ANAHEIM, Calif. -- After Friday afternoon's press conference, Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray appeared to have more questions than answers.

Not the least of those being who will coach the team next year after he relieved Bruce Boudreau of his head coaching duties in the morning.

There will be plenty of time to address the head coaching vacancy, as Murray said, "There’s a bunch of guys out there. This is a huge choice for us. We’re going to take our time; do all our homework."

Instead, we're going to focus the other point of contention Murray brought up often when speaking with the media - the players.

Murray did not hold back when it came to addressing his team's performance in the playoffs outside of what the coaching can impact: "I’d like to know where the heck they were in Games 1 and 2. The players are going to have to answer that in the next four or five days. Where were they? They showed up in Game 7, but where was that passion? That controlled emotion? Where the heck was that? They’re going to have to be held accountable, too."

It gets better.

Murray was asked pointedly about his two best players, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry's, performances in the past Games 6 and 7 over the last three years. (To describe them as 'absent' would be putting it mildly.)

"There are definite concerns in that area," said Murray. "The core has to be held responsible. They have to be better. Maybe I haven’t been hard enough in the last few years, but they’re going to hear some different words this time."

Whatever those words are, they're probably NSFW.

'The core' Murray refers to is more or less the contracts he is going to have to live with because of the players' no-move and/or no-trade clauses. Leading the GM to quash the idea of moving Getzlaf and/or Perry right out the gate, "They’ve got no trade, no moves [contract clauses]. We have four players with that situation ... that’s one of those things I’ve said: long-term, no trade, no move [contracts] will get yourself in trouble."

Which is somewhat ironic considering he agreed to the four core contracts in question: Getzlaf, Perry, Kesler, and Kevin Bieska. (Andrew Cogliano and his limited no trade clause could be added to the list, too.)

According to Murray, he was keeping up with the market around the NHL, "It’s what we get forced into. If you follow, and to some degree that’s what happens, a couple big contracts get signed, that what you end up getting pushed into. They expect it, and we all are guilty of [providing] that, but sometimes you’re going to have to push back."

"We may have to adopt a little different philosophy on some of those things going forward, but [the players are] going to want [long-term deals with contract clauses] ... I think I’m at the point where that’s enough of some of those things."

"I can say that now it’s going to be difficult. Some of my younger players are not going to want to hear that," said Murray. "It ends up being not good for the player and the team at some point. I’m not talking about us right now, but when you look at what’s happened in other places, where players get to this point, at certain points, it doesn’t work out good for anybody."

Those young players likely include a bevy of key restricted free agents: Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, and Frederik Andersen. All of whom played integral roles on Anaheim's second half success. Also on the RFA short list are Brandon Pirri and prospect Stefan Noesen (acquired in the Bobby Ryan trade).

It appears as if the RFAs will be guiding the general manager's decisions this offseason: "We’ve got a sort of strategy here going about the contracts. Our RFAs ... they’re all important."

"We’re going to attempt to answer a few questions right away," said Murray. "It’s never easy because [the player are] never in a hurry to do things, but we’ve got to find out what some people are thinking as far as dollar wise. That will dictate which directions we go."

The goal appears to be to sign all the RFAs they can, but that won't be easy and could lead to more personnel turnover.

"To change some things, some people are going to get moved," said Murray, ripping the band-aid off right away. "You’re going to have to change money around, it what you’re going to do."

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