But what happens when Murray comes back?

Isles have no other backup.

This will work for for little while but the problem is when Liljegren and Benn return (I don't know what their time frame was) the Leafs will be back at the cap and Murray will eventually return as well putting the Leafs once again over the cap. That's the issue with running an LTIR dependant lineup, eventually everyone gets healthy.

I guess it depends on how long hes out for

Murray will be back though so what happens then.....

As Groin injuries typically take 4 weeks (Mrazek or Quick example) to 8 weeks to heal

If all goes well Murray will be back November/December. Samsonov/Kallgren should be able to carry the load till then

Now if this was a concussion I would explore a goalie trade

Schneider was solid in the AHL last year, or they could find one in a trade for cheap

I think that a deal would include a few things:

Kallgren going back to NY
A pick and a player from Toronto. I dont think Lou wants picks as much as players. Not sure who the leafs have. Minten could be one, not sure how highly the leafs value him tho. 20-35-55 in 67 in his DY seems fair. So maybe something like Minten+Kallgren+4th+5th for Varly 2.5 mil retained and 6th is what i would think makes sense for NYI.

Minten was a 2nd rounder so i dont think this is so far off. Kallgren is just to back up and then the late picks shouldnt mean much

Schneider is not NHL level, and the Isles are not going to trade Varly to then have to find another goalie. If Varly is the goalie that Toronto wants they have to find a 3rd team to provide the Isles with another backup option.

I Dont think any team is goig to be trading a goalie in the 1st week of the season, Leafs are going to have to weather the storm

Could be Kallgren going back like @oliver_wahlstrom suggested

There's no incentive for Winnipeg to involve themselves in this.

Yea good points. I changed the trades a bit and added some extra moves to they would be cap compliant even when healthy. They could carry 3 goalies if they wanted (Varly is the strongest of the 3 anyway imo) once Murray is back. They lose Kerfoot but imo are deep enough at forward that losing him to upgrade their goaltending is a net positive change

Im not sure what the trade was before but ive been editing them after I posted this. WPG is getting a 2nd round pick and upgrading their F core by adding Kerfoot in exchange for taking on extra cap

Meh, a rental and a 2nd 2 drafts from now isn't much incentive to waste cap space now. That's what I mean about no incentive. The Jets are giving up two players to lose cap space and gain a rental. I'd imagine the Jets ask for something with team control that helps them now if they are throwing away cap space to help someone out when they don't have to.

Fair enough, I switched it to a similar trade with Minnesota

There is ZERO incentive for Minnesota to do this. All this does is burn cap space for Minnesota. $4M worth of it, which is idiotic.

Schneider isn’t NHL level. Imagine saying that a few years ago when he was on NJ

Well there is an incentive, its an upgrade at forward and a 2nd round pick. Maybe thats not enough to convince MIN to take on the extra cap but its not like theres no compensation for it

I thought maybe MIN would be in a better position than WPG to make a deal like this since they are contenders which is why I changed it from WPG, but I guess they could just send Kerfoot elsewhere and have a team like ANA/ARZ/CHI retain on Varlamov instead

Duhaime is trending and on a trajectory to become a Marcus Foligno 2.0 type of player for Minnesota. That's who HC Dean Evason compared him to last year in just his rookie season.

Besides, Duhaime is 3 years younger and only makes $750k.

That last part is infinitely more valuable to Minnesota than Kerfoot's $3.5M cap hit. Especially when we already have 3-6 guys on roster who do what Kerfoot does either just as well or do it cheaper.