New York Rangers: Positive coaching moves in Hartford
By Steve Paulus
Gord Murphy
Murphy, 52, is a former NHL defenseman who played 862 NHL games and was on the Florida Panthers squad that made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996. Since retiring in 2002, Murphy has spent the last 16 years as an assistant coach in Columbus, Florida and Philadelphia.
He spent the last five seasons with the Flyers as assistant coach responsible for the defense. He was let go when the Flyers fired general manager Ron Hextall in an organizational shake-up. Murphy was a favorite of Hextall and he was fired by coach Hakstol once Hextall was gone.
Although he received credit for the development of young defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov, he was also blamed when the defense regressed last season. When Murphy was canned, Gostisbehere told the Burlington County Times “He was my first D-coach in the NHL. He helped me a lot. Completed my game. On the defensive side, he was a pretty good motivator.″
There’s no doubt that Murphy’s primary responsibility will be to guide the Rangers’ young defensive prospects. Ryan Lindgren will probably be spending his second season with the Pack and Joey Keane and Yegor Rykov will probably be joining Hartford this season with prospects like K’Andre Miller and Nils Lundkvist to follow soon. Murphy’s job will be to get them to play in the David Quinn system so that when they make the jump to the NHL it will be seamless.
That was one of the biggest issues with Hartford the last two seasons. Libor Hajek had awful offensive stats in the AHL, with no goals and only five assists in 58 games. In a brief five game stint with the Rangers he was a completely different player, a condemnation of the coaching he received from McCambridge and company.
Rebuilding the organization
The Rangers haven’t just focused on the situation in Hartford. One of John Davidson‘s first moves was to hire two former players to work with Jed Ortmeyer, the director of player development. Tuomo Ruutu will work with the team’s European prospects and Tanner Glass will work with North American prospects.
One of the first steps the organization took to help Hartford was the hiring of Eric Raymond a year ago as full-time goaltending coach. Raymond gives Hartford a Benoit Allaire clone and he will work closely with Igor Shesterkin and Adam Huska, the Wolf Pack’s two young goalies.
It’s gratifying to see the team investing in player development on the minor league and amateur levels. It’s a sure way to build a winning culture throughout an organization. Hopefully the days of talent regressing when they turn pro with the Rangers are over.
No doubt, the boatload of prospects coming down the pike will benefit from this attention. A key question is whether there is a chance that players like Sean Day, Ty Ronning, Ville Meskanen, Tim Gettinger, Steven Fogarty and Ryan Gropp will also benefit and revive their prospects as future Rangers.