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What Does (Should) The Future Hold For Bryan Murray?

March 29, 2016, 12:48 PM ET [31 Comments]
Jared Crozier
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
So on Friday I looked at the ownership, and yesterday the coaching was the topic, and today I shoot for the man in the middle of those messes, the General Manager.

It has been certainly a rough couple of years for the likeable Murray, what with him waging a personal fight against cancer while still trying to run the day to day operations of an NHL franchise.

This is Murray's 9th season of being the Senator's decision maker when it comes to what the coaches have to work with as opposed to him being handed a group and molding them, which he did for the two years prior to moving upstairs. His swan song in that coaching role was advancing this perennial under-achiever to the Stanley Cup finals.

Before Murray took over as GM, the Senators were a team that had not finished with less than 90 points for the previous 8 seasons, and had been to the playoffs for 10 straight seasons.

Admittedly, the cupboard was pretty bare when he took over the reigns, after John Muckler had made a mess of the farm system with very few impact players and some absolute disasters at the draft table (Brian Lee anyone?). Murray tried to rebuild the system while keeping the NHL club afloat at the same time all the while working with a budget that was far below what most other GM's had at their disposal.

While he built up the depth in the organization enough that they won an AHL Calder Cup championship, that success didn't translate to the NHL level. After missing the playoffs this season, the 4th such result in the last 8 years as well as making more coaching changes than Harold Ballard in his prime, perhaps it is time for Murray to take a step back into an advisory role and allow a new face to take over.

Although there were rumblings of a guy like former Senators front office members Ray Shero or Peter Chiarelli were in line to come in last summer should Murray have decided to step aside then, it is pretty much assumed that it will be Pierre Doirion taking over with support from Randy Lee and Daniel Alfredsson going forward when Murray makes that decision for himself (or worse).

Although an unlikely scenario, a face from outside the organization might be what the doctor ordered. While Murray and co. made some good moves, there are also plenty of mistakes littering the landscape in the past few years. For a thrifty team to succeed they need to spend smarter, and Colin Greening, Jared Cowen raises before they were established were not great examples of smart spending. On the trade front the Ben Bishop deal will haunt for a while, as will the Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza departures that were all a little different but all sort of thrust upon him.

The trades that brought in Bobby Ryan and Dion Phaneuf will go a long way to determine his legacy, and will continue to be broken down for the next few years. The Ryan deal especially was scrutinized, but even despite some letdowns, the pieces that were dealt to acquire him aren't exactly setting the world on fire as of yet. Is Phaneuf overpaid? Of course but you aren't going to find many defensemen who are available that can play in your top 4 and that is on a bargain contract. It just doesn't happen. Murray managed to get rid of most of his troublesome contracts (that admittedly he was responsible for signing) in one fell swoop and address a problem at the same time.

As for organizational depth, there is certainly more than when he took over, but recent injuries to top end players have shown that there isn't immediate help available. The younger players may develop and it only takes a couple of blue chip prospects (Thomas Chabot, Colin White) to pan out, but at this moment the NHL roster is pretty thin. Without the injuries to Turris and MacArthur this is probably a playoff team, but you can't use that as an excuse because injuries strike every team at some point and the Senators simply weren't deep enough to withstand the inevitable. Part of that comes from leaving $10M or so of cap space on the table, but some of it also comes from mis-evaluating what you have on hand, and for the Senators it has been a lot from column A and almost an equal amount from column B.

As for what Murray's future plans are, I am not sure anyone knows just yet. Every Manager makes mistakes at some point, and Murray is no exception. Some of them were forced on him, but his track record at being the GM in Ottawa certainly has some loose rails and have by no means been perfect.

I won't fault him either way, should he decide to step back or to continue on, because he has earned that right and has the support around him that would pretty much be the same as it is now, just a different person at the head of the table. Whether that entire table is good enough to make the Senators competitive again given the circumstances they are saddled with is the big question.
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