This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Connor Murphy
Chicago Blackhawks Defense
Seven point two six blocks per 60 — the 3rd-highest of the 202 qualified defencemen — and 43.6 per cent of the attempts.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | PHX | 30 | 1 | 7 | 8 | +5 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 30 | 3.3 | 17:59 |
| 2014-15 | ARI | 73 | 4 | 3 | 7 | -27 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72 | 5.6 | 16:48 |
| 2015-16 | ARI | 78 | 6 | 11 | 17 | +5 | 48 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 101 | 5.9 | 20:31 |
| 2016-17 | ARI | 77 | 2 | 15 | 17 | -13 | 45 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 81 | 2.5 | 19:11 |
| 2017-18 | CHI | 76 | 2 | 12 | 14 | -3 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 1.8 | 16:22 |
| 2018-19 | CHI | 52 | 5 | 8 | 13 | +12 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 84 | 5.9 | 19:29 |
| 2019-20 | CHI | 58 | 5 | 14 | 19 | +2 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 117 | 4.3 | 21:15 |
| 2020-21 | CHI | 50 | 3 | 12 | 15 | +1 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 78 | 3.9 | 22:09 |
| 2021-22 | CHI | 57 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -14 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 71 | 5.6 | 21:46 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 551 | 32 | 88 | 120 | -32 | 328 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 743 | 4.3 | 19:23 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
4 goals and 6 assists in 57 games — 10 points at 21:46 a night, minus-14, with 47 penalty minutes.
44.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,063 minutes, the 8th percentile among defencemen, and 43.6 per cent of the shot attempts, the 4th. His ice went 36-51 against an expectation of 32.09-40.7.
2:41 a night shorthanded is the 88th percentile among defencemen, on a club that took the 15th-ranked penalty kill in the league.
The Finesse Game
0.55 even-strength points per 60 is the 9th percentile among defencemen and 3.43 shots per 60 is the 23rd. 5 per cent of his shots came from the slot, the 7th percentile, on a median distance of 54 feet.
There is no offence at all and there never has been: 32 goals in 551 career games. 2.27 giveaways per 60 is the 81st percentile and counts against him.
The Physical Game
6-4 and 212. 7.26 blocks per 60 is the 3rd-highest of the 202 qualified defencemen, behind only Brayden McNabb and Calvin de Haan, and 6.29 hits is the 78th percentile.
0.4 bursts over 20 mph per 60 is the 5th percentile among defencemen against a top speed of 21.6 mph at the 30th. He does not skate and he does not need to: he stands where the puck is going and stops it with his body.
1.06 penalties taken per 60 is the 86th percentile and it is a fault — 47 penalty minutes in 57 games, with a drawn-minus-taken of minus-0.44 at the 22nd.
The Intangibles
Twentieth overall in 2011 by Phoenix, and 551 NHL games at 29 with a career minus-32.
He is the longest-serving defenceman on a roster that has just traded away Calvin de Haan, Erik Gustafsson and Riley Stillman. Chicago allowed 2.603 expected goals against per 60 at even strength, 16th in the league — the defence was not the problem. Murphy and McCabe are the reason.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- perimeter· shoots from the outside, by choice or because he cannot get in
83.7% of his attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 93rd percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
- hard-minutes· is started in his own end, against the other club's best
37% of his end-zone starts in the attacking end, 3rd percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
“7.26 blocks per 60 is the 3rd-highest of the 202 qualified defencemen”
“1.06 penalties taken per 60 is the 86th percentile and it is a fault”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,063 minutes
- Expected goals
- 44.1%
- 14th pct
- Shot attempts
- 43.6%
- 8th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 36 for, 51 against. Expected: 32.1 and 40.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 19 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 57 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 57 games
- Top speed
- 21.6 mph
- 49th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.14 a game
- Distance
- 3.04 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 96.5 mph
- 80th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.5
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.4
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2021-22 · 1063 minutes at five-on-five
- Jake McCabe40%
- Caleb Jones19%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2021-22
- The club
- CHI took 45.4% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 44.1% — 1.3 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,063 minutes at five-on-five — 70th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake McCabe | 40.5% | 46.5% | 44.4% |
| Dominik Kubalik | 44.5% | 43.9% | 45.4% |
| Kirby Dach | 46.5% | 43.2% | 45.2% |
40.5% together, 46.5% for him apart and 44.4% for McCabe apart. Both were better apart than together — the pairing was doing neither of them any favours.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
98 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 37 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 84% from beyond forty.