Carolina Hurricanes' Ryan Murphy Maturing into NHL Role in Recent Weeks

Ryan Murphy saw Jordan Staal taking off on a counterattack, jumped into the two-on-two break and played playmaker on a beautiful give-and-go play to give Staal his first goal of the season and Murphy his first career three-game point streak.

The slick play gave the Carolina Hurricanes an early 1-0 lead over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, a game they went on to win 3-2 in the shootout to improve to 4-1-1 in 2015.

For Murphy, the past week's prolific production has been a long time coming.

After being drafted 12th overall in the 2011 NHL draft, Murphy tallied 102 points in 103 games for the OHL's Kitchener Rangers in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

Then he turned pro. Then his scoring slowed down.

Murphy recorded five points in the 'Canes' first eight games of the 2013-14 season, but was held to just seven in his next 40 appearances. The season that was supposed to be his NHL breakout year eventually ended in the AHL.

Season	GP	Goals	Assists
2013-14	22	3	19
2014-15	23	0	17

But it's been Murphy's time with Charlotte in the AHL, both last spring and this past fall, that has reinvigorated his offensive potency. The 21-year-old was leading the Checkers with 17 assists when recalled by the Hurricanes on Dec. 30.

In the seven games since, Murphy's maturation and improvement have been evident on a game-by-game basis—like watching a time-lapse video of grass growing.

The puck-moving defenseman has had a positive raw Corsi (shot attempt differential) in five consecutive games, including a whopping plus-15 on Tuesday against the Avs, per war-on-ice.com.

He's played more than 18 minutes in five consecutive games as well, recording four assists in the past three contests.

Graphic by Mark Jones

Murphy has been active on the power play, playing two minutes and 57 seconds during the 'Canes' six combined power plays against Buffalo and St. Louis. He assisted on Eric Staal's goal vs. Buffalo that occurred just seconds after one of those power plays expired.

Game	Assists	Rating	Time on Ice
Jan. 8 vs. BUF	1	+1	18:38
Jan. 10 @ STL	1	-1	18:01
Jan. 13 vs. COL	2	+2	20:00

Most importantly, he's looked far more assertive and confident on the ice. He's been more responsible with his pinches, removed most of the recklessness from his aggressive style and proven more patient in his own zone.

The end-to-end rush attempts and silly defensive jumps that made him such a liability earlier in his career haven't been nearly as troublesome in the past two weeks.

Murphy has even shown an ability to mentally overcome the mistakes that will inevitably occur to a 21-year-old defenseman.

After finding himself in no man's land on Vladimir Tarasenko's third-period, game-tying goal last weekend—although sticky-footed Tim Gleason was the main man at fault on the odd-looking play—Murphy recovered during the remainder of the game.

He kept his final four shifts of regulation very short and responsible (33.5 seconds per shift), and was then rewarded by Bill Peters with 2:30 of ice time during the five-minute overtime period.

Scott Rovak/Getty Images

With John-Michael Liles returning from injury on Tuesday and Brett Bellemore sitting out as a healthy scratch, Murphy's NHL role is still far from secure.

He'll likely hope to remain in the NHL at least until next Monday's visit to Toronto—Murphy is a native of Aurora, Ontario (a Toronto suburb) and scored his first career NHL goal in his one prior appearance in the Air Canada Centre.

Considering how Carolina's slightly late-blooming defenseman has played lately, however, he could remain with the 'Canes far longer than one more week.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of NHL.com.

Mark Jones has covered the Carolina Hurricanes for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more or follow him on Twitter.