Minnesota Wild: Will Ryan Murphy Pass Through Waivers Unclaimed?

The Minnesota Wild are nearing the business end of the pre-season; that point in time where you put the finishing touches on your 23-man roster and inevitably have to waive players. Ryan Murphy is a likely candidate for the waiver wire.

The worrying thing for the Minnesota Wild is that there’s a lot to like about Ryan Murphy, despite him never quite stringing together a full-season stint in the NHL.

The past several seasons have seen almost even splits of his time between the NHL and the AHL, with the Carolina Hurricanes and Charlotte Checkers and most recently, the Minnesota Wild and Iowa Wild.

At some point, the right-side defenseman will stick with one of those sides.

Across his stint with the Minnesota Wild last year, he was good for almost 20 minutes ice time on average; those numbers boosted by the injuries on defense.

That sort of ice-time though would at least suggest that he brings a modicum of value to the team. Especially as a right side guy on a very cheap contract.

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The majority of his time last season was alongside Jonas Brodin; this is a very unlikely scenario this year what with the return to fitness of Ryan Suter bumping Matt Dumba to the second pairing alongside Brodin.

Even the third pairing will be a challenge to break into; with Nate Prosser, Greg Pateryn and Nick Seeler all seemingly ahead of him. Not forgetting that pre-injury Gustav Olofsson was getting a decent look through pre-season.

The log-jam ahead of him does seem to mean he’ll be starting the year with the Iowa Wild, but that requires the risk of placing him on waivers and hoping he doesn’t get claimed.

Teams around the league have started waiving guys and I have no doubt that the Minnesota Wild will soon start their roster trimming, but Ryan Murphy does concern me.

He seems the perfect low-risk steal for another team; he’s on a league minimum salary, plays the right-side and is a low-event kind of player.

He’s not about to blow your mind with his offensive prowess, but equally, he’s not about to cause a huge problem with trying to dangle the puck in front of his own goalie!

Among all those on the Minnesota Wild roster that aren’t waivers exempt, he’s one of the ones I reckon we could lose for nothing, unfortunately.

Statistics/waiver eligibility information courtesy of CapFriendly.com.