Anaheim Ducks: General Manager Bob Murray’s Big Disconnect
Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray has recently said several times that changes need to happen for the team to be competitive. So far he hasn’t backed his words with meaningful actions.
Over the last six months, Anaheim Ducks General Manager Bob Murray has publicly voiced his displeasure about the product on the ice. He has called out team leadership, canned an assistant coach, and made several promises.
So far what he said has to happen for the Ducks to compete and what he’s done to back it up are at odds with each other. He wants to make changes to the team but hasn’t done much of anything that resembles substantial.
This is the disconnect. Murray is saying a whole lot in public, but there is almost no action behind his words. I’ll demonstrate this by using his own statements and what has followed since.
February 14, 2018
We’re not in. We’re not out. We’re just there. I can’t see, unless something drastic happens in the next two weeks or they play a lot better than we’ve been playing, I don’t see much happening. It’s not as if it’s one of these teams where I feel like, last year when we went out and got (Patrick) Eaves, where I had lots of confidence. I’m still kind of waiting for them to show me something and they’re not. We’re very inconsistent. We’re very up and down. – Bob Murray to the Atlantic
I won’t even get into the whole sacrificing young assets debate. Clearly, Murray was disgruntled with the Ducks performance two weeks before the trade deadline. He was right, they were inconsistent and didn’t show much of anything to anyone. Injuries had ravaged the team all season, but too many mistakes and mental errors had condemned Anaheim to mediocrity.
The Anaheim Ducks were at a crossroads, do they make a run to the playoffs by adding rentals to the mix? Or, do they play it cool and stand pat (selling wasn’t an option)? Murray did a little of both. He brought in Jason Chimera from the Islanders and signed free agent Chris Kelley.
He said he didn’t see much happening (trade-wise). However, he did nothing to change the team’s path either. If Murray was that upset with the Anaheim Ducks uneven play, then he needed to make an impact to the roster. Instead, he added two over the hill fourth line players. Nothing was done to improve the team.
April 21, 2018
“We have to play faster, and that’s a team thing,” he said. “Some teams have started to play faster, and they look faster. We have a couple guys that, let’s face it, were never great skaters. How do we improve that? We have to watch how some of these other teams play. New Jersey did a great job of it. We’re well aware of that. We know we have to make some changes.” Bob Murray to NHL.com
Those were part of Murray’s comments after the Anaheim Ducks were eliminated from the NHL playoffs in the first round by San Jose. He admitted there were players on the team who weren’t good skaters. Murray didn’t single anyone out but said as a whole, the Ducks couldn’t keep up with the pace. His statements appear to be a call to action.
If the Ducks need to go faster, Murray has two options. Option one, Anaheim could bring up some of the kids with better speed that they have in the AHL. Kalle Kossila is fast, Andy Welinski can move, and Kevin Roy sets the ice on fire. All three have had brief auditions with the team, everyone has seen they can keep up with the pace of play. There is also recently signed college player Troy Terry. Terry is a good skater and can score.
Option two, either sign free agents who can skate, or make a trade. Here we are two months later and the only trade Murray made was sending Nic Kerdiles to the Winnipeg organization in exchange for Chase De Leo, a career minor leaguer. More about free agent signings later on.
June 23, 2018
“Yes, I’d like to make some change,” Murray said. “It wouldn’t be bad to have some change. But it’s turning out to be harder than I thought.” Bob Murray to the Atlantic
Again he said changes are needed. Let’s break that down for a minute. The Ducks’ top four defensemen, Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, and Brandon Montour are all good skaters. They certainly can be upgraded, but are good enough to compete now and will get better as time goes by.
That brings us to the forwards. The Anaheim Ducks ended the season with this top nine:
First Line – Rickard Rakell-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Line 2a – Nick Ritchie-Adam Henrique-Ondrej Kase
Line 2b – Andrew Cogliano-Ryan Kesler–Jakob Silfverberg
Kesler gets a pass due to his hip injury. Cogliano, Silfverberg, Kase, and Rakell can keep up with just about anyone. Adam Henrique is good for what he is, a second/third line center. Finally, Getzlaf may not be the same physically as he was a few years ago, but he still moves well and uses his experience to defend against top players.
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That leaves Perry and Ritchie. If the goal is to be a faster team, these are the two causing traffic to bottleneck. No one ever accused Perry of being fast, to begin with, and at age 33, he is slowing down even further. His scoring prowess offset his other deficiencies, earlier in his career. Now that Perry is a 50ish point per year player, his lack of speed is hurting the Ducks more than his scoring helps them.
Unfortunately, Perry has a near untradeable $8.625M cap hit. For the same reasons his results making him expendable, other teams won’t take on his cap burden. Murray would have to eat a chunk of Perry’s salary in a trade or get someone else’s headache in return. Maybe this is what Murray was referring to when he said making trades is more difficult than he thought.
Nick Ritchie has been thoroughly criticized all over Ducks Nation, including here. Going back to Murray’s statements of getting faster and making changes, this is the most obvious. His lack of speed is only exceeded by his penchant for taking penalties. Want to go faster? A second line left wing that can skate is a good start.
Further Lack of Action
Perry and Ritchie aren’t the only reason why the Ducks struggled last season. They are, however, impediments to what Murray says the fix is. They need faster players than what they have now.
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So what changes did Murray make? He signed a sixth and seventh defenseman as well as two fourth line players. Adding Andrej Sustr and Luke Schenn to the defense corps is a good idea and doesn’t cost the Ducks too much salary money.
How in the blue Hades does adding Carter Rowney and Brian Gibbons to the forward mix constitute a change? They are fourth line players and unless someone has a bigger role for them on this team, which they haven’t shown they deserve, the two will average under 10 minutes per night.
I’ll give Murray that both players are fast. Neither will play anywhere near the minutes the top nine players get. That isn’t changing, that’s rearranging the patio furniture outside the house.
I absolutely hate throwing Murray’s comments back at him. It’s a bit unfair, but at the same time, the man in charge has to be held to his word. So far nothing substantial has happened.
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What can he do? Start with moving Ritchie and fill his slot with someone faster. Then if it takes, moving a top prospect along with Perry to get someone who produces close to the same offense as he does, but is much faster. Make another trade.