Is Bobby Ryan Coming Into Form?

When Bryan Murray traded Jakob Silfverberg, Stefan Noesen and their 2014 first round pick to the Anaheim Ducks for Bobby Ryan, the team knew they were getting a real impact player who could score 30 goals most seasons. Ryan’s first season in Ottawa got off to a great start, but in mid-November he was hampered by a sports hernia and he finished the year with 48 points in 70 games. It certainly wasn’t an awful season, but he was below expectations.

Of course once the news came out he had been playing hurt, I think many of us (myself included) gave him the benefit of the doubt. Coming into the season, expectations were high on him because he was supposedly healthy and many people knew what he was capable of. He didn’t have the greatest start though, as the first 11 games he had only 3 goals and 3 assists. There were plenty of questions about his work ethic and whether he was still a good goal scorer or not, but he’s only 27 years old so I knew he had a lot left in him.

In the next 9 games since, he has picked up 2 goals and 5 assists, while looking much more confident with and without the puck. Those 7 points aren’t extremely impressive, but they are a step up from what he was previously producing. Right now he has been playing on the second line with a bunch of different linemates for some reason, but he clearly deserves to be on the top line with MacArthur and Turris.

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Those three had amazing chemistry last year, and they looked great again in the short amount of time they were together this year. He is Ottawa’s most talented winger (you could make a case for Mike Hoffman though), and he’s no doubt one of the important cogs on this team. The last 5 games or so he has looked like the player that Ottawa traded for, and that’s extremely important for the team. If Ottawa wants to come close to the playoffs, they need Ryan to be “30-goal scorer Bobby Ryan.”

There’s reason to believe that Ryan’s point totals will improve this year. If you saw the last few games he played, you would know that he looked like a first line player a lot of the time. Last game against St. Louis he had a lot of fantastic moves in the offensive zone, but he also had a few game-saving back checks late in the game. You just know that the pucks will go in more, considering his shooting percentage is 10.2%, with his 5 on 5 shooting percentage just at 6.6%. For comparison, his career number is at 13.6%, so of course he is able to score a lot with not that many shots.

His 13 points in 20 games is a 53 point pace, which is not bad, but certainly not what we expected when we acquired him. I think shortly he’ll go on a good run, because he’s certainly capable of doing that. Last year around the end of October/early November he was electric, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he went on a tear like that again.

Has Ryan lived up to expectations in his tenure in Ottawa? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t worth trading for, and he’s still easily one of the best players on this team. He has played immensely better in all facets of the game recently, and I don’t see why that can’t translate to a lot more points as well.

I think one of the biggest things Paul MacLean can do to improve Ryan’s game even further is to put him on the top line. He needs more confidence, and if he’s playing with the two best forwards the points should easily come.

I have very impressed with his game in the past few weeks, and I’m optimistic that this is the real Ryan we are going to see the rest of the way. If not, then that $7.5 million price tag looks very hefty. The re-emergence of Ryan could be a key factor into Ottawa’s playoff push.

Despite his slight under achieving, I still think that trade was worth it in the end. What do you think?

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