On the evening before the beginning of free agency for the National Hockey League, the New Jersey Devils made a move that is low risk and high reward as the team swung a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets to obtain defenseman Ryan Murray for a 2021 fifth-round draft choice.
The Blue Jackets are expected to be players in the free agency rush, have been connected to Taylor Hall among others and needed to create cap space and Murray's contract was an easy way to do so with the Devils, who ranked at the top of the league with available cap space.
Murray recently turned 27 and has one year remaining on a contract which will pay him 4.6 million next season before unrestricted free agency.
Murray was the second player selected in the 2012 draft by Columbus and scored two goals with seven assists in twenty-seven games last season.
And there seems to be the problem with Murray- he just hasn't been able to stay healthy as he hasn't played close to a full season in the four recent season, playing 60, 44, 56,and 27 games.
Murray's career has been plagued with back issues as Aaron Portzline of the Athletic wrote back (no pun intended in March) and as Portzline stated, this will be something that Murray will have to deal with for the rest of his career.
Murray's numbers are fine for a pass-first defenseman and when he plays a full season, he's generally good for decent numbers of assists, finishing with 28 in 2018-19 in 56 games.
He's not a guy that is going to score a lot of goals from the blueline and his career high is a measly four in 2015-16.
All and all, it's a shot in the dark.
Murray's likely a bit overpaid as Columbus signed him to his contract before his back problems began to hinder him, but it's only for one year and even with the addition of Murray the Devils still have millions to spend before they reach the salary cap floor.
The trade doesn't even take the Devils out of the 2021 fifth round, as the team owns Buffalo's pick in that round.
If Murray's healthy, he's a good fit on the penalty kill and can be solid on the second pairing of defensemen.
Murray's upside is he plays well, stays healthy, and gives the Devils the option of trying to re-sign him or even more likely, he plays well and the Devils might receive something for him around the trade deadline that would be more valuable than the fifth rounder that they gave away for him.
The downside is next to nil- Murray gets hurt, the Devils still lack a veteran defenseman for a season at worst, and a team that had plenty of cap space spent some of their room to reach their floor on a player that cost next to nothing.
I'm fine with it, although my expectations are reasonable.
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