Player evaluation: Murray
BRADY MURRAY
This season: 4 games, 1 goal, 0 assists, minus-2 rating.
Positives: Murray made his biggest strides during the summer and during training camp, when he impressed with his strong skating and work ethic and earned the No. 4 center role. Murray appeared in only four games with the Kings and, typical of a coach's son, he played an intelligent game and was a bright figure in the dressing room.
Negatives: Size -- Murray is listed at 5-foot-9, 180 pounds -- will always be an issue for him to overcome, as will injuries, it seems. Beyond that, does Murray have enough offensive upside to justify giving him a roster spot compared to other prospects. If he makes it in the NHL, it will be because of his grit, not his scoring touch.
Looking ahead: Murray will probably enter training camp in roughly the same position as last year. He will have a chance to earn an energy-line role, but the competition will probably be even more fierce this time.
Contract situation: Signed through 2008-09 (cap number of $942,400 next season).
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Having gotten to watch Murray most of this season in Manchester, he's the type of guy that you just have to love.
Brady gives every shift, regardless of the score, a full effort. He's consistently been a very intelligent player, rarely making foolish mistakes and always very aware of what is going on around him and what his options are.
Despite his size issue, he would be great on an NHL energy line. Basically, he's everything we expected from Zeiler and didn't get. High energy, big heart, but skillful and intelligent in his play.
AT LEAST L.A. HAS RONNY TURIAF, NO WAIT HES ON THE OTHER L.A. TEAM :D GO KINGS (L.A) AND THE LAKERS!
He could improve the penalty killing for this team. He has hockey sense and gives a 100% on every shift.
how does someone who has played only 4 games make almost 1 million per season?
That's agreat question lakingzfan.
Strikes me as odd as well.
If our GM finds it appropriate to pay Handzus $4 Million for 7 goals, then this would be a bargain.
First off, to the best of my knowledge the number includes all incentives and other bonuses that even in a full season would never be achieved.
Second, Murray's history with the Kings is quite extensive. He's been at prospect camp since he was 16. There's a good chance the organization knows something more about him than the average fan does.
Brady was getting the job done in the first few games of the year on the energy line. He is strong defensively and sees the ice well. During all three camps he attended for the Kings last summer Brady showed time and again that he had more skill than O'Sullivan. Being Lombardi's guy, O'Sullivan got all of the extra chances both last year and this year. Luckily it paid off and O'Sullivan blossomed. I can only assume that because Brady is the son of the previous coach and drafted by the previous GM that he was not given the chance to show what he could really do, it certainly isn't because O'Sullivan is bigger and stronger. Brady alreaady knew the things that O'Sullivan learned this year and is stronger with the puck so that's the only explanation I can come up with. I will be upset if Murray isn't in a Kings sweater next season since he should have been this past one.
Brady definitely deserves a shot and should have stayed up with LA. He's energetic and fun to watch, a 100% effort every night which we didn't get out of alot of our players this year.....