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Bruce Garrioch's
column on Friday for the Ottawa Sun featured a collection of notes stating the obvious on highly-touted prospect Mika Zibanejad -- he's expected to stay in North America for next season, be it with the Ottawa Senators or the AHL affiliate in Binghamton.
In the middle, though, Garrioch -- as he's wont to do -- peppered in a few explosive quotes from Assistant General Manger Tim Murray and his disdain for Djurgardens, formerly of the Swedish Elite League, now related to minor-league Allsvenskan. No punches were pulled. (
h/t SSS)
“That’s the plan (to keep him here). The only chance he has of playing games if he doesn’t make the NHL is to be (in Binghamton),” Murray said Friday. “He’s not going to play any games if he’s over there (in Sweden). He knows that as well.
“He belongs to Djurgarden. They’re not playing in the Elite League (next season). They got demoted. They were a bad team last year. I just think that whether it’s Ottawa or Binghamton, they’re both better options for him.”
Well, that's not too bad. Murray's simply stating the obvious; the organization doesn't want to waste another year developing Mika Zibanejad with a team that's pretty poor right now in quality.
Continuing on..
“Nothing is ever a waste of time so it wasn’t a waste of time, but it was close to that I guess,” said Murray. “They weren’t very good. I assume the management and coaching staff have to take some responsibility for that. The players suffer.
“Unless you’re there every day you don’t know, but I can say there were times they didn’t (put him in the role they promised). Consistently, they didn’t. There were probably times we didn’t see them play that they did. Overall, no, it wasn’t a great experience, that’s for sure.”
Here's where the shit hits the fan. Murray -- in few words --
pretty much called Mika Zibanejad's previous season a waste of time, then throws some absolute darts in the direction of the front office and coaching staff for their laughably poor performance last year, exalting all of the blame of an eleventh-place finish and subsequent relegation on their shoulders.
I don't think it's unfair to assume that there's a bit more to this story, too. Murray can tear down Djurgardens like the Berlin Wall, but I imagine some of the reason why he's so infuriated concerns Mika Zibanejad's rather pedestrian 5G/8A -- 26 GP split. Oh, and two concussions. Djurgardens may have been a terrible hockey team, but how much of the blame can be fairly allocated on the organization, and how much of it should rest on the shoulders of Mika Zibanejad?
The last nugget is another point that really should be pressed by the local beats in Ottawa. Again, there's far more here than Tim Murray is fronting. What kind of role did Djurgardens promise Mika Zibanejad, and have the two sides had a serious falling out since Zibanejad left the organization for North America? If they hadn't already, I'd imagine that Murray's scathing indictment of player development over there should wane on the relationship between both parties.
At any rate, Mika Zibanejad's coming over, and I'm guessing that the Ottawa Senators are going to be a bit more hesitant in their allowance of young Swedish players to hang around Djurgardens in the short-term. Considering Tim Murray is
probably the odds-on favorite to replace Bryan Murray in the GM position for the Ottawa Senators, so it'll be interesting to see if there are any long-term ramifications here concerning player development.
In fairness to Djurgardens and the SEL in general, I remain a bit skeptical that this wasn't an isolated incident. The SEL has producing quality talent for years now, and these inflammatory remarks from Tim Murray don't necessarily correlate with the status quo, so to speak. More likely than not, Mika Zibanejad's ugly 2011-2012 with Djurgardens is an exception rather than the rule.
More on this as it comes. Think anyone will try and extract more from Tim Murray on this one? I sure hope so.
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