Boston Shopping Glen Murray

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Soapy
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Boston Shopping Glen Murray

Post by Soapy »

According to various reports, the Bruins are rumored to be shopping veteran right wing Glen Murray around the league.

This should surprise no one, since the 33-year-old Murray has looked lethargic in Beantown since last year's Joe Thornton trade with the San Jose Sharks. Murray and Thornton were terrific on the ice together, and the former has yet to show he can produce big numbers without the latter. In five games this season, Murray has two goals and three points.

Didn't Morrison & Murray have a lot of chemistry when they played for Team Canada at the Worlds? I know we are up against it cap wise but he would be an upgrade for the second line. Damn salary cap !
All we need is the SHARKS to pick up Murray as well !
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Post by tantalum »

I don't think they will find a taker. He has two more years left at $4.15 mil per year AFTER this season. That could be quite the albatross around the neck for a team. It already is for the Bruins.
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Post by Cornuck »

Then look for the Islanders to pick him up ;)
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Post by Mr. Bure #10 »

Yeah, then good old Garth Snow will lock him in at $5 million for 20 years.

My two bits are this: I think Morrison and Cooke need to be traded to free up salary cap room ($4.7 million). I would throw in Kesler as well but he can't be traded. I really thought B-Mo would pick it up after the hip injury but at $3.2 million he is not worth it. I like the guy but it is time for new blood in the new NHL. The guy I am thinking of is Briere. Fast, productive and makes everyone better around him. Buffalo never wants to sign him longterm anyways. The other option would be Patrice Bergeron if Boston would let him go which I doubt.

Forget Murray, he is nothing without Thorton and he is old. Having the Sedins on one line and Briere/Naslund on another would make it difficult for teams to set matchups. It is a pipedream but I long for more scoring. Is it me, or does Naslund look like he lost a step? He doesn't have an identity now that Bert is gone. He needs to play with Morrison to be effective. That's probably the reason why B-Mo stinks lately.

This new salary cap means you have to cut your losses early rather than wait and hope that a guy will come around.

One final note: The Sedins are dominant with puck control. Anson Carter is an idiot for leaving the team. We now know who made who out there.
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Post by westvandal »

I don't think there is a hope in hell to get Briere. WE would have to give up both Sedins for Buffalo to even want to consider dealing Briere.

Would love to see him here ! Not gonna happen though.

I am so dissapointed with Cooke it hurts.

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Post by Cornuck »

I had high hopes for Morrison, after some time with the WCE, then a good year in Sweden during the lockout, then he comes back here and Bertuzzi-Naslund shut him out. I would guess that he's a little down over the whole situation. Now this year, he's another lost soul looking for a line.

I think that a month or two on a consistant line would really help him. Either that, or we'll see that he really doesn't have anything to offer the team.

Give him til the new year, and see if he's come around.
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Post by Island Nucklehead »

The problem is other teams see what Morrison brings to us, and we probably won't get a second liner in return for him. The trade will be a salary dump. The only options we have for trading him would be picking up a similar salary in return (ie no extra cap room), or a complete dump for a mid-level pick or a mediocre prospect/3rd or 4th liner (of which we have oh so many). The second option gives us cap room, but then we would have to trade another player.

I figure that Cooke is more valuable at this point, due to his salary, than Morrison. While Morrison is a proven second liner, 3.2 million is a lot of bling. He will probably be the dump.

Cooke, at 1.5, would be the player we would trade, with picks, to get someone making around 3-4 million. The whole problem with this is that everyone knows Cooke is stumbling too, so odds are we're picking up a 3-4 million dollar player who is not living up to expectations on his current team.

The new NHL is all about predicting players and managing money. Any trade is going to have to be made very carefully, and in the case of these two players, we're in a pretty horrid position to pick up someone who we can reasonably say will do better than them.
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Post by MarkMM »

The problem with making a trade at this point is we haven't seen enough combinations long enough to properly judge whether or not Morrison or even Cooke can be salvaged if given the proper linemates and time to develop. As disappointing as Morrison is, I don't see us being able to trade him for another second-liner, and if we do the salary dump option, like Island Nucklehead said, we'd still need to fill the spot. The option that might happen is if we trade both Cooke and Morrison in a mini-blockbuster, offering another team a solid third-liner and a fast, two-way second-liner in exchange for a solid top-six forward and maybe spare part. Failing that, we might as well just work with what we've got to see if Naslund and Morrison can work out, maybe with Cooke, Kesler or Pyatt, while the Sedins are given a shot with Bulis. Until something like this is given a legitimate shot (at least a couple games), we'd be trading from a position of weakness when we may have had the solution to our problems in our own line-up all along.
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Post by Cornuck »

Meanwhile, Murray picks up 2 goals tonight! He must know he's getting shopped.
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Post by DavidPratt_ »

Island Nucklehead wrote:The problem is other teams see what Morrison brings to us, and we probably won't get a second liner in return for him. The trade will be a salary dump
Give the guy a chance. He had hip surgery in the off-season and he's playing on a different line. I would prefer to see Brendan Morrison play with Naslund and Cooke with the Sedins playing with Bulis or another player. When you have two slumping players in Bulis and Morrison, one way of getting them out of their slumps and building their confidence is to have them play with other players.

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Post by DavidPratt_ »

Island Nucklehead wrote:The problem is other teams see what Morrison brings to us, and we probably won't get a second liner in return for him. The trade will be a salary dump
Give the guy a chance. He had hip surgery in the off-season and he's playing on a different line. I would prefer to see Brendan Morrison play with Naslund and Cooke with the Sedins playing with Bulis or another player. When you have two slumping players in Bulis and Morrison, one way of getting them out of their slumps and building their confidence is to have them play with other players.

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Post by levelheaded »

DavidPratt_ wrote:
Island Nucklehead wrote:The problem is other teams see what Morrison brings to us, and we probably won't get a second liner in return for him. The trade will be a salary dump
Give the guy a chance. He had hip surgery in the off-season and he's playing on a different line. I would prefer to see Brendan Morrison play with Naslund and Cooke with the Sedins playing with Bulis or another player. When you have two slumping players in Bulis and Morrison, one way of getting them out of their slumps and building their confidence is to have them play with other players.

dp
Agreed completely. I won't deny that the Sedins and Nazzy are working, but that line's not going to get us anywhere by itself. Cooke, Mo and Naslund displayed a few flashes of brilliance at the end of the 03/04 campaign, and I think they just might be able to get that back. To be honest I have no idea why Vingeault didn't try them out together during the preseason.
As for the Sedins you could put them with whoever you want. Bulis, Kesler, Pyatt, they'd make anyone look better. All they need is to find someone who can read some of their plays and we're set.
I really think Vigneault should start giving the struggling players a chance, what have we got to lose?
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Post by nuckknowitall1944 »

Why not try the sedins with Taylor Pyatt,he seems like a guy that has a nose for the net,has decent hands and seems to get himself into the right place at the right times.
Then we would have naslund with morrison an bulis,this could give us to solid lines an then we would have the swedish touch PP unit an maybe even the occasional shift together.
An even our third unit will look decent with kesler in between cooke an burrows
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Post by cerios »

Morrision has always been overrated by many in this city. He is the most overpaid player on our team, its unfortunate that he was signed for as much as he was but I don't really see an out but to dump him. Cooke on the other hand isn't overpaid, he is only 25 people, and he will only get better.

As for what should be done, I have a question about Alexy Morozov. Hes one of the most talented guys I have seen play in the last decade, does anyone know why hes not in the NHL anymore? Hes only 29 and leading the russian elites... Doesn't seem right that hes not here at this point.
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Post by MarkMM »

The thing is, it takes time for chemistry to develop, and with the size of camp and all the experimenting, we never got a chance to try lines other than the Swedish Touch that would work. I'm not blaming Vigneault for this, new coach, new players, new system, we knew there would be growing pains, and this is it.

But IMO there's no way around the need to spread the wealth, the Sedins yes can turn a decent player into an offensive contributor (not necessarily a star), and we knew from the beginning that this team would only do some damage if a reclamation project or two worked out, so let's get on with it. Bulis with the Sedins is something I want to see tried, and when I say "tried", I mean for more than a shift or even more than a game, it has to be kept together long enough for them to work out the kinks. Bulis cycles well and has decent finish, is a big enough body to go to the net, so why not.

I'd like Cooke tried with Naslund and Morrison, simply because it sort of worked out before. Failing that, Pyatt or Kesler are big bodies with speed, can re-create SOME of what we had with Bert, they don't have his finish but can create room, and we were hoping that one or both of those guys would emerge this year, let's try it.

I don't have any problems trying Pyatt with the Sedins, this is just something I'd like tried. Using Kesler on the wing could mean moving up Chouinard to the third when we can bring in Rypien (when healed) on to the fourth, get rid of my pet peeve of having $1.1 million spent on the fourth line centre.

Naslund - Morrison - Kesler
D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Bulis
Cooke - Chouinard - Pyatt
Burrows - Rypien - Linden

or

Naslund - Morrison - Pyatt
D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Bulis
Cooke - Kesler - Burrows
Rypien - Chouinard - Linden

or

Naslund - Morrison - Cooke
D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Bulis
Pyatt - Kesler - Burrows
Rypien - Chouinard - Linden

Morrison is overpaid, but he missed a lot of training camp and is trying to find a way with his new linemates, which are frankly not that talented. For a two-way, skilled speedy centre, with some of the contracts signed this year, I don't think he'll be that bad if he can pick it up and I do think he can given the right linemates and the patience to develop chemistry with them.

Cooke, I don't know, it's harder to replace a second-line centre than a third-line agitator, especially with the way Burrows is playing and possibly with Rypien, each able to do a lot of what Cooke brings to the team for about $1 million less. I think Cooke's easier to replace at this point than Morrison, unless he can pick it up.

Mark's ideal scenario??? Naslund and Morrison and Cooke are put on a line and light it up, that way they're ALL bargains, or else Naslund, Morrison and Kesler, that way HE will be worth his money. Damn Clarke! I hope your team stumbles out of the gate, and your off-season signings make you look like a fool to the public...oh, wait...
Mark
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