The Blackhawks welcomed back a veteran defenseman to their lineup against Florida earlier today. The team announced that they activated blueliner Connor Murphy off injured reserve. He had been out for the last month due to a groin injury.
The 31-year-old is in his eighth season with Chicago (12th overall) and has more or less played the same role with them for the majority of that time. Murphy has played in 38 games so far this season, picking up a goal and 12 assists along with 93 blocked shots and 70 hits in 20:33 per night of playing time.
Murphy has one year left on his contract after this season with a $4.4MM cap charge. Given his long-standing reputation as being a quality shutdown defender, it wouldn’t be surprising if GM Kyle Davidson was fielding interest from around the league about his potential availability. Notably, Chicago has one retained salary slot remaining with the other two being used on Jake McCabe and Mikko Rantanen while Murphy can veto a trade to ten teams.
Chicago had an open roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made to bring Murphy off injured reserve.