Murphy, the Carolina Hurricanes’ first-round draft choice (12th overall) in 2011, has only been with Charlotte for a little over a week after his junior team, the Kitchener Rangers, lost in the second round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. Thanks to a solid AHL debut last week (two assists in three games) and some injuries on defense, it looks as though he may again fill a key role as the Checkers begin their quest for the Calder Cup against Oklahoma City this weekend.
“It kind of gives me another chance,” said Murphy, a gifted offensive player who racked up 220 points (53g, 167a) in 228 games over four full junior seasons. “We underachieved in Kitchener, and hopefully I can make up for that now.”
As fate would have it, he’s now teammates with one of his first-round opponents, Guelph forward Brock McGinn, another Hurricanes draft pick that joined the Checkers a few weeks earlier. The two seem to be on friendly terms, though Murphy said that they have not talked much about their recent head-to-head battle.
Murphy’s Rangers team, the fourth seed heading into the postseason, won its first-round series against Guelph in five games before suffering a five-game loss to the top-seeded London Knights in round two. As has been the case throughout his career, his offensive output did not suffer in the playoffs, with his seven points (3g, 4a) in 10 games bringing his all-time OHL playoff total to 57 points (12g, 45a) in 53 games.
That, along with his appearance for Team Canada at this past season’s World Junior Championship, has eased concerns about throwing a 20-year-old who won’t officially be a rookie until next season directly into the playoff battle. Typically, players in his situation come to watch, observe and learn, with only the most advanced prospects becoming key cogs on arrival.
“He’s played in a lot of big, high-pressure games,” said coach Jeff Daniels. “He’ll be ready.”
“I think that helps me,” said Murphy, noting his experience in a handful of Game 7’s with Kitchener in past seasons. “I know how to control my emotions.”
At the very least, he was at least aware of the possibility that he could join Charlotte at the end of the season if the timing of its playoff situation that that of Kitchener’s worked out just right. The same could not be said of his NHL debut, which came when the Hurricanes suddenly brought him up during an injury crisis in February.
“I didn’t even know it was possible,” he said. “I thought it was a joke at first, but the next thing you know I’m getting ready to play the next day against Winnipeg. It was a dream come true and something I’ll never forget.”
The early returns on Murphy as a professional have been good, as he has seen regular time on the Checkers’ power play, running the point alongside Chris Terry. The puck-moving side of his game both on the man advantage and at even strength will help the Checkers compensate for the loss of Marc-Andre Gragnani, who is out for the season, and Brendon Nash, who suffered an injury in his Checkers debut on April 11 and is out indefinitely.
It remains to be seen how the defensive side of the 5-foot-11, 176-pound rearguard’s game will hold up amid playoff intensity, with Daniels seeming to suggest that Murphy had a tougher time in his second game against Milwaukee, a team fighting for its playoff life at the time, than he did in his first and third games against Peoria, a non-playoff team that had lost several of its best players leading up to the season’s final week.
“It’s a process and a big jump to the next level, but he did a lot of good things,” said Daniels.
“The pace was a lot faster than I was expecting,” said Murphy, who made his professional debut in a four-game stint with the Hurricanes in February. “I played against some really good players.”
As one of seven defensemen who were healthy for the Checkers’ last regular-season game, Murphy may not have to overcome great obstacles to stay in the team’s lineup moving forward. With injury returns by Nash and All-Star Michal Jordan not seeming to be imminent, he would need to hold off Eric Baier, a professional tryout signing who sat out the last four games as a healthy extra, and possibly Danny Biega, another late-season addition who has not played since suffering an injury in his professional debut on March 13.
With no defensive reinforcements expected to arrive from Carolina at the conclusion of its season this Saturday, it seems as though it’s Murphy’s job to lose.
