Larry Murphy Trades

[GMR]

i'm guessing it's because mario wanted a big point shot for the PP? a month after the murphy/mironov trade, pittsburgh replaced murphy with another passy QB in zubov.

and then when mironov didn't work out in pittsburgh, they traded zubov for kevin hatcher.

Despite having the best powerplay in the league in 1996, Mario wasn't happy with Zubov. That never made sense to me. Maybe he didn't want a smoker in the locker room.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Despite having the best powerplay in the league in 1996, Mario wasn't happy with Zubov. That never made sense to me. Maybe he didn't want a smoker in the locker room.

Wasn’t Mario a smoker himself?

Why the Rangers and Penguins traded Zubov is still a head scratcher to me.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Despite having the best powerplay in the league in 1996, Mario wasn't happy with Zubov. That never made sense to me. Maybe he didn't want a smoker in the locker room.

haha not worth the risk of backsliding

 

[ShelbyZ]

I can't see a single way it would make sense to trade Murphy for Dimitri Mironov. I also can't see how it made sense to give him away to Detroit. It was the trade deadline - make a contender pay you something for the guy. I remember being happy to just lose him and get younger as a team, but in retrospect, who does that anymore? Even a broken down Mark Streit was worth something at the deadline, and this was Larry Freaking Murphy.

IIRC, a major difference between the Streit situation and Murphy was that while Streit was an impending UFA rental, Murphy was in the middle of a backloaded deal the Leafs gave him after acquiring him that still had one year left at a higher salary. I'm guessing his cold reception in Toronto and his drop in production might have wrongly signaled to other teams that he was trending down and not worth taking on the rest of the contract.

Murphy also had a no trade clause at the time, so I'm sure that also hurt potential returns.

On top of that, the Red Wings didn't just get him for nothing... The deal also included the Leafs retaining 1/3 of Murphy's salary for 97-98.

But yea, it is pretty crazy that a dman on a 50pt pace couldn't garner some sort of measureable return for the Leafs. Then again, their fans and media didn't help his value at all by making their highest paid player the scapegoat for a bad season (and coaching).

There's a good post somewhere on the forum that summarizes Murphy's failed Leafs tenure. I think the gist was:

-After seeing him in the playoffs two years in a row, including a 1st round loss in the most recent year, Leafs fans were hoping for their own Chris Chelios. Instead, they got Murphy, who while similarly productive, was the complete opposite in terms of defensive style.
-Then Murphy has a less than stellar playoff series (0G, 2A, -8 in 6 games) in a 6 game loss to the Blues, where the Leafs allow 4 short handed goals.
-It's not a secret that Murph's main weakness was skating. However, he was very smart with positioning and adept at moving the puck out of his zone with well placed dumps up ice. That said, in Murphy's 2nd season in Toronto this seemed to be lost on 1st year coach Mike Murphy. Coach Murphy wanted the D to skate the puck out of the zone, which meant player Murphy (and the Leafs) would be in trouble if he needed to get back quickly if he somehow lost the puck. In front of a market that's probably the least forgiving of defensemen, that's an absolute recipe for disaster...

 

[VanIslander]

Bowman requested Murphy.

'Nuff said.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Bowman requested Murphy.

'Nuff said.

i do wonder, however, why bowman and keenan always wanted him around but as smart and accomplished a hockey man as bob gainey gave him away for practically replacement-level players.

 

[ShelbyZ]

i do wonder, however, why bowman and keenan always wanted him around but as smart and accomplished a hockey man as bob gainey gave him away for practically replacement-level players.

Did Keenan ever coach Murphy?

I seem to recall the guys the North Stars got for Murphy were both from Minnesota, perhaps that inflated their value?

 

[GMR]

Wasn’t Mario a smoker himself?

Why the Rangers and Penguins traded Zubov is still a head scratcher to me.

Good question. The trades were for players past their prime. Kevin Hatcher and then Robitaille/Samuelsson. The latter two were involved in the trade for Nedved/Zubov. Apparently, young players with talent were expendable for those franchises. Shows you why both franchises struggled after the early 90's.

 

[Talisman]

as long time penguin fan i also dont get the Murphy/mironov trade ether!. was it both Murphy/mironov and robitaille/samuelsson-nedved/zubov trade made on off season??.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Interesting bit of related trivia, the 1998 Red Wings had Murphy and two guys he was previously traded for on their roster: Bob Rouse and Dmitri Mironov.

 

[decma]

Were the LA Kings so loaded with young defensemen that Murphy became expendable? That to me was the weirdest trade. Teams don't usually trade defensemen who are in their early 20's. Then again, Murphy was traded by Washington in his late 20's.

Other than Zubov, how many other future Hall of Fame defensemen were traded twice in their 20's? There can't be many.

Murphy had cooled off after his rookie season (when everything went right for the Kings).

The decline in points may not seem that steep (going from 76 points in 80/81 to 66 in 81/82 to 62 in 82/83), but in terms of ranking among d-men scoring he went from 2nd to 8th to 12th in overall points, and from 3rd to 9th to 20th in ES points, across those three seasons.

Considering that decline, his poor start to the 83/84 season, and his trade demand, I think LA's return wasn't as bad as it has subsequently been made out to be.