I think Murphy is a lot more talented than people are giving him credit for. But -- and this happens to quite many PMDs out there -- he has been stuck at a place where he has been put to focus on playing defense better, and after a while you end up with someone that is doing nothing well enough. Bad development. My Rangers did the same thing to Bobby Sanguinetti that ended up going from NY to Carolina for nothing. From the day NYR drafted Sangs there was only talk about one thing, him learning to play defense, him learning to play defense, him learning to play defense. Like a broken record.
Thing is, the NHL is and have always been full of good offensive minded Ds who are crappy defensively. You need to afford these type of kids to hit the ice and play to their strength, and pick up defense a long the way. Doing well offensively isn't easy at all for a PMD, and you can't like tell them to focus more on something else than offense for a number of years.
With that said, whatever damage has been done has been done. I've checked him out on a regular basis here and there, and I don't see someone looking like he is having a good time enjoying the game, no confidence etc. But who knows, I wouldn't mind NYR taking a shot at him.
