Connor Murphy of Phoenix Coyotes looking forward to move ahead and put injury problems behind
Don Maloney, general manager of the Phoenix Coyotes that play in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL), is very excited about his 2011 NHL draft’s first round pick, Connor Murphy.
Picked 20th in the draft, 19-year-old Murphy’s career has been affected by injuries for quite a sometime now and now he wants to put the injury problems out of his mind, get over them and move on. Injuries have not allowed him to show his class
and what he is capable of so now he is really looking forward to get chance.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the defenseman got a chance to play some games in the last season for Sarnia Sting in Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and scored eight goals, 18 assists and 26 total points in 35 games. 2011 Under-18 World Junior Championships
was another event where he excelled and helped US team win the gold medal in the championships.
The 6-foot-3, 192 pounder scored 4 points in the 6 games, one of which was an assist and three were goals. His goals included an all important overtime goal in the finals against Sweden which won it for Team US.
Murphy has been suffering from back and knee injuries for last couple of years and he talked about the ups and downs he had to face after the knee injury as he said,
"The first couple days [after the knee injury] hit me hard. How much momentum I felt I had going into the season. … In an athlete's career there's a lot of ups and downs, and that was a down."
53-year-old manager of Coyotes, who himself is a former NHL player and represented teams like New York Rangers, Hartford Whalers and New York Islanders, told NHL.com that Murphy is 100% fit now and ready to participate. He took his defenseman’s injury positive
and said,
"He's looked strong," Maloney told NHL.com. "He's 100-percent healthy and able to participate in this camp, which is great for us and great for him. One of the positives about not playing, having the injuries he's had, he's been able to train, and physically
he looks a lot thicker to me”.
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