The Red Wings invited big Connor Murphy, a 23-year-old free agent goaltender, to last week’s development camp.
At present, the Union College senior isn’t harboring many pro aspirations, but Murphy told the Daily Gazette’s Ken Schott that he enjoyed attending the camp immensely:
“It was a great experience,” Murphy said during a phone interview Tuesday. It’s a super honor just to get invited, first of all. I really enjoyed my time there. The whole [coaching] staff in general did a really good job of making sure that we enjoyed our time there. It was kind of a stress-free environment, where they were basically just kind of focused on teaching us new things, getting us to work on certain aspects of our game and stuff like that. So it was really a stress-free time for me, and it was just a lot of fun.”
Murphy had a solid first season for the Dutchmen after transferring from Northeastern. He posted a 14-18-3 record with a 2.66 goals-against average, a .919 save percentage and three shutouts. He set a program record making 1,060 saves. That caught the attention of the Red Wings.
“I actually received a call from Phil Osaer, who was their goaltending scout and head development coach,” Murphy said. “He actually reached out to my advisor at the end of the season, probably a couple of weeks after we finished. He just invited me to the camp and said that they would love to have me there.
“I had one other offer to go to a different camp, but I decided ultimately to go to Detroit because they reached out first. I just thought that was the best decision, and I’m very glad I did because it was a really good time.”
