Matt Murray not happy with the Ottawa Senators.

The relationship between veteran goaltender Matt Murray and the Ottawa Senators may have taken a pretty big hit over the weekend, and there are real questions about how this whole scenario will play out.

On Friday night we began to hear rumblings that suggest the Ottawa Senators were weighing the possibility of placing the aforementioned Murray on the waiver wire. National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman would report later in the evening that all signs pointed towards Murray being waived today.

Ottawa Senators insider Bruce Garrioch has since echoed that report, seemingly confirming the fact that Murray is indeed headed to waivers. More importantly however was the fact that Garrioch reported that the Murray camp, and Murray himself, were not pleased with the decision, a sign that Murray himself had already informed him of their plans.

I can hardly blame the Senators for making the move. The signing of Murray has been a disaster from day 1 and, despite being in the 2nd year of his contract, Murray only has 33 appearances to show for it. Over that stretch he has an .892 save percentage and a goals saved above expected mark of -19.32, very rough numbers for a guy that you've made a commitment of $25 million to over a 4 year period.

At a cap hit of $6.25 million this season Murray has made just 6 appearances for the team so far, recording a 3.26 goals against average and an .890 save percentage. While there have been a number of contributing factors, you can see why frustration with Murray has been building on the team's side of the equation.

Murray himself may have a legitimate reason for being unhappy however, and he may have even found a supporter in the form of TSN insider Darren Dreger. On Saturday morning Dreger reported that a number of players have struggled to recover after difficult bouts of Covid, and he specifically went out of his way to name Matt Murray as one such player.

We know the Senators had Covid tear through their locker room earlier in the season, and if Murray is genuinely struggling to recover from the virus I can understand why he feels he has been treated unfairly.

If Murray is indeed waived today, every team in the league will have the option of claiming him and his cap hit of $6.25 million. I find that highly unlikely, but there are now real questions about whether or not this current rift between Murray and the Senators may become a more permanent one.

Update: Senators head coach DJ Smith has now officially confirmed that the plan is to send Murray down to the American Hockey League should he manage to clear waivers. The current AHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators are the Belleville Senators, and it seems that Murray will be forced to report to that organization or be in violation of his contract.

Murray does have a modified no trade clause in his contract, but nothing that would prevent the Senators from moving him down to the AHL.