Two October 9ths ago, Kraken free agent goaltender signee Matt Murray made a career decision that now provides the team significant upside and position depth for the coming season that just happens to start that very same Oct. 9 date.
Murray chose to undergo innovative double-hip surgery to repair and rejuvenate joints that had bothered the 31-year-old since his American Hockey League days back in 2015-16. That’s the same season a decade ago in which he was promoted by the Pittsburgh Penguins as a 22-year-old rookie and notched 15 postseason wins and a .923 playoff save percentage ahead of winning the Stanley Cup.
“I definitely have way more mobility now than I did before the surgery,” said Murray, sitting in front of his new locker at Kraken Community Iceplex. “I have more range in my hips, and I would say I have more strength as well. That pain is not prohibiting me from doing anything anymore.”
Murray said his hips were starting to deteriorate when he was “quite young,” tracing back to AHL Wilkes-Barre days. “I started to feel some pain,” he said. “It started off as minor and infrequent. Then it became more major and more frequent.”
Murray tried to “push these things off as long as possible” during his later years in Pittsburgh and then Ottawa in part because the Oct. 9, 2023, surgery required an early bedridden period, double crutches for weeks and six to eight months of rehab time before resuming play.
“It gets into a little bit of a slippery slope with one [hip] procedure that can lead to another procedure more quickly,” said Murray. “That was a warning I got from the surgeon. As we talked a lot about it, we decided [October 2023] was as good a time as any for the double-hip [procedure]. The hip pain was affecting me a lot, to a point where I had to do something.”
Being only 29 was pivotal. “I was young enough where I could still recover well from it,” he said. “The doctor actually said that because I was young enough, I could do both (hips) at the same time, which helped speed up the process a little bit. It made the first three to four weeks very, very difficult, but in the long run it sped things up quite a bit ... it is an interesting feeling now to not have that pain ... My hips have certainly not felt better in the last 10 years.”
A hidden bonus from the surgery decision is that it allowed Murray to fully recover from injury woes he’d battled throughout his prior 2022-23 season with Toronto, including abductor (abdominal muscle), ankle and head injuries. He’d gone 14-8-2 with a .903 save percentage amid repeated injured reserve list stints.
Strong Interest from NHL Clubs
Other general managers clearly understand the value of the two-time Cup-winner feeling better and pain-free compared to much of the last decade. Murray said “six-seven-eight teams showed some form of interest” in the unrestricted free agent before he signed with Seattle.
“The only negative about here is it’s so far away [from his Thunder Bay, Ontario hometown],” Murray said of coming to Seattle. “But the big reason why I ended up wanting to come here was because of the people and the familiarity. I really want to work in a place where I know the people and it's a good environment.”
The list of familiar faces includes GM Jason Botterill, an associate GM in Pittsburgh during the back-to-back Cup years. Plus, forward Jared McCann, with Murray having teamed with the Kraken all-time goal scoring leader way back in junior hockey with Sault Ste. Marie [ON] and later with Pittsburgh as well. Murray also overlapped one season in Ottawa alongside Joey Daccord and with new Kraken head coach Lane Lambert in Toronto when then associate coach Lambert ran the Maple Leafs’ defensive strategy.
New goalie coach Colin Zulianello and Murray both grew up and live in Thunder Bay. Murray skated several summers with Zulianello, who has run goaltender camps in their hometown for many years. Their younger children have befriended each other and the two families, newcomers to the Pacific Northwest, flew together from Ontario to Seattle in August.
Zulianello was Daccord’s goalie coach for Coachella Valley’s historic inaugural season in which the Firebirds won the AHL’s Western Conference title and fell a Game 7 overtime goal short of capturing the Calder Cup championship. Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer praised Zulianello’s close work with him when the Seattle veteran was on assignment with the Firebirds last February.
How Murray Grades His Own Goaltending
While fans often evaluate NHL goaltenders by save percentage and number of wins, perhaps with some advanced goalie analytics mixed in, Murray said he self-evaluates his games and overall performance.
“I think the best way is to take it down to a one-shot-at-a-time format,” said Murray, “Whether you felt like you executed your game plan on each and every shot. There are definitely times when you can execute the exact game plan you want, and as a player that's all you can control. There are times where you do exactly what you want to do, and you still get scored on whether it's a bad bounce or maybe you can't see the puck through traffic. Which is kind of out of your control a lot of time.
“That's always how I’ve graded my play,” added Murray. “If I did what I wanted on each and every read, each and every shot, each and every play, then I can live with the result because a lot of times the result is there. There are shots that are unstoppable. I wish it weren't true. I wish there was always something you could do. But there are plays out there where it's just not humanly possible. You’re just going to get scored on whether you do the right thing or not. There's also the other side in that you can do things wrong, and the puck is still going to hit you, whether it's good fortune or positioning or maybe the guy misses his shot. If I do what’s in my game plan, I can live with the result.”
Murray’s game-planning will no doubt be enhanced by the elimination of hip pain. The veteran goalie doesn’t take lightly the advances in restorative hip surgery. “I'm thankful there is a procedure to give me a fresh start,” said Murray. “Even though it was an intrusive, long process to recover. My hips beforehand were getting to a point where it was affecting even my quality of life outside of hockey. My wife will tell you I was in kind of rough shape there for a while. It’s really cool to see that the surgery paid off. To have that quality of life back and to be able to play more freely.”
