How did his moves blow up exactly? Ryan O'Rielly, Evander Kane and Lehner are all doing incredibly well.
Yeah, in new cities, after significant issues in Buffalo.
Lehner... I think that's well documented enough that we don't have to really re-hash that, but I think it's obvious how disastrous that trade was for Murray, and the fact that it took Lehner hittng rock bottom after LITERAL ACTUAL SUICIDAL TENDENCIES to turn his career around is enough of a condemnation of the toxic atmosphere Murray cultivated in Buffalo to have this be a major strike against him.
Kane was a mess in Buffalo off the ice, a continuation from his Winnipeg days. It took a team who allowed him to just be a secondary piece and a leadership group strong enough in San Jose for him to really flourish as a complimentary guy. His Buffalo tenure was an injury-plagued disaster spotted with off-ice legal issues, coahcability issues (had a couple of team-issued suspensions as a result), and he never was anything close to what the Sabres thought they were getting, nor worth the assets they spent to acquire him.
O'Reilly... well, yeah. O'Reilly was good. That was a good trade. 1-out-of-3 for the trio of players, though.
All things equal, you can't
possibly think the Kane and Lehner moves didn't blow up in his face, right? Lehner had to almost die for his revival, and his fall was significantly made worse by the Sabres organization. He overpaid for Kane, who wasn't who they thought he was.
AND ON TOP OF ALL THIS, Murray's achilles heel is in FULL view with these deals - a
fundamental lack of awareness about how off-ice factors can affect a team. I've said it since he left - Murray does not understand why psychology and attitude and the mental side of the game is important in team sports. He just flat out doesn't. He has a great eye for raw skill, but he's utterly hopeless at building a
team. All of his Buffalo acquisitions hilighted this to a tee. He built an environment so toxic that it couldn't possibly succeed. He handed the keys of the team to players who were absolutely not suited for that role.
Anyways, I've always been willing to give credit to T-Murr for his ability to find skilled players. He's real good at that. The rest of his skillset is borderline
detrimental to a hockey team though, IMO.