Confirmed Signing with Link: [COL] Ryan Murray signs with the Avalanche (1 year, $2M)

[not a troll]

Good signing...

Great off season for the Av's.....Grubauer wasn't the guy to get them over the hump in the playoffs.....He had plenty of chances and didn't do it......Definitely better off taking your chances with Kuemper....And Murray just has to stay healthy and he will make the defense deeper....

A+ off season for the Av's ....The addressed exactly what they needed to....

That bottom six sucks.

 

[Avaholic29]

That bottom six sucks.

Bottom 6 is fine, would’ve liked it to get bigger but a full year of Nichushkin and Jost and having O’Connor with maltsev on the 4th adds a different element too. Guess we will see what the pro scouts crafted up here.

 

[serp]

Competition between EJ and Murray gets injured less.

He had a bad year on the Devils but who didn't last year ?

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Mo at 5 was nice

Yeah, Rielly, Lindholm, Dumba were all great picks.

Overall the draft class was weak but it was a good one for cup winning goalies in Vas and Murray.

 

[biturbo19]

Nice cheap deal. Obviously plenty of other teams that would’ve taken him at $2m for a year, but he pretty clearly picked his spot. And Colorado seems like a good place for him to potentially fill in some minutes and try to rehabilitate some of his reputation and value to cash in next year. While winning some games and chasing a cup in the meantime.

He’s a tough player to value though. Reliability and dependability is a pretty nice quality to have in your #4/5 swing guy who can move up when injuries happen. But he doesn’t have it, and is more likely than not, to actually be the injury himself. But when he’s healthy and playing...he seems more than capable of that role.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Great signing for Avs

 

[Vasilevskiy]

In what world is Darcy Kuemper an upgrade over Grubauer???

And Helm over Donskoi lol

 

[Tralfamadore]

And Helm over Donskoi lol

Helm will very likely play on the 4th line. Donskoi never played on the 4th line for the Avs. How exactly is Helm replacing Donskoi? That poster is wrong.

Realistically, I think Joe is hoping Newhook has developed a bit and can replace some of Donskoi's production. I'm skeptical though. If he can get to 30 points and 10+ goals it won't be too much of a loss.

 

[tucker3434]

In what world is Darcy Kuemper an upgrade over Grubauer???

Two years ago in the playoffs EVERYONE told us that. Does the narrative flip now that he's an Av?

 

[Mersss]

Two years ago in the playoffs EVERYONE told us that. Does the narrative flip now that he's an Av?

That was 2 years ago...
Grub progressed, while the other one didn't

 

[Islay1989]

Two years ago in the playoffs EVERYONE told us that. Does the narrative flip now that he's an Av?

Grubauer sucked, we were never gonna win with him and was a product of the team until he got picked by Seattle, Kuemper was gonna stonewall us in the playoffs and was a top goalie until we traded for him.

 

[BKarchitect]

I was questioning whether Kuemper would be an upgrade over Grubauer but now that Mersss has chimed in - I know Kuemper will be better!

 

[Jeff Whelbourn]

That was 2 years ago...
Grub progressed, while the other one didn't

Gruabuer also benefitted from an amazing defensive team last year, least amount of shots and scoring chances against

 

[Jeff Whelbourn]

In what world is Darcy Kuemper an upgrade over Grubauer???

Grubauer was a solid goalie last year, he also has injury problems of his own, he benefited greatly from the avs ability to limit shots and defensive zone time.. kuemper was a solid goalie in every year but last year, he quite possibly will benefit from the same avs defensive style grubauer had... not to mention kuepmer had a much better world championship than his regular season

 

[Grigowski]

Grub progressed, while the other one didn't

2 years ago Grubauer went down in the playoffs alongsinde his Backup. The rest is history.

Last season Grubauer played behind the presidents trophy winning team which Defense was Top 5 in the league. And yet in the playoffs he did "nothing".

Kuemper, well, he played behind the Arizona Coyotes.

We shall see Grubauer playing on that "team" in Seattle (and dont fool yourself, they will be bad for at least a few years down the road. This ain´t no Vegas-Startup) and Kuemper behind one of the best D-Lines in the NHL.

I think Grubauer´s progression is covered by playing behind that AVS-team last season. This coverage will be gone in Seattle.

My biggest concern with Kuemper is not his talent! The question will be: Can he stay healthy. And thats also the question for his Backup.

 

[tucker3434]

That was 2 years ago...
Grub progressed, while the other one didn't

I like Gru a lot. I think he’s great. But the Avs lead xGA by 7 goals this year. Maybe, just maybe, that had a little to do with his pop in numbers.

 

[mj2sexay]

Solid signing for their bottom pair.

 

[goonybird]

He played 48 of 56 for a lousy Jersey team.

Second most games played in his career i think. Granted he was a healthy scratch for a bunch of those lousy Jersey team's games he missed

 

[TGWL]

Get out of the Graves contract and add Murray for 1 year and 2 million. Not bad, Joe. Not bad.

 

[missionAvs]

I think that the end game is for Sleepy Joe and the Avs medical crew to piece together an amazing top 4 dman out of the remains of EJ and Murray once they both blow up during training camp.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

I remember that comparison.
Is the first 4 picks in that 2012 draft the worst Top4 in NHL history ?

Nail: bust
Murray: depth Dman
Galchenyuk: declined in his mid 20s and not far from being out of the league.
Reinhart: bust.

Depth defenseman? Says more about your evaluation skills than it does his play.

 

[Voight]

 

[Mersss]

2 years ago Grubauer went down in the playoffs alongsinde his Backup. The rest is history.

Last season Grubauer played behind the presidents trophy winning team which Defense was Top 5 in the league. And yet in the playoffs he did "nothing".

Kuemper, well, he played behind the Arizona Coyotes.

We shall see Grubauer playing on that "team" in Seattle (and dont fool yourself, they will be bad for at least a few years down the road. This ain´t no Vegas-Startup) and Kuemper behind one of the best D-Lines in the NHL.

I think Grubauer´s progression is covered by playing behind that AVS-team last season. This coverage will be gone in Seattle.

My biggest concern with Kuemper is not his talent! The question will be: Can he stay healthy. And thats also the question for his Backup.

Agreed, but again, one goalie has played and significant amount of game, and progressed, albeir behind a great team

 

[the_fan]

In what world is Darcy Kuemper an upgrade over Grubauer???

The last 3 years their numbers are similar and Kuemper actually has better save% playing in Arizona while Grubauer playing for a contender. The only concern is Kuemper staying healthy. And when I say last 3 years I mean combined stats. Obviously last year Grubauer had a career year being a vezina finalist, but it was a 56 game season where he played 40 games or something

 

[Richard88]

I don’t agree with the idea that Murray gave up, or even that he played his best hockey in the beginning of the year.

He was first paired with Subban and that was actually the worst pairing for Murray all season. Subban got better when Murray was out when he got paired paired with Kulikov. Murray was healthy scratched in late February because Kulikov had taken his spot on the top pair.

After getting back in Murray did better 5v5 first with Vatanen and then with Severson. Murray and Severson were the top pair at the end of the season, he averaged ~21 minutes in the last 10 games.

He didn’t even have the worst numbers of the penalty-killing defensemen with heavy PK minutes, Subban was the worst and Severson was close behind him. (Murray’s PK numbers are real bad though, because **gestures at the Lovecraftian cosmic horror that masqueraded as the NJ Devils’ PK last year**)

He had tough stretches and he missed time with a mystery non-COVID “illness” that was never specified. I have no idea if his back had an “illness” or something else was going on though.

Clearly Murray was hoping for a bigger deal, didn’t get a decent offer with term from anyone and took a short term deal with the best team offering him one. He probably could have gotten more money elsewhere but his possession numbers will no doubt thank him for his choice here and if he’s healthy and looks good in playoffs he’ll increase his chances of getting more next time around.

I took a look at his metrics and it does seem that he had a very up-and-down year.

He started off on the top 2 pairings, then fell off hard in the middle of the year, before a resurgence of sorts in April where he got more icetime.

Looking at his gamelog and Corsi below it does seem like he started off strong, with 6 of his first 7 games being 50% or above.

He then had a stretch of 16 games with only 4 over 50%, followed by a stretch of 18 games with 9 over 50%, and then closed out the season with 1 of 7 games over 50%.

Based on these basic metrics that he had a very strong start, lost icetime in early February-late March for performing poorly, then had a resurgence of sorts in April, before flatlining a bit in the last few games.