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Murray's mark on Detroit should not be forgotten |
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In the grand scheme of things, perhaps Bryan Murray will be most remembered in Detroit for failure.
When Toronto's Nikolai Borschevsky scored in overtime to eliminate the Red Wings in the first round of the 1993 playoffs, Wings coach/general manager Murray was replaced behind the bench by Scotty Bowman.
A year later, when the San Jose Sharks engineered a stunning upset of Detroit in the opening playoff round, Murray was handed his walking papers as GM.
Still, it the contribution of Murray, who died of colon cancer Saturday at the age of 74, to Detroit’s 1996-97 and 1997-98 Stanley Cup triumphs, should not be downplayed or forgotten.
“In my last year, I felt we were on the verge of becoming a championship-calibre team and that proved true,” Murray once said. “When I left [Detroit], I felt very good about that.”
Although he wasn't around for Detroit's Stanley Cup glory, Murray's fingerprints were all over that silver mug.
During Murray's Detroit tenure, Nicklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Sergei Fedorov and Slava Kozlov made their NHL debuts. He acquired Kris Draper. His drafts produced Martin Lapointe, Chris Osgood and Darren McCarty.
Murray took pride in the role he played in Detroit's development as an NHL powerhouse.
“Whoever's involved [in building a championship team] should feel some sense of accomplishment,” Murray would say. “I felt that we did a lot of the right things, brought in some good kids.”
Murray rebuilt teams wherever he stopped on the NHL trail. He was the first coach to take the Washington Capitals into the playoffs, and as GM of the Florida Panthers he assembled a squad that reached the Stanley Cup final in its third year of existence. He laid the groundwork for Anaheim’s 2007 Cup victory and in what would prove to be his farewell NHL season, Murray’s Ottawa Senators came within a win of reaching the Cup final.
Butcher Baking
The Wings intend to be suitors when defenseman Will Butcher officially becomes an unrestricted free agent on Tuesday.
A fifth-round pick of the Colorado Avalanche in 2013, Butcher, has opted to explore the market rather than sign with the team that was the NHL’s worst in 2016-17.
The 2017 Hobey Baker Award winner while playing at Denver, Butcher was also named Denver’s male athlete of the year and an NCAA West First Team All-American.
The 5-10, 186-pound Butcher, who shoots left, was second among NCAA defensemen in scoring with 7-30-37 totals in 43 games and was third overall with a plus-27 rating.
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