Ryan Murray (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Assuming the Boston Bruins want to sign Brandon Carlo to a short-term deal, thus allowing them to offer more to Charlie McAvoy, then Ryan Murray is an comparison they’d want to try to avoid.
The Columbus Blue Jackets haven’t had the greatest of summers, losing Ryan Dzingel, Matt Duchene, Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin to unrestricted free agency. They then inked a deal that it’s arguable may seem like an over-spend, even though it’s only two years of term.
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Now granted, Ryan Murray’s best point totals came last season, even though he only saw action in 56 regular-season games for the Blue Jackets – if you factor his 29 points across a full season, you’re assuming he’s at least a forty-point guy, hence you take a risk with a slightly bigger contract.
However, the Boston Bruins wouldn’t really be wanting to go near a comparable two-year deal when it comes to Brandon Carlo. After all, Murray will earn $4.6 million against the salary cap these next two seasons and last managed a full 82-game workload in the 2015-16 season.
Comparing their statistics, it’s fair to say the Murray brings significantly more offensive production than Carlo, but also manages to perform positively for his team as well, rocking a plus-20 plus/minus score last year; very close to Carlo’s score for the Bruins.
What’s more he did so whilst disadvantaging his team less so than Brandon Carlo, tallying just 10 penalty minutes to the Bruins’ blue-liner’s 47. What is clear though is that it’s hard to draw a very direct comparison; Ryan Murray hits far less but tallied more shot blocks, even in his significantly shortened season.
Having been around the league a few seasons longer than Carlo, albeit not having anywhere near the same level of play-off experience, it’s fair to use Murray as a comparison, possibly to the top-end of the salary that Brandon Carlo may be able to command from the Boston Bruins.