Matt Murray

Matt Murray was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third round — 83rd overall — of the 2012 NHL Draft. He broke into the NHL in 2015-16 with just 13 regular-season appearances, posting a 9-2 record, a 2.00 goals-against average, and a .930 save percentage. That stretch set the stage for one of the more eventful early careers in recent NHL history.

Murray won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in consecutive seasons, in 2015-16 and 2016-17, making him a two-time Stanley Cup champion. His 2016-17 regular season was the most statistically productive of his career: 49 games played, 32 wins, a 2.41 GAA, a .923 save percentage, and 4 shutouts. The following year he appeared in 49 games again, going 27-16 with a 2.92 GAA and a .907 save percentage, and in 2018-19 he reached a career-high 50 games played, recording 29 wins, a 2.69 GAA, and a .919 save percentage with 4 shutouts. In 2019-20 he appeared in 38 games for Pittsburgh, finishing 20-11 with a 2.87 GAA.

After five seasons in Pittsburgh, Murray was traded to the Ottawa Senators, where he spent two seasons. In 2020-21 he went 10-13 in 27 games with a 3.38 GAA and a .893 save percentage, posting 2 shutouts. The following year he appeared in 20 games, finishing 5-12 with a 3.05 GAA and a .906 save percentage.

Murray then signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. His time with the organization was interrupted significantly by hip surgery — he missed nearly the entirety of the 2023-24 season, returning only to play a handful of games in the AHL late in the year. He re-signed with Toronto and, before that comeback campaign got fully underway, had recorded 26 games in 2022-23 (14-8, 3.01 GAA, .903 save percentage, 1 shutout). In 2024-25, his final season with Toronto, he appeared in just 2 NHL games.

Murray signed with the Seattle Kraken ahead of the 2025-26 season, returning to the NHL following the double hip surgery that had sidelined him. Through five games with Seattle in 2025-26, he carries a 2.21 GAA and a .922 save percentage. Across his NHL career, Murray has appeared in 279 regular-season games, recording 147 wins, a 2.79 career GAA, a .910 save percentage, and 15 shutouts.

InGoal Magazine has covered Matt Murray in 14 Pro Reads.

That extended relationship with InGoal began the summer of 2023 with an hour-long film session — and Murray arrived as a ready-made participant. "I see my game as one where my athleticism is not necessarily my strongest suit, so these reads are kind of the equalizer for a guy like me," he told InGoal in that debut session. "I've got the size and I've got the brain for it — I read the play well — but there are a lot of guys in the League that are a lot more athletic than I am and it's a good lesson for young goalies that there are other equalizers, you don't always have to be just the best athlete. Being good with these types of reads and little technical details can really help your game." ^[1]

His first Pro Read focused on screens — an area where he had excelled statistically the previous season according to Clear Sight Analytics — and ran nearly nine minutes, covering shooter handedness, sight-line management, the risk of being dragged by screeners, and rebound control on cross-body shots ^[1]. The screen theme carried into a second Pro Read against the Detroit Red Wings, where Murray addressed managing multiple opponents in front of the net and the importance of staying compact rather than waving at pucks through traffic ^[2], and a third, set against the Edmonton Oilers' power play, in which he broke down how top screeners work to take away a goaltender's sight line — and how to counter it ^[3].

Subsequent sessions moved from screens into deflections, net play, post integration, stance management, and play reading. A Pro Read covering a Buffalo Sabres power play sequence went into detail on how Murray reads deflections by sound — the noise a puck makes coming off a stick — and how blade angle and hand position on the deflecting stick signal direction ^[4]. A session on an extended 5-on-3 Dallas Stars power play produced an honest accounting of what happens when a goaltender is gassed but has built habits that give him a fighting chance in chaotic situations ^[5].

Two Pro Reads from the summer of 2024, recorded as Murray worked his way back from hip surgery, covered depth and patience on odd-man rushes — including a detailed breakdown of the three factors that told him a Charlie Coyle play would go cross-ice rather than stay on the backhand ^[6] — and the mechanics of managing a partial 2-on-1 with a drag move developing in front of him ^[7]. A session on a Colorado Avalanche power play examined stance transitions and the decision to play deeper when Nathan MacKinnon is operating outside the dot ^[8].

Murray's return to the NHL with Seattle in 2025-26 generated a fresh series of Pro Reads. One covered an in-zone power play sequence against Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals from his first Kraken start of the season, with Murray explaining the importance of a high, narrow, mobile stance and the "lock-in moment" when a shooter stops looking for Ovechkin and commits to his own shot ^[9]. A second examined a 2-on-1 rush against Washington, where Murray described how the positioning of defenseman Vince Dunn made a pass essentially impossible and allowed him to push out and take away the shooter's time and space ^[10]. A third broke down a rush chance that evolved into an in-zone spot-to-spot play, with Murray detailing the importance of returning to a high stance between threats — "this is the most important move right there," he said of getting back inside and tall — and what that stance gives a tall goaltender in terms of mobility and sightlines ^[11]. The most recent Pro Read examined a net-drive sequence against Tom Wilson in which Murray explained his choice to retreat to the post rather than push out aggressively: "For a guy of my size, on a play like that, I thought I read that one really well, liked my spot. Whatever he decided to do, I felt like I had a pretty good answer to." ^[12]

Murray also appeared in an InGoal piece that gathered perspectives from all three Seattle Kraken goaltenders — alongside Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer — on how NHL goalies identify shooters by blade, tape, and release. Murray described how he reads a player's curve, toe tape, and the lie of the stick when a shot is coming at him, and explained why Ovechkin's shot is so difficult to track: "It's like a curve ball from a pitcher. So with him you just try to get big and hope it hits you because your brain, as a human being, you don't have enough time to process the information." ^[13]

All 14 Pro Reads are available to InGoal subscribers.