Anaheim Ducks: General Manager Bob Murray’s Big Disconnect
By Ed Stein
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.