Evan Rawal
Ryan Merkley was acquired back in late January by the Colorado Avalanche, as part of the “change of scenery” swap with Martin Kaut and the San Jose Sharks.
So did that change of scenery work out for Merkley and the Avalanche?
The 22 year old defenseman had requested a trade from San Jose back in early January, so he was looking for a change. I spoke to an NHL scout in February about Merkley, and how he’s looked with the Eagles. His general sentiment was that Merkley looked like a guy who was buying in to what Greg Cronin was teaching, but some of the old habits were still there. That’s expected, as old habits don’t just disappear overnight.
So I decided to take a look for myself.
What I saw was a talented player who doesn’t utilize those talents to the best of his ability. There’s a lot of skill there, but some clear holes in his game. With this film room, we’ll start with the good, and then transition into some of the parts of his game that still need a lot of work. Merkley is a restricted free agent this summer, so the Avalanche have to decide whether or not to tender him. I don’t see why they wouldn’t, seeing as how the team is short on defensive depth heading into next year, but we’ll see what they do.
So let’s dig in.
The Good: Transition Game
Merkley’s greatest strength is his ability to break the puck out of his own end and transition it the other way, whether with his feet or his passing. When he gets his feet moving (we’ll get to that…), he opens up space and his vision takes over. He’s a strong passer, which you can see on the first clip, and the puck skills are there. You can see that he makes a lot of these breakouts look very easy. That’s what can be so frustrating, because you see what he’s capable of.
The ability to break the puck out of your own end is a great talent to have as a defenseman, especially in this day and age, but it can’t be the only part of your game.
So let’s get to the other parts of his game…
Feet Stop Followed By Questionable Decision
Merkley isn’t alone in having this problem, but his feet tend to stop moving a lot. In this clip, he carries the puck into the offensive zone and his feet stop moving altogether. He doesn’t have a ton of support, but rather than making the safe play to dump the puck into the corner, he throws a risky pass right into the slot, putting it right on the stick of the defender. That starts the transition the other way, and it leads to a decent look in front for the opposing team. The NHL scout I spoke with earlier this year mentioned that he was still trying force some things with the puck with questionable decisions, and that’s what happened here.
Merkley’s feet can sometimes become an issue on the breakout as well. As you could see above, when he moves his feet, he’s great at transitioning the puck from defense to offense, but too often that doesn’t happen.
Not A Ton Of Offense
Merkley was drafted out of the OHL in the first round because of his offensive skill. That offense, however, hasn’t translated as much to the pro game. In 121 career AHL games, he has just four goals. You can see here that he tries to fake the shot to create a lane, but the defenders don’t bite on the fake. Instead of passing it off to someone with a lane, he looks to force a shot through. It’s easily blocked and cleared.
Lack of offense was an issue for him in San Jose, and it kind of continued here with in the Avalanche organization. By the end of the season, Merkley lost his job to Sam Malinski, who came in and took over on the powerplay. The 22 year old Merkley did not dress for a single playoff game after finishing the season pointless in his final 10 games.
Penalties
I noticed more and more that as the season went on, penalties became an issue for Merkley. And not the type of penalties you can live with if someone is overly physical. It was a lot of stick penalties, like tripping, hooking, and cross-checking. He’s pretty active with his stick in the defensive zone, and it tends to cost him a bit. He finished with 38 PIM’s in 28 games with the Eagles, with none of those coming on major penalties.
Reaching
Without a lot of offense being produced, there’s a need for Merkley to be strong defensively to stick around. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of reaching in the defensive zone by him, and it’s not very pretty. On this play, he gets beat pretty easily by a move because he reaches for the puck rather than playing the body. Not the best technique defensively.
Overpowered
Merkley is not a big guy. That’s just the reality of the situation. Because of that, he’ll get beat in and around the net, and in the corners. This play came at the end of a shift, but he loses positioning in front, and doesn’t stand a chance on the rebound.
Merkley has a lot of skill, and half a season might not have been enough time for Greg Cronin to work with him to iron out some of the kinks in his game, but from what I’ve seen, there’s still a lot to work on. The Avalanche will have a decision to make this summer on whether or not to tender him and retain his rights for another year. At 22, there’s still a chance for him to develop into an NHL defenseman, but there’s a ways to go.