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Joe Murphy

Sergei Bure

Registered User
Dec 28, 2015
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It's really sad what happened to this guy, homeless, he was never the same after a concussion that he had while playing for Edmonton. How good was Murphy, and how much more he could have archieved if it wasn't for that concussion?
 


It's really sad what happened to this guy, homeless, he was never the same after a concussion that he had while playing for Edmonton. How good was Murphy, and how much more he could have archieved if it wasn't for that concussion?

He was a good, complimentary player, definitately not great by any measure. The kind of scoring depth you would want in the playoffs. Even as a #1 pick, I'm not sure he had another level. I think he was what he was.
 
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Part of one of Red Wings bad trades... Joe Murphy was a very good player. I think life took a bad turn after a hit from Shawn Burr which led to him dropping off much sooner than he probably would have.

Makes you wonder what wouldve happened if him and Graves never got traded from the Red Wings.
 
you know how people always talk how it was too bad for his confidence that jimmy carson had to play in the shadow of the gretzky trade?

i always wondered about joe murphy. he was a pretty successful player in his prime, but he was also easily the least memorable 1OA in a sort of unprecedented string of hits after the lawton bust. mario was the best player in the league, wendel clark was a folk hero, turgeon was scoring at superstar levels, sundin and nolan developed pretty quickly into all-stars, then lindros.

and not only was murphy slow to develop, he was traded for the 2OA in his own draft and his team had to add two very good pieces.

at the time of the trade, you have joe murphy who's never played a full year in the NHL and carson, a calendar year younger and he's coming off back-to-back 100 pt years. and 22 year old murphy wasn't even the clearcut best piece going the oilers' way. the troubled klima had averaged 30 goals over his four year career and broke gordie howe's team record for goals in a single playoff run.

flash forward to the mid-90s: murphy's settled into his prime as a 70–80 pt scorer but never took the next step expected of him after he held out for almost an entire year. meanwhile, klima had been a 40 goal scorer and graves hit 50. must have been a lot of pressure, and even without his play being about to plummet.
 
Part of one of Red Wings bad trades... Joe Murphy was a very good player. I think life took a bad turn after a hit from Shawn Burr which led to him dropping off much sooner than he probably would have.

Makes you wonder what wouldve happened if him and Graves never got traded from the Red Wings.

i do feel like it wouldn't have worked out well for him in detroit longterm. wouldn't he have just been another of the detroit guys like kevin miller, paul ysebaert, carson, and so on who got replaced by the tidal wave of talent that came in the early 90s?

graves could have had a great run on those teams, though.
 
i do feel like it wouldn't have worked out well for him in detroit longterm. wouldn't he have just been another of the detroit guys like kevin miller, paul ysebaert, carson, and so on who got replaced by the tidal wave of talent that came in the early 90s?

graves could have had a great run on those teams, though.

Difference between and them is that he had something they didnt. Post-season grit and clutch. Kevin Miller had some but he was nowhere near as talented as Murphy was. I mean we are talking about a guy that was a ~PPG player vs a guy who had trouble reaching 50 points.

And I shouldnt have written never but if he hadnt been traded for Carson but got a couple of season with guys like Fedorov, Yzerman, Graves, Burr, Probert around him. Things might be different.

If Murphy is there, do Red Wings bring in Brown or Sheppard for example?
 
He at least had some peak years in the 80s and early 90s and a big part of that last Oilers cup team. He was an elite player during the 91-92 season with the Oilers. Did well with Chicago and then dropped off into an underwhelming top 6-9 forward for a host of other teams.
 

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