The Blue Jackets have locked up one of their remaining restricted free agents, announcing that defenseman Ryan Murray has accepted his qualifying offer. That means he will make $2.825MM for the 2018-19 season. GM Jarmo Kekalainen had the following statement about the signing:
“Ryan is a talented, young defenseman with terrific puck-moving abilities. He has battled some injuries early in his career, but we believe he has overcome those and will be an important part of our blueline this season.”
As Kekalainen alluded to, injuries were once again a concern for the often banged up blueliner as he missed nearly half of last season with a back injury. As a result, he played in just 44 games (his fewest since 2014-15) and picked up a dozen points (1-11-12) while averaging 18:26 per night. He was called on to play more in the postseason as his ATOI jumped to 21:32 per game.
While Murray hasn’t lived up to his draft billing (he was the second-overall pick in 2012), he has been a capable fourth or fifth defender thus far in his career. There’s a decent chance he will be asked to take on a bit larger of a role next season following the departures of Jack Johnson (Penguins) and Ian Cole (Avalanche) in free agency.
His back injury likely played a big role in Murray’s decision to simply take the qualifying offer as he didn’t have a ton of leverage for a raise, something that may have helped him decide to not file for arbitration as well. He will once again be a restricted free agent next summer with arbitration rights.
The Blue Jackets now have a little more than $8MM in remaining cap space per CapFriendly with only winger Oliver Bjorkstrand in need of a new contract. The first-time RFA will see his $735K qualifying offer expire at 4 PM CST tomorrow and he does not have any arbitration rights.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I really wonder what Ryan Murray could have become had he avoided the crazy amount of injuries that have plagued his career. I guess it’s never too late to break out but injuries really do limit your potential.
Now time to pay sergai and werenski to prove to panarin that this is his best chance for success
Also if he “must” be traded should do a sign and trade and have other team pay most of the contract to maximize return by having the other team see him as much more than a rental