Summary
Apr 11, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Ottawa Senators right wing
Mark Stone(61) celebrates his second goal of the game during the third period against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. Ottawa won the game 3-1 and clinched a playoff spot. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports
After looking back on all the trades Murray has made, I still had to cut a few off the list. Some of the ones that were close were trading Chris Kelly to Boston for a 2nd round pick (Shane Prince), trading Alex Auld to Dallas for a 6th round pick (Mark Stone), and trading Antoine Vermette to Columbus for a 2nd round pick (Robin Lehner) and Pascal Leclaire.
Those aforementioned trades look quite good for Murray, but they all have reasons why I had to leave them off the list. Prince isn’t a sure-fire NHL player yet, and if he isn’t then the trade didn’t amount too much. Obviously drafting Stone in the 6th round is a massive steal, and it makes that trade look very lopsided. However, I couldn’t put that trade on the list because when it was made, it was only a 6th round pick for Auld.
That is what he’s worth in a trade, so it’s not as if Murray came out of that as the immediate winner. The Stars most likely wouldn’t have taken Stone with that pick, and plenty of other teams wouldn’t have either. So it’s more a credit to Murray and his scouts drafting rather than his trading skills. The fact that it turned out to be Stone with that pick was coincidental, and you can’t exactly say the trade was a genius move because it was a late round draft pick.
All in all, I’d say there were more good trades than I expected to see on this list
I included the Fisher trade and the trade that got Karlsson because those two are different. Murray was able to get a 1st and a 3rd round pick for a fringe second line player, and that was a lot of value. It doesn’t matter who the Senators drafted in my opinion, because Murray was able to extract value from Fisher near the trade deadline.
Karlsson is a different story. For this trade it may seem like I’m changing my position here a bit, but his case was different than the Fisher and Auld trades. In the Fisher and Auld trades, Murray was simply trading for draft picks, which are a good form of currency. He needed to stock up on some picks, and he did just that.
More from SenShot
- Crunch. Crush. Grind. Mash. The Tyler Kleven Story
- Belleville Senators: What To Expect In 2023-24
- Daniel Alfredsson and Marian Hossa Hit The Ice One Final Time
- Ottawa Senators: Something’s Got to Give
- Hot Pierre Summer 2.0? Let’s Talk About The Ottawa Senators Offseason So Far!
But as I mentioned before, he specifically wanted Karlsson, so he knew he was trading the 18th and 70th overall picks for Karlsson. The gamble worked out as well as he could have imagined.
All in all, I’d say there were more good trades than I expected to see on this list. He has a reputation of not being so great at trades, but he has certainly made some exceptional moves. One things for sure, we’re in a much better spot than if John Muckler was still the GM.