Ryan has declined so much that we're now just happy when he makes a single nice play a game.
That's how much we have to dig to find the good in his play. I too can make a spin-o-rama no look pass and a few might connect.
I see several good plays every game (well outside of a few games where he is off, but happens to most players), I find that his passing is great. I watch the games without targeting anybody on the ice though, I notice all good and bad plays, and well everybody makes a ton of both.
Have I ever talked about the enormous bias on this board?
tbh if we weren't a budget team i wouldnt be complaining this much, i guess it's my way of releasing my anger on the budget, instead of complaining directly towards that, im looking at players who are contributing significantly less than they're supposed to(especially relative to $$)
Ryan if he was paid correctly (~5.75) isn't the difference between having another good player on the team or not. This team has played 2 seasons in a row without Clarke MacArthur, a good all-around top-6 forward. To replace him and his ~4.5 salary, Sens are paying ~700 000$ for Wingels
For now, Ryan's money doesn't matter as there is nobody else to sign... Heck, with MacArthur out, the Sens are the 2nd lowest spending team in the NHL and are not even rebuilding anymore.
Yes Ryan is overpaid but the only person that it affects right now is Eugene Melnyk. If the Sens sign a big UFA in the off-season, then it becomes different because money will be needed (assuming they still don't spend to the cap) for next Turris, Stone and Karlsson contracts (but other contracts will be expiring so...)
I agreed with all of it. Ryan does sweet **** all out there on most nights. Not an impact player at all.
Just stop expecting Ryan to be an impact player. He is a top-6 forward. Forget the 7.25 cap hit and act like if he was paid 1.5 less
that statement right there is an oxymoron.
Apart from Okposo who probably has a couple peak years left, I can't think of any recent UFA that was in their prime when they signed a big UFA deal. Teams have reacted to the last CBA which lowered the UFA age by signing their top tier talent to long deals that cover off part of their RFA and part of their UFA years. You just don't see a lot of UFA players available that are in their prime...
I don't see why. I don't know if you have read a lot of my posts but if you know me as a poster, I always base myself on facts. The fact here is we haven't signed any UFA of note outside of Kovalev, Gonchar (both over 35 y/o) and MacArthur (a bit of a reclamation project) in a long time... Teams that are able to sign those valuable UFA have a clear advantage over the others. Just recently :
Alexander Radulov
Artami Panarin
Frans Nielsen
David Backes
Kyle Okposo
Milan Lucic
Eric Staal
David Perron
Andrej Sekera
Alex Goligoski
Keith Yandle
I'm getting very tired of this narrative. Not just from you, it gets repeated over and over on this board. Who are all these prime UFAs that are signing everywhere but Ottawa? The UFA market has been garbage for more than ten years now, almost all of them are overpaid mediocre players.
etc.
UFAs aren't the answer unless it's for a middle player for a couple of years. I see it as not that Ottawa can't attract the "prime" UFAs, they just choose not to get caught up in the nonsense and I'm perfectly fine with that.
See my response above. We had a good UFA signing in Clarke MacArthur but unfortunately he can't help anymore. I am not talking about Steven Stamkos here but if the Sens could sign a guy like Radulov or Stralman, I think it could help the team tremendously. Best teams in the NHL have at least 1 or 2 contracts like that.
The only guys on the actual team that we acquired like that are MacArthur (injured for 2 years), Kelly (had ties with the organization that drafted him) and Tom Pyatt. Just adding Radulov (and we easily have the cap space) :
Hoffman-Turris-Stone
Ryan-Brassard-Radulov
Smith-Pageau-Dzingel
Pyatt-Lazar-Wingels
Kelly/Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson/Boro-Wideman
Anderson/Condon
Boom. Contender
I am not saying sign somebody for the sake of it. I am saying sign a player that will help out
No, he's guilty of not showing up every night. Look at a guy like Mark Stone. He's always doing something out there. Stealing pucks, generating chances, scoring goals, involved in the play. Do you see the same from Ryan?
Did you know he only has 72 shots on goal this year? 72! In 44 games. If you're happy with that, good for you. Your expectations are pretty low I guess.
lol, of course he has less shots than usual, he has played with one hand most of the season...
And yes Mark Stone is much more valuable but I'd say that Mark is borderline elite. Why are we comparing Ryan with elite players? Ryan has a style that hockey fans don't like but he does generate offense as well. Exactly like the pass he made to Hoffman last game. I have been noticing that kind of set ups all season long (except the stretch where he struggled the much with his injury, yes he was less effective)
Bobby Ryan is taking a lot of crap from this fanbase but in reality, the only thing he did is taking advantage of a small market Canadian team ready to overpay for his services instead of letting him walk for nothing to the UFA market. Just read the threads before Ryan signed an extension. People wanted Murray's head if Ryan was not re-signing.
What? Did you guys expected Ryan to sign 5 years for 5 millions a year?
The only problem here is the way you guys can't grasp reality, and therefore have crazy unrealistic expectations. Bobby Ryan is a 6 M$ player. Blame Murray if you want but don't you think Ottawa didn't try to sign him at that amount? I am pretty sure it was "take it or leave it" from Ryan's camp. The NHL is a business and all players are a company in itself.
Now to end this post, from 2013 to 2016 (first 3 seasons with the Sens), Bobby Ryan finished 65th in the league with 9.04 Shots/60 (Hoffman is 18th, Turris is 143rd) among the 802 NHL players who played at least 500 minutes. That also sounds like 1st line forward.