The Edmonton Oilers have signed defenseman Ryan Murray to a one-year, $750K contract, adding some depth to their group.
Murray, 28, is coming off a year spent with the Colorado Avalanche, one which resulted in a Stanley Cup championship–though he had little to do with it. The veteran defenseman didn’t play a single game in the playoffs for Colorado and suited up just 37 times during the regular season, recording four assists.
Interestingly enough, Edmonton fans will certainly be plenty familiar with the player, given his connection to one of the most infamous draft misses in team history. In 2012, the Oilers decided to pass on Murray, one of a huge number of defensemen that were ranked highly, and select Nail Yakupov first overall. The Columbus Blue Jackets would nab Murray next–a move that still might be considered a mistake, after so many others from the first round went on to star in the NHL.
It’s never been quite that level for Murray, who simply couldn’t stay healthy through the early part of his career and lost important development time because of it. Even in his post-draft year of 2012-13, he played only 23 games for the Everett Silvertips, a trend that would continue as he transitioned into the NHL.
Now a decade after being drafted, Murray has played in only 432 regular season games at the highest level, despite seeing just a single AHL contest in his entire career. At times it has seemed like he is on the injured list more than he’s on the ice, something that he’ll try to change as he heads back to Canada for the first time in his career.
The Regina, Saskatchewan native is an interesting addition for the Oilers, who already project to have a pretty full blue line for the upcoming season. There’s absolutely no risk with a league minimum deal like this one, though it will put a little more pressure on a young player like Philip Broberg to perform, given he is still waiver exempt.
And people laughed when Burke said after that draft that they would have taken Rielly first overall. Looks pretty reasonable now, although Vasilevskiy would have been a nice pick too. Hindsight is always 20-20!
Rielly is very good but anyone who would now pick him over Vasy is insane.
#2 overall and he wasn’t even the best Murray in that draft.
Also, has any team ever had so many top 5 overall D men (as last year’s Avs)?
Rem Murray was #2 overall. Jack Johnson was a #3. Cale Makar and Bowen Byrum were #4’s. Erik Johnson was a top pick.
Rem Murray was actually a 6th rounder, lol. (Typo, I know)
Huh, yeah…where the hell did I pull Rem Murray from…
Dude’s name is literally printed above me…
Oh well.
Wait
There’s a picture of him holding the cup above his head, on the ice, in a game jersey
Yet he doesn’t get his name on the cup?
Anyone think that’s a bit odd?
He can get his name on the cup with a certain amount of regular season games played and if the Av’s feel he is one of the top 50 or something members of the organization. Otherwise it could go to a video coaches assistant or someone else they feel helped influence the team more.