Matt Murray not on waivers on Tuesday, despite the Leafs' second buyout window opening on Wednesday

Well, with the buyout window expected to open up on Wednesday, there were many who were of the mindset that the Leafs would waive Matt Murray on Tuesday for the purposes of a buyout on Wednesday. Surprisingly, when NHL Insider Chris Johnston reported shared information about Tuesday's waiver activity, there were no names on the list.

This could be an indicator that the Leafs plan to use the time that they have to seek a trade before committing to a buy out on Murray, which would cost them $687K this season and $2M next season. It could also mean that they are already in the process of negotiating such a trade.

The biggest problem in trying to move the last year of Murray's contract, which carries a $4.687M cap hit, is that his actual salary for this season is $8M. There aren't a lot of teams lining up to take on his deal knowing that his actual salary is nearly double his cap hit in that final year.

The prevailing thought here is that a buyout will still occur in this case. If the Leafs do manage to move Murray, however, we should expect that a rather significant piece will be moving along with him as incentive for another club to absorb his cap hit and lofty salary.

The final option here is one that many view as a real possibility, which is that the Leafs could simply be preparing for the possibility that Murray could spend next season on LTIR, which would provide the team with an additional $4.687M cap space. As it stands, the team is currently more than $12M over the cap, which is reduced to a over $6M with Jake Muzzin on LTIR.