BY PETER HOUSTON – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
The Pittsburgh Penguins obviously aren’t procrastinators. When it comes to adding to their roster for a playoff push, they’ve already gotten the bulk of the work done well before the trade deadline. Sunday, they added former Stars captain Brenden Morrow and a third round pick for defensive prospect Joe Morrow and a fifth round pick. Monday, they picked up defenceman Douglas Murray for two second round picks.
On the surface, both of these acquisitions look very good for an already very good team. Morrow has been a reliable 20-30 goal scorer when healthy over the last decade and Murray has been a solid defensive defenceman that was part of Sweden’s national team at the 2010 Olympics.
Have your say: Have an opinion on the news of the day? Better yet, want to become a Fan Fuel blogger? Email us here. | Read more Fan Fuel blogs here
The problem is those days are in the past and both appear to be “has beens”. Over the last two seasons, Douglas Murray has zero goals, seven assists and is a minus-five in 89 games. A look at the advanced stats is even more drastic. From 2007-08 to 2010-11, Murray’s Corsi Relative bounced between minues-1.5 and minus-5.9. But over the last two years, Murray’s Corsi Relative has been minus-16.2 and minus-23, which line up with the drop off in his production in traditional stats. This year he has also faced the second easiest competition of any Sharks’ defenceman yet has posted the worst shot differential of his career. Murray is simply nowhere near the player he once was. And at age 33, that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The surprise should come from how drastically he has fallen off.
At 34, Brenden Morrow is also on the decline. While his drop off isn’t nearly as significant as Murray’s, it’s definitely there. He hasn’t had a positive shot differential for the last three seasons. His points per game have also declined steadily for the last three years and he only has 11 in 29 games this year.
Unfortunately for Penguins fans or those who put stock in the advanced/fancy numbers, GM Ray Shero apparently doesn’t. He said yesterday in reference to the Murray trade that “Analytics doesn’t come in to this for me. You can’t measure the heart, the character, the fit on your team you’re looking for.” That may be true, but the things you can measure tell a truth of their own as well.
While a couple of second round draft picks (which have about a 25 percent chance of turning into an NHL regular) and one defensive prospect don’t seem like too high a price, it’s still something – especially for two rental players who aren’t very good anymore. Joe Morrow is actually considered a very solid prospect who Pittsburgh may end up missing.
So did either of these moves really add anything to the Penguins? Yes, I guess, but only if you’re more into measuring “heart” and “character” rather than “puck possession” and “points”.