The Blackhawks Are Indeed Pursuing Ryan Murray, Per My Brain(And Scott Powers)

Well well wellllll. Here is the report from Scott Powers earlier this afternoon

“The Blackhawks recently talked to the Columbus Blue Jackets about acquiring defenseman Ryan Murray, according to a league source. As of now, it doesn’t appear a deal is getting done, but that of course could change in the coming weeks.”– Scott Powers, The Athletic

A nice little tidbit to take you into the weekend on this lovely Chicago Friday. Here is what I said about Murray in February

“Maybe this is where the Blackhawks step in with an offer. A similar line of thinking to the Dylan Strome trade. Get a guy with loads of talent and hope he figures it out and becomes what everyone believed him to be when he was drafted. I will ALWAYS make Tony Romo noises about a guy like Murray. MAYYYYYBBBEEEEEEE he puts it all together. He’s got all the tools.”–Myself, BarstoolSports

And then yesterday

The Jackets know their D is good enough to get out of the first round without Murray. Maybe that makes him expendible as they look to fill holes left by the UFA class leaving. Former 2nd overall pick, has a ton of ability and it felt like he was finally starting to put it together last year before a concussion ended his season. Murray checks the boxes from a skating, age, cost, and left shot perspective. I think he’s attainable via trade or perhaps an offersheet. His name hasn’t been out there much, but he can step into the Hawks top 4 on the left side for years to come.

I don’t know what it’ll take to get Murray via trade, but you can pencil him down for roughly 4million. He is a more modern style defensemen, meaning he uses his feet and brain to defend. He has some skill to make good passes out of the zone or skate it out himself, and while he’s gotten some PP time I don’t think anyone would describe him as an “offensive defenseman”. Meaning that Murray can be part of a shut down pairing with maybe Connor Murphy in the “2nd pair” and then maybe Keith with Jokiharju. You could do worse than a Keith-Jokiharju Murray-Murphy top 4. And the Blackhawks have for the last 3 years now.

The Jackets are in a tough spot because they need to replace, in theory, their entire fucking team. Panarin, Dzingel, Duchene, Bobrovsky, etc…all likely to walk away. And on top of that the Jackets don’t have much in terms of draft capital(only a 3rd and a 7th) and also have one of the worst rated prospect pools in the league, if not the worst. That’s a trifecta of suck right there. So, the Jackets need help for the NHL roster now, and some young talent/picks.

Could a deal like this work

Chicago Receives: Ryan Murray

Jackets Receive: Anisimov, Kahun, Jake Wise, Chad Krys, the rights to Anton Forsberg(I assume they still like him and they need org goalie help with Bobrovsky leaving) and a draft pick(not 3rd overall, obviously). That is a pretty good haul for an RFA who you don’t realllly want to keep because your core on defense is pretty good as it stands without him.

The Blackhawks can then turn around and sign Dzingel too and now your lineup starts looking pretty nice.

Dzingel-Toews-Kane

Debrincat-Strome-Perlini

Saad-Kampf-Sikura

Kubalik-Kruger-Caggiula

Hayden

Not too shaby, not too shabby at all.