After being drafted fourth overall in 1980, Murphy began his career with the Los Angeles Kings in 1980-81 scoring 16 goals and set NHL records with 60 assists and 76 points for a rookie defenseman.
After posting 66 and 62 point seasons in Los Angeles, Murphy would be traded early in the 1983-84 season to the Washington Capitals where he would continue to put up strong numbers, the best of which was in 1986-87 when he set a career high with 23 goals plus 58 assists for 81 points.
Murphy was dealt to the Minnesota North Stars along with Mike Gartner in a blockbuster deal for Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse in March of 1989 after six seasons with the Capitals. After finishing up the 1988-89 season with Minnesota, he would play one full season with the North Stars, scoring 68 points, and then a half a season in 1990-91 before once more being traded, this time to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The move to Pittsburgh would allow Murphy the opportunity for something he had yet to experience in his ten previous seasons, a deep run into the playoffs, never having made it past the second round before. As the Penguins progressed through the 1991 playoffs, they first defeated the New Jersey Devils in seven games, the Capitals in five and Boston Bruins in six, when Murphy got the chance to skate for the Stanley Cup against his former club, the North Stars. The Penguins dispatched Minnesota in six games, giving Murphy the first Stanley Cup of his career as he contributed 23 points in 23 games.
In his first full season in Pittsburgh, Murphy scored 77 points in 77 games, thanks in part to the fourth 20 goal season of his career. He would add another 16 points in 21 playoff games as the Penguins would capture their second consecutive Stanley Cup.
The following season Murphy had his career best season offensively with 85 points and another 20 goal season with 22. After two more seasons with the Penguins, Murphy was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs. His stay was not a long one however, as he was shipped to the Detroit Red Wings at the trading deadline during only his second season of 1996-97 with Toronto.
Murphy ended up playing more playoff games with Detroit than regular season games as the Red Wings charged through the playoffs that season and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers for the Stanley Cup, the third of Murphy's career.
The Red Wings followed up that success with another championship the following season, giving Murphy four Stanley Cup championships, and making him the only player to win four Stanley Cups in the decade of the 1990's.
He would close out his career with three additional seasons with the Red Wings, which included playing 57 games in his final season of 2000-01, one of which was the 1,600th game of his 21-year career, only the second player to reach that mark. His final total of 1,615 games was an NHL record for defensemen at the time. He would complete his career with 287 goals and 929 assists for 1,216 points, which was third all time for defensemen at the time of his retirement behind only Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey.
In addition to his four Stanley Cup titles, Murphy also won a Memorial Cup in Canadian junior hockey with the Peterborough Petes.
Internationally, Murphy played for Canada in the 1980 World Junior Tournament and the 1985, 1987 and 2000 World Championships, earning a silver medal in 1985.
Murphy scored a goal and two assists in the final game of the 1987 Canada Cup as Canada took the championship. He was also a member of the championship winning Team Canada squad in the 1991 Canada Cup as well.
Today's featured jersey is a 1994-95 Pittsburgh Penguins Larry Murphy jersey. The Penguins switched to this style of jersey in 1992-93 after winning back to back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.
This has always been one of our favorite jersey styles here at Third String Goalie. We really like how the Penguins revived their original cresting of the diagonal "PITTSBURGH" from their first set of jerseys used back in 1967-68, yet combined it with their current colors of black and yellow and the new modern Penguins logo which was used as the secondary shoulder logo. A very nice combination of melding the retro look of the past with their new, modern jerseys.
This jersey was used from 1992-93 until 1996-97 when it was replaced by the horrid third jersey first introduced in 1995, which was promoted to the full time road jersey in 1997-98, killing off today's gorgeous featured jersey.
Today's first video is a nice find, showing Larry Murphy scoring his 1,000th point with a goal while with the Maple Leafs.
Next, Murphy teaches you how to properly kill a penalty in a session of "Lessons with Larry".
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