4 UFA Defensemen Washington Capitals Should Target

#4 Ryan Murray

This may be unlikely for two reasons. The first one being the the Caps are already good stocked on the left side of the blue line with varsity squad level guys and in the pipeline looking to make the leap to the NHL as soon as next season. Still it wouldn’t hurt to pluck a defenseman from the New Jersey Devils after the Caps basically gave away Jonas Siegenthaler. Ryan Murray would be a good option.

Another challenge is that he carried a cap hit of $4.6 million. That may price his way out of the Caps offseason plans after they paid big money to extend Brenden Dillon. In 48 games with the Devils last season, Murray had 14 assists, was a +3, had eight penalty minutes while averaging 18:37 minutes of ice time.

His advanced stats weren’t spectacular but they were OK. Murray’s Corsi For percentage was at 47.76 percent while his Expected Goals For finished at 46.51 percent via Natural Stat Trick.

The 2021 season was Murray’s lone season in New Jersey after spending most of his career as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was their first round pick, second overall in the 2012 NHL Draft. He was traded to the New Jersey Devils last offseason.

The next three defensemen we’ll look at are a little cheaper.