Toronto Maple Leafs Matt Murray returns to game action

It's been a year and eleven days, but Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray was finally able to return to action on Saturday night.

Heading into the 2022-23 NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs believed Murray would be their starting goaltender of the year, and an early return showed why. The two-time Stanley Cup champion came out of the gates with an 11-4-2 record with a 2.48 GAA and .919 save percentage, unfortunately, injuries would pile up and he couldn't maintain the same level of play.

A groin injury in October, an ankle injury in January and finally a head injury in April meant he wouldn't play at all in the 2023 playoffs.

In the middle of last summer, Murray was diagnosed with an additional hip injury that will require corrective surgery that will sideline him for at least six months.

Murray was rumored to be skating last January, but expectations for his return were dashed after it was revealed he was just skating.

Murray recently began joining the Maple Leafs for practice and was cleared to play on Saturday, which resulted in the team sending him to a conditioning session with the Toronto Marlies; and later that evening he pitched for the American Hockey League team against the Syracuse Crush.

There were a lot of positives from the game, in particular, Murray collected the win during the cloud. He allowed five goals on 27 shots, but three of those goals came on the power play, and Murray stopped every attempt as the game went to a shootout.

More than any takeaway from the game itself, the biggest reason for optimism is that Murray was able to play the entire 65 minutes of the game and then without being subbed out.

All of this has had little impact on the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the team currently has Joseph Wall and Ilya Samsonov battling for the net, and Murray is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Stranger things have happened, however, and it's no surprise to see former Sault Ste. Marie Greyhound goaltender found himself in a Maple Leafs jersey before the playoffs ended.