you won't get away with paying Murray LESS than his current contract - even during a bad year.

Agree he would want 5 million at least.

Idk about that one, this year is catastrophically bad for him. But even so, there's over 3M of wiggle room if any of these contracts are undershot. I can't see him getting a raise with the way he's playing currently, and he didn't have a lights out season last year either

If they are worried then he likely gets a 1 or 2 year deal at around $4-4.5m, otherwise they sign him long-term at $5m+ --- Or trade him, and give the reins to Jarry. But even with a bad year, he's getting a raise. He's still riding those 2 cups to a fat paycheck

There's no way he gets 5. He signed a two year, prove it contract. Had a middle of the pack season the first year and is having an awful season the second. He's not getting a 1.25M raise off of that.

If he has a good second half, he could demand it. Most importantly, Murray has 2 cups. That gives him so much more leverage to take a big deal.

May be true, but the Pens have a lot of leverage now too, in that they have a very capable goalie in Jarry if Murray wants to play hard ball. Murray could be moved and the Pens wouldn't be affected to heavily.

No way Murray takes less than his current contract. He will either sign his QO and bank on himself rebounding, or he will go to arbitration depending on his second half. If he gets higher than his QO it will likely be from another team, in which the pens will probably take the compensation as it would be more than they could get from a trade.

He signed a 3 year deal. He’s been extremely streaky since the death of his father. He’s either abysmal or plays vezina worthy. There hasn’t been just a consistent solid stretch of play with him.

catastrophically bad is a bit of an exaggeration bud. Jimmy Howard is having a catastrophic season and murray has been way better. he has also shown signs of turning his game around again. His last couple starts have been great if you havent been watching

He has seemed to possibly turn a corner, but here's the stretch of play this was based on:

12 2019-11-04 12 25-163 PIT @ BOS L 3 11 8 .727 0 0 24:22
13 2019-11-07 13 25-166 PIT @ NYI W W 3 23 20 .870 0 0 62:57
14 2019-11-09 14 25-168 PIT CHI W W 2 31 29 .935 0 0 64:50
15 2019-11-12 15 25-171 PIT @ NYR L-OT O 3 27 24 .889 0 0 62:24
16 2019-11-15 16 25-174 PIT @ NJD L L 2 21 19 .905 0 0 58:55
17 2019-11-19 17 25-178 PIT NYI L-OT O 5 42 37 .881 0 0 62:52
18 2019-11-21 18 25-180 PIT @ NYI L-OT O 4 24 20 .833 0 0 63:04
19 2019-11-27 19 25-186 PIT VAN W 4 14 10 .714 0 0 39:01
20 2019-11-30 20 25-189 PIT @ STL L L 5 27 22 .815 0 0 60:00
Rk Date G Age Tm Opp DEC GA SA SV SV% SO PIM TOI
21 2019-12-07 21 25-196 PIT @ DET W W 3 28 25 .893 0 0 59:50
22 2019-12-21 22 25-210 PIT @ VAN L L 4 14 10 .714 0 0 56:06

11 games in a row, sub .900 in 9 of them. Sub .910 in 10 out of 11. That's a horrible stretch of play for any goalie.

With two more games since this post was made, yeah, his numbers look to maybe be on the up, but I don't think saying he was having a disasterous season was out of line when I made the comment.