I know my "intelligence" is going to be questioned again because I'm using stats to defend Ryan, but still going for it!
Really tho? If Ryan continues this play all season (doubtful but you never know) and plays well next season I could see a contender take a chance next deadline if Ottawa retains.
Phaneuf is a 7 mill bottom pair D, Ryan is a 7 mill pp specialist who is playing like a decent 2nd liner atm.
Also as we all know too well, leading the team in hits doesnt make you a good defenseman...
98th most points among NHL forwards since joining the Sens in 2013-14 (86th most Even Strength points), 228 points total, 54 pts came on the PP, which is
23.68%
Let's compare with other players :
Sens/ex Sens :
Mark Stone : 62/269 = 23.05%
Kyle Turris : 79/272 = 29.04%
Derick Brassard : 72/253 = 28.46%
Mike Hoffman : 72/245 = 29.39%
Nick Foligno : 72/244 = 29.51%
Mika Zibanejad : 70/229 = 30.57%
Matt Duchene : 64/303 = 21.12%
Jason Spezza : 106/278 = 38.13%
Random forwards :
Sidney Crosby : 162/470 = 34.47%
Patrick Kane : 135/427 = 31.62%
Claude Giroux : 175/408 = 42.89%
Alex Ovechkin : 164/407 = 40.29%
Nicklas Backstrom : 179/404 = 44.31%
Wayne Simmonds : 114/280 = 40.71%
Patric Hornqvist : 87/255 = 34.12%
Alex Galchenyuk : 81/236 = 34.32%
James Neal : 66/245 = 26.94%
Radim Vrbata : 72/210 = 34.29%
18-20% of goals are scored on the PP since 2013-14, and most of the time for each goals, 3 points are recorded... so yeah I don't think Ryan has been anything close to a PP specialist. Only this year so far he has 6 PPPs on 12 points total.
Yeah that's not true at all. You actually believe if Ottawa retained 50%, that he wouldn't have value at 3.625?
There's plenty of teams who don't seem to have a lot of scoring depth after their 3-4 big forwards. If we really wanted to trade Ryan, a combination of salary retaining and taking back a smaller bad contract would do it. Or pretty sure the Islanders would love to trade Ryan (3 years left, 22.5 M$ owed) for Ladd (4 years left, 19 M$ owed), or the Oilers Lucic (4 years left, 19 M$ owed) for Ryan, just to name a few examples. Doubt the Sens would be interested though. There's plenty of worse contracts than Ryan, who can still give you good runs of play or amazing playoffs, even if overpaid.
Well once JGP is back and in game mode, where do we slot him in the lineup?
One of Tierney or Pageau has to center the 4th line.. or
Tierney - Pageau - Ryan ?
Boedker - Smith - Pyatt
Assuming Batherson succeeds and stays in the line-up
Ryan-Duchene-Batherson
Tkachuk-White-Stone
Dzingel-Tierney-Boedker
Smith-Pageau-Paul
Paajarvi
Or you can switch Ryan and Dzingel
Thank you Pyatt and McCormick, your services are not needed anymore (AHL until traded, waived or just let go?)
Really like that forward group, easily playoff caliber. If only defense and goaltending could get better.
He looked like a legit star in the first half of his first season here prior to getting hurt and eventually getting shut down. Don't quote me on this, but I think he was playing at a 35-40 goal/70 point pace.
I'm not saying he lived up to his extension early on, but it wasn't really until the hand injuries of the previous two seasons that he really became an albatross.
All I want to see this season from him is a strong 82 games where he doesn't get hurt and doesn't drop off during the second half. I am not even all that concerned about production since that's never really been the issue since we all accepted he isn't going to produce like he did as a Duck. The issue is that the guy has had 50 point paces, bit because he gets hurt so much he is really only good for 25-35 points.
I did that work so just a copy/paste :
2013-14 :
To start the season : 42 GP, 18 Goals, 18 Assists, 36 Points, +10 (0.86 PPG = 70 pts per 82 games)
Rest of the way : 28 GP, 5 Goals, 7 Assists, 12 Points, -3 (then shutdown for the rest of the season, after hernia)
2014-15 :
To start the season : 60 GP, 17 Goals, 32 Assists, 49 Points, +9 (0.82 PPG = 67 pts per 82 games)
Rest of the way (2 injuries that season) : 18 GP, 1 Goals, 4 Assists, 5 Points, -4
2015-16 :
To start the season : 52 GP, 19 Goals, 26 Assists, 45 Points, -1 (0.87 PPG = 71 pts per 82 games)
Rest of the way (2 injuries that season) : 29 GP, 3 Goals, 8 Assists, 11 Points, -8
2016-17 :
To start the season : 8 GP, 3 Goals, 2 Assists, 5 Points, +1
Rest of the way (5 injuries that season) : 54 GP, 10 Goals, 10 Assists, 20 Points, -4
Yeah, it was not only in his first season, first 60 games of 2014-15 and first 52 games of 2015-16 were very good too, if not better.
I would say he "lived up" to his contract in the 1st year based on salary
2013-14 : $5,562,500
2014-15 : $5,562,500
2015-16 : $6,500,000 (new contract)
2016-17 : $7,250,000
2017-18 : $7,500,000, etc
7.25 in 2016-17 was heavy but even if he had a poor season, he earned his money with monster playoffs.
Finally, concerning the "we all accepted he isn't going to produce like he did as a Duck", it depends how you saw this because he produced similarly in his last 2 years there :
2011-12 : 82 Games, 0.70 PPG
2012-13 : 46 Games, 0.65 PPG