Bobby Ryan: Case of injuries or overrated?

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I'd rather have Ryan. I like the way he took it upon himself to be a leader on his line this year, play physical, backcheck like a beast and be more than a 'one-hit wonder' kind of player.

My only concern is the length of that contract. I really don't like the idea of going over 4 years for anyone in the league. But....someone would've poached him from us as a UFA this summer if we didn't ink him to a sweet deal. I just hope he can survive relatively intact until the end of it.

 

[Benjamin]

And my point was Spezza did much better at that age and Ryan really hasnt been "injured" like he was. So its not a great comparison.

Spezza did better because he was always a better player. The situation is the same. Players can have similar career paths without being as good as each other.

Ryan had a hernia, just like Spezza.

 

[Mr Invidious]

We've all seen this type of thread a billion times.

- Player A is traded for Player B.
- Player A is seen as the better player than young Player B.
- Player A has cold streak while Player B has hot streak.
- HFBoards immediately makes claims that Player B has surpassed Player A entirely.
- Player A gets back into a groove while Player B falls back to Earth.
- HFBoards immediately turns... again.

You do you, guys. I just laugh it off when I read someone say that we "lost" the Ryan trade. Why? Silfverberg had a good playoffs and decent season? Okay, good for him. Let's see where he goes from here. It's insane how everyone feels the need to try and grade a winner and a loser immediately.

If Ryan goes and puts up 35G and 70P this season, while Silf puts up 40P, we'll be back to square one and that isn't the most unlikely thing.

 

[THall4]

The guy is signed until the age of 34 (6 more years) at 7.25m/year. I loved him in Anaheim, but it seemed like he started to decline then they got rid of him at the right time. Unfortunately for him, the decline didn't stop and on top of that he was injured (i.e. hernia) and he's already built up a reputation of not showing up when it matters in Ottawa. Every time I hear about his poor performances it's followed by his recent injuries, almost as an excuse...ive seen him play, he's good when he wants to be, but I don't think it's the injuries that cause him to not show up. I think it's a mix of some bad features (skating notably) and high expectations set by his salary that cause all that.

So is it the injuries? Did Anaheim make him look better than he is? Would your team have signed him at his current contract assuming he was a free agent?

I think, like Kessel ...he is not a player you build your team around but more so is a secondary piece...much like he was in Anahiem where he could hide behind Getzlaf, Perry and Selanne. In Ottawa, hes not hiding behind anyone..

OR maybe its that #6 hes wearing..for a FWD its a cursed # ...he should change it.

 

[Benjamin]

Ryan is behind Stone and Karlsson. Tied with Turris and Hoffman.

 

[Micklebot]

Age 26 - 73 points, 82 GP
Age 27 - 57 points, 60 GP
Age 28 - 57 points, 62 GP

Age 26 - 30 points, 48 GP
Age 27 - 48 points, 70 GP
Age 28 - 54 points, 78 GP

One is Jason Spezza, one os Bobby Ryan. Its pretty obvious Ryan's success was mainly due to Getz/Perry. You can't really use the injury card here either, Spezza missed 1/4 of the season at 27 and 28 yet still managed almost a PPG. Ryan is overrated and had so much value because of his numvbers playing with a top 10 centre and top 10/15 winger.

I've always found it interesting that Anaheim fans would say Ryan was moved in part because he couldn't find chemistry with Perry and Getzlaf, and then we'd hear people attribute his success on playing with Perry and Getzlaf.

Truth is, Ryan was producing away from those two as much as he was with them

In his 5267 5v5 mins in Anaheim, roughly half were with one of Getz or Perry (about 2240 with both). When Ryan was with Perry, he was scoring 2.12 pts per 60 mins away from Perry he scored 2.24 per 60. When he was with Getzlaf he was scoring 2.11 pts per 60 mins, away 2.24/60.

Now, you can certainly argue that Perry and Getz drew away the top defenders, and that would be fair, but to suggest his offense was some sort of mirage seems to lack supporting data.

Now that Ryan is in Ottawa, he's produced at about a 56 pts clip with a couple nagging injuries that he played through. I have no doubt in my mind that a healhy Ryan is probably putting up 60+ pts per 82 games, and might have hit 30 goals in one of the two seasons (he was on pace for 27 the first year, and it's certainly reasonable that he could have notched 3 goals more than his pace without a hernia), which is pretty much exactly what Ottawa was expecting from a healthy Ryan when we traded for him. Add to that, he's show far better two way play than expected and that's why Ottawa fans for the most part are happy with him.