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The Toronto Maple Leafs bounced back from a bad opener on the road against Montreal, with two wins at Scotiabank Arena against Washington on Thursday and a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, but the Leafs now have the difficult task of navigating through at least the next four weeks without goaltender Matt Murray.
Murray was placed on long-term injured reserve on Saturday after suffering an adductor injury during the club’s morning skate, and Erik Kallgren was called up from the American Hockey League to back up Ilya Samsonov, who made 26 saves for his second victory.
The Leafs schedule is manageable in October, with only one back-to-back at the end of the month in Southern California, but to prevent Samsonov from making three straight starts in the last five days, head coach Sheldon Keefe decided to give Kallgren the start against the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.
The 26-year-old Swede started in a dozen games for Toronto last season (8-4-0, 3.31 GAA, .888 save %) and was knocked out of the game in Rochester on Friday after being plowed into by the Amerks Ethan Prow, but was medically cleared and will make his first start since April 29th vs. Boston.
Arizona is 0-2 to start a year that their main goal will be to get the best odds to draft Connor Bedard, but they are a team that the Leafs took lightly last season, getting stoned by Karel Vejmelka in a 2-1 loss in Glendale last January, and a 5-4 overtime loss in Toronto in March.
With Murray’s $4.68 million deal shifted to LTIR, GM Kyle Dubas was able to call up forwards Nick Robertson, Wayne Simmonds, and defenseman Victor Mete, but none of them will get the start against the Coyotes. William Nylander missed practice on Sunday due to illness but will make the start.
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Pierre LeBrun spoke more about the speculation regarding winger Michael Bunting in the Athletic on Monday, indicating that the winger wants to stay in Toronto, and might be willing to take an eight-year-deal at a lower AAV than he could possibly get on a shorter-term deal.
No contract talks have taken between GM Kyle Dubas and Bunting’s representatives at Quartexx Management Inc., but that could happen at some point during the season if the winger has similar production to what he had playing with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
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