As Connor Murphy's Blackhawks tenure nears its end, he still dreams about rewarding Chicago for its patience

PITTSBURGH — Connor Murphy has lived in Chicago long enough to see a Blackhawks dynasty fall, get torn down to its studs, limp through a rebuild and now begin to rise again.

He has also lived in Chicago long enough to call it home.

"I've been here nine years, and I feel like a Blackhawk to the core," Murphy, 32, said Monday. "I feel like I've gotten so close to the staff and the city. It's home. It's where my wife is from. We had our kid and got married here. I've always envisioned how unbelievable it would be to have success in a city like this."

Now, Murphy must come to terms with the fact he will have to move out of Chicago soon.

The four-year contract extension he signed in 2022 is set to expire in July, and there's a good chance he will get traded even sooner — before the NHL's March 6 deadline. The Hawks have just eight games left between now and then.

"You want it to be forever, but you know [it won't be] when you see the reality of other players that have been traded," he said. "I've prepared myself over the last years of knowing that it is a business and that, someday, that day will come."

When it does come, it truly will mark the end of an era, even if that era isn't one Hawks fans will look back upon particularly fondly.

Injuries have cut into Murphy's games-played totals, but he's still one of just eight players to make more than 500 appearances for the Hawks in the 21st century. And his nine years have been far more tumultuous than the dynasty years enjoyed by the other seven guys on that list.

A whopping 162 players have donned a Hawks jersey since 2017, and six different coaches have stood behind the bench.

"It's even as simple as seeing jerseys change in the stands," he said. "That was the one crazy thing to me, going from seeing Seabrooks, Keiths, Kanes and Toews — although you still see those — to now you see Bedards, Nazars and Vlasics. How quick that turns over, it shows the game is always evolving."

Murphy's only career playoff berth, even including his Coyotes tenure, came in the 2020 no-fans COVID bubble. The payoff for his pain has been low. Yet through it all, he has been not only a good sport but a valuable source of stability and a pillar of the leadership group.

He has answered tough questions during scandals and controversies (none of which he was responsible for) and has become very involved in the community, earning five consecutive nominations for the King Clancy Trophy for humanitarian contributions.

He genuinely loves his adopted home.

"I've noticed [that], for such a big market and Original Six team, the fans are patient," he said. "We haven't felt any sort of hate or backlash from people [during] this process that we've been through over the years.

"You see a lot of markets where people are throwing jerseys on the ice after games and kind of rebelling against dog years. I've felt nothing but support in this community."

During those "dog years," Murphy consistently struck a glass-half-full tone in interviews. In retrospect, however, he concedes things weren't always so easily tolerable.

"It was hard, the years that it almost felt like you were trying to get us a draft pick," he said. "You were almost waiting for guys to come in that weren't even there yet.

"It was a weird feeling, knowing that so many guys weren't going to be there in the next few months. It's hard to think that you're growing for something in the future when you don't have anyone there that [is part of] the future."

The ongoing, long-awaited youth movement this season — even though it requires pushing most of the veterans out — has finally changed that dynamic for the better.

"Every team says 'the process,' [but] you feel it this year," Murphy said. "You can feel it in day-to-day operations, the drills we do in practice, the meetings we have, the focus we have going into games — whether we execute fully or not. You see the path, and you see a little bit of results that can come from...putting a plan in place with certain guys that have come in now. That part has been really cool."

He has dreamed of rewarding Chicago for its patience, and indeed he's optimistic that reward is coming soon. It's more than a little bittersweet, though, that he probably won't get to enjoy it himself.

"The fans really grasp on and rally behind you quickly as soon as you start winning some games," he said. "That [winning] is something I don't know if I'll ever fully get to get like I hoped I would.

"But even if I'm not here, I would be really happy to see success for this team and the city at any point, if it's in two years or five or 10. People deserve that."