Penguins' Murray: 'I feel like I haven’t really done anything yet'

Despite winning two Stanley Cups as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Matt Murray humbly believes he has a ways to go before establishing himself as one of the best in the NHL.

"I feel like I haven't really done anything yet," the 23-year-old goalie told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I definitely don't view myself as anything other than a guy who's just trying to prove myself and be the best hockey player I can be.

"A year and a half even though we've won both times? I don't think it really says a whole lot in the long run. I think I have a long way to go, and I feel like I'm just kind of getting started."

Murray was recently listed by the NHL Network as the fourth-best goalie in the league, behind only Carey Price, Braden Holtby, and Sergei Bobrovsky. That reputation is clearly boosted by winning two Cups as a rookie, and deservedly so. At the same time, however, he wants to be known for a long and prosperous reign in the crease, and not as a flash in the pan.

"I don't want to be the answer to a trivia question," Murray said. "I want to have a career like 'Flower' did - the guy who has been so successful for so long."

"Flower" refers to Marc-Andre Fleury, whom Murray bumped from the Penguins' starting job and who was plucked by the Vegas Golden Knights in this summer's expansion draft. Drafted first overall by Pittsburgh in 2003, Fleury appeared in 691 regular-season games for the club, with an additional 115 playoff games to his credit, including a Cup win in 2009.

Murray has indeed been excellent to date, but it's still a relatively small sample size:

He'll enter 2017-18 as the clear No. 1 option in Pittsburgh for years to come, with Antti Niemi serving as backup. As such, he'll have every chance to build on all he's accomplished so far, and thus prove his early success has been no fluke.

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