Columbus Blue Jackets: Ryan Murray’s Potential Finally Paying Off
By William Espy
The Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman is having his best season to date.
Many Columbus Blue Jackets fans over the past few years have grown tired of constantly hearing about Ryan Murray‘s potential. It started to seem like he’d never become a reliable blue liner, and even worse a wasted second overall pick.
Now that Murray has had the pressure of an entire franchise taken off of him and lowered expectations, he’s starting to perform fairly well. Zach Werenski, Seth Jones and Markus Nutivaara are the stars of the defense, leaving the remaining defenders with less pressure and more lenience to just play their game.
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The biggest development of Murray is his health. Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, and he still has yet to miss a game due to injury. The last time Murray had a completely healthy season was 2015-2016 when he put up a career high 25 points.
When healthy, Ryan Murray has proven he’s a solid player for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Remaining healthy has been the greatest issue to this point however.
If Murray can stay healthy, this could easily be the best season of his NHL career to this point. So far he has a single goal but seven assists through 17 games. Last season he only had four more points and played 27 more games.
The fact that Ryan Murray is averaging nearly a point every two games but is tied for the third most points from a defenseman on the team shows the evolution of the Columbus defensive corps to the best in franchise history. Never before has a Blue Jackets team had such an offensive blue line that can hold their own on defense as well.
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Ryan Murray’s confidence should be at an all-time high, which will mean great th9gs for the Columbus Blue Jackets going forward if he can keep up this level of play.