In advance of Friday’s trade deadline, the Calgary Flames have conducted a bit of internal business. On Thursday afternoon, the club announced that they’ve signed minor league goaltender Connor Murphy to a one year, two-way NHL contract for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.

Per the club, the deal is worth the league minimum $775,000 at the NHL level. His minor league compensation was not included in the press release. Because this is Murphy’s first NHL deal, he’s waiver exempt and so he could sign the deal mid-season and be assigned right to the AHL without requiring waivers. He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of this season.

The 26-year-old Murphy joined the Flames organization during the 2023 off-season and has been on a couple American Hockey League contracts for the past two seasons. He’s bounced between the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers and the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush since joining the organization. Prior to going pro, he spent two NCAA seasons with Northeastern University and two with Union College, captaining Union College during his senior year.

With the Wranglers, he’s appeared in 19 games and posted a 6-6-3 record with a 2.91 goals against average, .912 save percentage and one shutout. With the Rush, he’s appeared in 37 games and gone 15-16-5 with a 3.20 goals against average, .906 save percentage and one shutout. Murphy has shown a ton of consistency at the AHL level in sporadic usage – he’s been up and down from the Rush a few times due to Devin Cooley first getting called up to the NHL and later being injured – and he’s been a really useful third netminder for the Wranglers over the past two seasons.

Does Murphy have NHL upside? He’s in his mid-20s so it’s tough to say, but he’s also yet to really get a run of games at any level of pro hockey, so it’s probably unfair to say anything but Murphy’s been a good depth goaltender and this seems like a perfectly prudent depth signing.

The Wranglers return to action this weekend in Winnipeg against the Manitoba Moose.