Matt Murray has been struggling all year, and things are not getting better for him.

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray was supposed to be the number one netminder in Pittsburgh after Marc-Andre Fleury was claimed in the expansion draft by the Vegas Golden Knights last June, but things are not going as planned for him since the beginning of the year. The 23-year old netminder, drafted 83rd overall by the Penguins in 2012, has started 31 games so far this season, posting a record of 15-12-1 with a goal-against average of 2.93 and a .903 save percentage. 

These numbers are far from the one he registered last year, in his first full season in Pittsburgh. Murray registered a record of 32-10-4 with a 2.41 goal-against average and a save percentage of .923. Murray was an important piece of the Stanley Cup run Pittsburgh had in 2016, as he played 21 games in the playoffs, after playing only 13 regular season games with the Penguins. Last spring, Murray shared the workload with Marc-Andre Fleury in the playoffs, after he was injured at the start of the first round. 

Penguins management team were expected him to keep playing like he did over the last two seasons, and now they are facing some tough decisions until the trade deadline on February 26th. Murray missed some games this season, and the goalies behind him in the team's depth chart are all less experimented than him. Tristan Jarry only has 16 starts in the NHL, but he did well when Murray was injured earlier this year. In 15 starts, the 22-year old netminder registered a record of 7-3-2 with a 2.46 goal-against average and a .919 save percentage. The Penguins can also count on Casey DeSmith down in the AHL, but the 26-year old goalie only started two games with Pittsburgh this season, and things didn't went so well.

Yes, there is also Michael Leighton down in the minors, since the Penguins acquired him via trade from the Arizona Coyotes with a fourth round pick in 2019 for Sean Maguire and Josh Archibald, but let's just hope that they will not need the 36-year old goaltender.

Pittsburgh always counted on good goaltending depth over the last years, but things are different this season. 

What do you think general manager Jim Rutherford should do?

The Penguins are currently fifth in the Metropolitan division with a record of 22-19-3, but they own the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, for the moment. Philadelphia and Carolina only trail them by one and two points and they played less games than Pittsburgh.

They will play their next game on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings. Pittsburgh won their last two games, and they are 5-5-0 in their last ten.