After rumblings the Ottawa Senators might be willing to use one of their second-round picks to snag a goaltender before the NHL Entry Draft kicked up again on Wednesday, news came down the pipe that the Senators had completed a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins and grabbed Matt Murray.
The deal is official and the Penguins have acquired forward Jonathan Gruden and a 2020 second-round draft pick (52nd overall) from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Murray.
According to Pierre LeBrun, the Penguins and Senators have been talking about this deal for a few weeks and things ramped up early Wednesday morning. LeBrun notes that the Penguins like a few players around the 52 pick and wanted to make a deal for before a huge influx of UFA goalies became available to Ottawa.
For the Penguins, this isn’t surprising news as the team has been trying to move Murray since the 2019-20 season ended for them. The Pens are fully committing to their new goalie Tristan Jarry and are solving the issue of being stuck with two netminders during the Seattle expansion draft.
As for the Senators, they’ve had a busy few days and may not be done. They still have a number of picks in this year’s draft and will need to get to work on signing Murray to a new deal. He is a 26-year-old RFA coming off of two Stanley Cup wins.
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