For me, aside from small sample size of Biega, I won't base who's the better defenseman today based on what happened last year. These guys will fight it out in camp to determine who's better. They are both at an age still where a lot of development can happen from one season to the next. Even just from the end of last season to the beginning of this coming season any number of factors such as training, maturing, studying the game harder, and I'm sure other things could see either of these guys take their game to another level from where it has been so far. We won't know until they get some game action under their belts starting in preseason. Murphy being a bit younger may be even more likely to have that light come on in a big leap starting in camp and moving forward.
As for where they were at the end of last season, Biega was pretty forgettable to me, but not necessarily in a bad way. I do personally think that with some of the improvement Murphy had made both offensively and defensively by the end of the year, I'd have him higher on the depth chart, but like I said, that doesn't mean much come camp and preseason. I could certainly see a scenario where both are up and rotate in and out based on style of play and match ups. With as weak as our forwards are currently, might not even be a bad idea to throw 7 dmen out occasionally. Still think both could have a future with us, which is nice to see.
