Larry Murphy (ice hockey)
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1961)
Lawrence Thomas Murphy is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played over 20 years in the National Hockey League (NHL), suiting up for the Los Angeles Kings, Washington Capitals, Minnesota North Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Detroit Red Wings. A durable player lauded for his perseverance and longevity with offensive capabilities, Murphy set the rookie record the most points scored by a defenceman with 76 for the Kings in 1981. He was traded in 1983 to the Capitals, where he had four 50-point seasons. He was traded late in the 1989 deadline to the North Stars, where he played until being traded to the Penguins in late 1990 to the Penguins, where he became a mainstay of durability. In the playoffs that year, he had 23 points with 18 assists as the Penguins won their first Cup in 1991; he had 16 assists in the next Cup win in 1992. A series of trades to led him to Detroit in 1997, where he played a key role in defense as the team won consecutive Stanley cups in 1997 and 1998.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Larry Murphy (ice hockey)” is canadian ice hockey player (born 1961). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Larry, Murphy and hockey, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “canadian ice hockey player (born 1961)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1983, 1989 and 1990.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
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Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Larry Murphy (ice hockey)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.