Ducks Sign GM Bob Murray To A Two-Year Extension

Bob Murray will be sticking around in Anaheim for a few more years as the team announced that they have given their GM a two-year contract extension.  His current deal runs through the 2019-20 season so this ensures that he will be in the fold through the 2021-22 campaign.  Ducks CEO Michael Schulman released the following statement:

“Bob has created a winning organization with his commitment and expertise. We are very pleased to be in a position where expectations are high virtually every season, thanks in large part to Bob and his staff. We passionately share a common goal – bringing another Stanley Cup to Orange County.”

Murray first joined the team in 2005 as their senior vice-president of hockey operations.  In November of 2008, he was promoted to the GM role, taking over from Brian Burke.  Over that span, Anaheim has made the postseason eight out of a possible ten times while he was named GM of the Year back in the 2013-14 season.

The Ducks have done a strong job when it comes to drafting and developing players in Murray’s tenure; nine of their top twelve scorers this season were either drafted by the team or signed as an undrafted free agent so it’s certainly understandable that they’ve decided to keep the person largely responsible for that in the fold.

One area that will need to be addressed in the very near future is their salary cap situation.  Anaheim has nearly $74MM committed for next season already with just 16 players signed.  Even if the salary cap jumps to roughly $83MM as has been speculated, that doesn’t leave them a lot of wiggle room to re-sign pending UFA winger Jakob Silfverberg, re-sign or replace backup goalie Ryan Miller, and add to their team.  With this extension, Murray now knows he has the full backing of the organization to navigate through this and continue to shape their roster.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that the Ducks were working on an extension with Murray.