Confirmed with Link: Avs sign Ryan Murray (One year, $2M)

[Richard88]

Ryan Murray his last two seasons in Columbus:

For comparison here are Devon Toews' metrics for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons before he joined the Avs:

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Here's the one from last year before he got to NJ:

Top pairing value, you say? I would take that.

 

[Foppa2118]

G's issue on the right is that he isn't the greatest straight ahead skater, who is almost always retrieving the puck due to who his partner is, and the extra split second on having to use his backhand to move the puck to the area Bednar's system wants it are three compounding issues that cause him to lose the space and time he normally has on his forehand. That slight bit of extra time allows teams to inflict a lot more punishment on him.

Girard handles the puck and skates circles around everybody every single warmup. He's a wizard with the puck. He's always got it on a string. A spilt second extra to make a play with the puck on his backhand, or to go back hand-forehand, is not going to be a problem for him. Everything else listed here would affect him just the same on the left.

This right side thing with G is over blown. His problem in the Vegas series wasn't that he was playing on the right side. He played on the right side a lot, if not most of the year, and was fine.

The issue with G was Vegas kept hitting him, in part because Graves didn't support him well enough to move the puck to, and all the hits started getting in his head a little bit, so he started making uncharacteristic mistakes under pressure, because he was worried about getting hit.

This would be the same whether he played on the left or the right, because Vegas was targeting him on their dump ins.

 

[Avs_19]

Top pairing value, you say? I would take that.

View attachment 459205

Truth is probably somewhere in the middle. He's not a top pairing guy and he's not as bad as he may have looked with the Devils. That likely makes him a good #4 option and a really good bottom pairing guy next to Byram if that's what they decide to do.

 

[Avs425]

Ryan Murray his last two seasons in Columbus:

View attachment 459200


For comparison here are Devon Toews' metrics for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons before he joined the Avs:

View attachment 459201

 

[S E P H]

Murray was at least as good or even better than Toews during his time in Columbus.

 

[Gumballhead]

I'm into vague comparables and my hope is that Murray is for us what Alec Martinez was for Vegas, albeit with lighter minutes.

 

[Metallo]

If remains healthy and provides 16-17min of reliable 3rd pair play with some good PK2 duty I will be happy.

 

[Hasbro]

We got an NHL player and a 2nd round pick for Graves, and Cole just got a new 2.9M contract. I guess those professional scouts don't watch games?

Can't see why someone would overrate Graves...

 

[Pokecheque]

Girard handles the puck and skates circles around everybody every single warmup. He's a wizard with the puck. He's always got it on a string. A spilt second extra to make a play with the puck on his backhand, or to go back hand-forehand, is not going to be a problem for him. Everything else listed here would affect him just the same on the left.

This right side thing with G is over blown. His problem in the Vegas series wasn't that he was playing on the right side. He played on the right side a lot, if not most of the year, and was fine.

The issue with G was Vegas kept hitting him, in part because Graves didn't support him well enough to move the puck to, and all the hits started getting in his head a little bit, so he started making uncharacteristic mistakes under pressure, because he was worried about getting hit.

This would be the same whether he played on the left or the right, because Vegas was targeting him on their dump ins.

This. The popular notion (obviously shared by the Avs’ coaching staff) is that because Graves is big and he plays physical, that he can withstand a strong forecheck. The exact opposite is true. Loses too many puck battles and can’t really secure it well even when he has the puck on his stick.

Again, get G a better partner and some, not all, of these problems will go away. Hopefully Murray will help in that regard.

 

[Islay1989]

This. The popular notion (obviously shared by the Avs’ coaching staff) is that because Graves is big and he plays physical, that he can withstand a strong forecheck. The exact opposite is true. Loses too many puck battles and can’t really secure it well even when he has the puck on his stick.

Again, get G a better partner and some, not all, of these problems will go away. Hopefully Murray will help in that regard.

And he doesn't play physical at all.

 

[Turbonium]

And he doesn't play physical at all.

Softest big D-man in the league.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

I like that he turned down higher AAV and term offers in order to sign with us.

That’s a very rare thing for somebody to do with the Colorado Avalanche.

 

[Foppa2118]

I like that he turned down higher AAV and term offers in order to sign with us.

That’s a very rare thing for somebody to do with the Colorado Avalanche.

This is part of the next phase of the Avs timeline that I've been referring to for a while, when people say the Avs have a short window. They don't because they've built a legit Cup contender, which good players will inevitability be drawn towards.

Along with being a legit contender, eventually comes a high cap hit, because you inevitably have lots of good players to make you a Cup contender, and eventually they'll start to cost real money. Which under the cap can be a problem.

So you have to take advantage of that status and draw, and compensate for the extra cap space spent, with good veteran UFA's willing to take a little less money, and maybe a little less term, because currently you're one of the best bets at winning a Stanley Cup.

If the Avs are going to be successful the next five years or so, they're going to have to find good team friendly deals like this via UFA most years, to make up for other player they've lost to cap concerns.