cap solution, a contract solution (Murray is a restricted free agent), and a goalie-controversy solution. Plus a good draft pick and a longer-term prospect.

Fantasy Impact: Tristan Jarry just went from a split starter and likely 40-game candidate to the de facto No.1 guy in Pittsburgh and potential 60-game guy (we'll still talk in 82-game season terms, for the purpose of our analysis). His value skyrockets. By the same token, Murray also gets to start 60 games…but it would be more like 40 or 45 as he struggles through the inevitable injuries. If he does manage 55 or 60 games…it is unlikely that many of them will be wins, since Ottawa is not expected to start winning just yet. For the longer term, Murray needs to show that he can stay healthy. If he can, then he has the chance to be the starter in the long term for a team that will eventually be done their rebuild and could be a strong, competitive team for years to come. But it will be a lean couple of years for Murray owners until that point.

Here is an H2H stat comparison of Jarry vs. Murray

Meanwhile, owners of Anders Nilsson are in a great spot. Nilsson is an underrated goaltender and he could have ended up being a backup behind an iron man. Instead, he'll be behind a goalie who struggles on the ice (the past two years) as well as with injuries. Nilsson could make a sneaky buy-low as a dark horse who can get in 45 starts if bad luck befalls Murray. Nilsson isn't without his issues, though. He is recovering from a concussion that cost him the last half of last season.

Jonathan Gruden (profile here) is ranked 418 on my Fantasy Prospects list. He is about four years away.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

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Tristan Jarry

Matt Murray

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

None

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