Derek Ryan's perfectly satisfactory usage

[bax]

Ryan isn't being overused. He is the least of our worries right now.

[Jiri Hrdina]

I expected more pop so that from that standpoint he's been underwhelming. But he's doing the other things I expected. Overall I don't see him being a big problem with the team right now.

[The Boy Wonder]

Derek ryan is not good.

I recall him saying he was looking forward to playing in our middle 6 during his introduction interview in the summer.

I was always worried that Peters would over play him because he's his boy.

Then he got scratched for playing poorly.

The issue now is that he is playing poorly (especially to the eye test) but theres other guys at the bottom of the depth chart who are also playing poorly and those guys have no special teams assignments so ryan gets to stay in.

at this point he has become a very poor man's stephane yelle. Thats about where his value is, he can win a draw when we need it and then get off the ice, and could be on PK2 (although i'd rather have a guy with longer reach who can get sticks in the lanes better) but he isn't adding anything offensively and probably won't

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Honestly one of the most frustrating parts of watching this team is how Bill Peters continues to throw Ryan out there in critical moments of the game and for some reason, continues to get PP time. We were warned about this by Canes fans.

Between this and his inexplicable love for Mike Smith, does Peters start losing the room?

This on a night he was moved the fourth line and had the third least five on five minutes of any player dressed in red, and was bumped from the second powerplay unit?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Bingo

This on a night he was moved the fourth line and had the third least five on five minutes of any player dressed in red, and was bumped from the second powerplay unit?

It's an open question as to why Ryan was on a PP unit at all in the first place, but yeah. Last night was an appropriate use case for Ryan: Get on, win a faceoff, get off.

The problem isn't overuse. The problem is that we have a guy who doesn't add anything to this team except winning a faceoff.

He's basically the forward equivalent to Kris Russell.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I expected more pop so that from that standpoint he's been underwhelming. But he's doing the other things I expected. Overall I don't see him being a big problem with the team right now.

In a lot of respects he's basically Matt Stajan who I never felt was a problem with the team like some others did. Like Stajan he came to Calgary after a career offensive season that he's likely never to come close to reproducing.

[Classic_Sniper]

Derek Ryan has been mostly ok, but the contract is steep for what he brings to the team. Very obvious that Jeff Skinner was the one who drove that line just based on his performance with the Sabres right now (20 points in 18 games, second in the NHL in goals). Derek Ryan has 3 points in 18 games. This was my biggest fear in bringing in Ryan at that contract and it now appears to be the case.

[Flash Walken]

Would you rather pay Derek Ryan 3.1 to play 10 minutes a night, or would you rather pay 3.5 million for Michael Stone to eat popcorn.

Ryan has underwhelmed offensively. He's slightly overpaid thus far.

He's not a major issue whatsoever.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

Derek Ryan has been mostly ok, but the contract is steep for what he brings to the team. Very obvious that Jeff Skinner was the one who drove that line just based on his performance with the Sabres right now (20 points in 18 games, second in the NHL in goals). Derek Ryan has 3 points in 18 games. This was my biggest fear in bringing in Ryan at that contract and it now appears to be the case.

This is where I'm at.

He didn't start well, pretty much mirroring the team's loose play through the first ten or so games.

Since then though his underlying numbers are good, which you can see in eye test too as he doesn't give up much.

But he also doesn't create much, so why have that price tag. Hopefully he finds his offence.

He's not a sink hole though.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Would you rather pay Derek Ryan 3.1 to play 10 minutes a night, or would you rather pay 3.5 million for Michael Stone to eat popcorn.

Ryan has underwhelmed offensively. He's slightly overpaid thus far.

He's not a major issue whatsoever.

Michael Stone's status is not relevant to a discussion about what Derek Ryan brings to this team. At all.

Though, it's amusing that you had to scrape the bottom of the barrel that hard to find some argument to justify being a contrarian.

[Trojan97]

The fact that Ryan is a main talking point outside of the goaltending situation shows how solid the team has been outside of the goalies. While Ryan has been extremely meh, he came in and did exactly what he was brought in to do. If this team had 2-3 more wins like they should, this conversation doesn't seriously get brought up.

[DoubleK]

He's the right handed Matt Stajan.

[Nelson]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

Derek Ryan has been mostly ok, but the contract is steep for what he brings to the team. Very obvious that Jeff Skinner was the one who drove that line just based on his performance with the Sabres right now (20 points in 18 games, second in the NHL in goals). Derek Ryan has 3 points in 18 games. This was my biggest fear in bringing in Ryan at that contract and it now appears to be the case.

This is fair.

[northcrunk]

Ryan is good at faceoffs then terrible once we have the puck. DR=NG

[puckedoff]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Ryan is good at faceoffs then terrible once we have the puck. DR=NG

I'd rather that the Flames have the puck, and are just aimlessly cycling it in the offensive zone than gift the opposing team a faceoff and do the fire drill in their own end.

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Ryan is good at faceoffs then terrible once we have the puck. DR=NG

Treliving paid like we were getting Manny Malhotra. Turns out we got Scott Nichol instead.

[GioforPM]

I'm not afraid of the other team this year when the fourth line is out, unlike previous years. Ryan is part of that.

I don't like him on the PP but that seems to be changing (and I expect when DUbe returns he will see some). Nor do I like him on the third line, but then, Jankowski hasn't been good either. I'd like to see Bennett given another shot at centring the third line.

[TheScorpion]

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect Derek Ryan to improve as the season goes on. His shooting percentage is incredibly low for his standards and he's clearly adjusting to new players around him.

[Strange Brew]

Yeah Ryan not hurting the team, you'd just hope for a little more offense.

His contract really only hurts the team in the off season as you start looking around for upgrades after Tkachuk's extension. That's when guys like Ryan, Neal, Stone (and I would have added Frolik before the season) become a bit of a problem if you're not getting adequate value. Throw in dead Brouwer money too.

Every team deals with this. It does seem that some teams have big name players earning more than you'd like whereas Treliving historically has his problem contracts at the bottom of the roster.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect Derek Ryan to improve as the season goes on. His shooting percentage is incredibly low for his standards and he's clearly adjusting to new players around him.

The thing people always discount is how much player role can change production. He's being used in a much different role this season.

His points are down this year because opposed to playing a sheltered offensive role like in Carolina last year, he's playing a much more defensive, tougher role this year for the Flames.

Offensive Zone Faceoff %:

Carolina: 60.45%
Calgary: 49.02% (Lowest among Flames centers)

Most Common Linemates (Forwards):

Carolina: Skinner, Williams, Stempniak
Calgary: Bennett, Hathaway, Frolik

EV TOI:

Carolina: 13:13
Calgary: 9:56

PP TOI:

Carolina: 2:01
Calgary: 1:11

SH TOI:

Carolina: 0:30
Calgary: 1:30

So more defensive zone starts, less skilled line-mates, less PP time, and more SH time. So probably shouldn't be that surprised he's struggled offensively as he adjusts to a new more defensive role.

His advanced stats have been pretty good overall, and his defensive play has allowed Peters to free Tkachuk and Backlund up for more offensive zone time and zone starts.

I think he still has more to show offensively for sure (that one elite sauce pass to Bennett on the rush shows it, thought him and Neal made some decent plays together late in the game last night too) but I wouldn't say he's been a problem so far this season and I don't regret that deal at all yet.