Murray Fine With Three Goalies

In an effort to seem relevant during the playoffs, the Ottawa Senators organization issued a news story yesterday which basically states that Bryan Murray is not currently staying up at night worrying which of his three goaltenders to trade away. In fact, he is positively beaming about having three goaltenders.

"We've got three (goaltenders) now," said Murray. "They all think they're No. 1. I like that. That's where we are at this point in time. I don't know that there's any reason to try to change that, unless somebody came along and made a huge offer to me over the summer."

Now, I'm no general manager (...yet), but it seems to me that dropping one of our three goaltenders could be beneficial, whether that's done by moving Alex Auld  and freeing up a million dollars of cap space, or avoiding taking on a new contract with RFA Brian Elliott, who will be looking for a raise next season. In a salary cap era, any dead weight should be instantly cut off, particularly when you're as close to the cap as the Sens are. Furthermore, trading away one of these goalies could be used to add a draft pick, move up in the draft, or bolster our existing defence or forwards. Either way, it can add something to the team, rather than having someone make an NHL salary for playing in the AHL while we take a cap hit.

Then again, Murray probably knows this. It's very possible that he's merely playing one of those games GMs love so much, where they publicly state one thing to try and raise the stock of their goalies. After all, he probably thinks he can get more if someone makes an offer not knowing which goalie he's likely to give up, than if he's shopping one on the market.