A long-time NCAA Division-III coach and Neutral Zone’s first hire, Brian Murphy has been integral to the company since its inception.
NZ’s Mathieu Sheridan caught up with Murphy to talk about his coaching career, experience at Neutral Zone and more:
MS: As NZ’s first hire, can you describe the process of bringing you on board? What has your experience been like since then?
BM: “Well, I was at Tufts for two decades. I was not in a rush to get back to work. I needed a break. However, I saw a Tweet from Brendan Collins saying they were starting this new scouting platform. I knew who Brendan was because he was always in the arcade at Marlboro, looking through the windows so nobody would bother him while he was scouting. He was always very intense and taking notes. He never looked at his phone, and he was everywhere. I never talked to him. However, I emailed him when I saw the Tweet, and he immediately responded.
Soon after that, it was just Brendan and I going out and watching games. We didn’t have a website or anything except our notes. We wanted to have the material right away on players. We watched games for a year with no platform. That was the start of Neutral Zone. Supported by Steve Wilk, we would launch the website soon after. We had notebooks full of information on players. I went up to Vermont for a couple of weekends, and we just added players all day to start generating the profiles for the site. I loved the concept and wanted to help get it started. We now have almost 30 thousand profiles on our men’s site alone.
It was an exciting time. I was watching different levels of hockey than when I coached. I didn’t know that it was something I would do forever, yet to go to the rink, see the hockey people I love, and watch hockey for a living is a dream. Helping to start something from scratch was also fantastic.
It’s a lot different than coaching. I had little experience or exposure to Bantam or Midget Hockey. The younger levels, I mean, I had always been watching mid-level junior hockey and prep hockey to try to do my recruiting. So, there was a little bit of a learning curve, but we figured it out and here I am.”
MS: What does your role at NZ entail?
BM: “I’m the Vice President and Director of US Scouting, in charge of all the US Directors in the different regions of America: New England, New York, Minnesota, Southeastern, Atlantic, Western, and on. I help ensure that we’re attending the events that must be covered.
Andrew Serpico is a terrific young scout with us. He’s moved into the Assistant Director of US Scouting position with me, so I will rely on him to help me as our staff grows.
Throughout the season, I’ll be in Minnesota four or five times. I’ll be in Michigan several times, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Buffalo, and all over New England. I’ll get a chance to see most of the players that our scouts have done reports on and just to be sure that we’re on the same or similar wavelength as far as what that player’s abilities might be, that we don’t have a scout who’s missing things on players or is making mistakes on players. I rarely say to a scout, ‘You’re not getting this. You’re not understanding this level.’ We have elite scouts who are bright with terrific eyes for the game.
We will generate national and regional rankings and start doing league rankings. I’ll see everything from U14s up through Prep Hockey, EHL, NA3HL, and the USHL. I don’t do Canada generally.
I’m also the Vice President, so I’ll be helping Hannah MacDougall transition into her role as the new Director of Women’s Scouting. I’ll be at NAHA at Labor Day for that women’s tournament. I also look at where we spend money, our subscription trends, and our Sponsors/Advertisers who have been great. Mark Bilotta also does a lot of this, but going on the site and ensuring things are working well is part of my day.
What’s excellent about Neutral Zone is that a player will hopefully be seen by a few different scouts at several events over several years. So, the mix of different viewpoints—because we all value different things—makes for dynamic and diverse player evaluations overall. Brendan and Ian, Ed, or Serp don’t necessarily place the same value on traits in players. It’s good to have different views on what makes a player successful.
Everybody has a focus or a list of what makes them think this player will succeed. And then we have Ian, the NHL guy, who oversees the questions like ‘Okay. When we get into the 07’s, where do you think this guy is, Ian? Have you seen him?’ And then I’ll call him on a few players a year that I think he should get eyes on that may not be in his circuit, meaning the CHL, USHL, or high-level prep. Ian is like a savant, so not much gets by him, so mainly my focus is future college players.”
MS: What are some of the benefits that NZ that people may not know about?
BM: “So our goal from the start was to give players an idea and parents of where they fit in their age group so that they can make informed decisions moving forward about what might be best for that player.
At first, I think people were like, ‘Eh,’ but now they’re considering our opinions and saying, ‘Neutral Zone has me as a three-star. Okay. Well, a three-and-a-half star is a player who usually goes to Division I. Maybe I should broaden my search to some DII/DIII Schools, maybe even a Club Program’
The next thing is that we are a very tight group. The people at Neutral Zone are now my lifelong friends. Hockey is supposed to be fun, and we all love the rinks but also have a strong bond. The other scouts and our Owner, Steve Wilk, will be my friends for life. We often stayed together at significant events and had a massive gathering for Directors in Chicago last weekend where we had fun (hockey is fun), watched some hockey, and talked for 18 hours about how we can be better.
It’s changed slightly because we now work with RinkNet to provide them with all their scouting reports. People need to understand what RinkNet is. RinkNet is a site that every NHL, CHL, Pro Leagues, NCAA DI, USHL, NAHL, and high-level junior programs use to organize their scouting and interior reports. They also see all the reports that we write. We make reports that professional and junior teams are reading available to the public on the Neutral Zone site. So, we’ve pulled the curtain back so parents, players, and coaches can understand our thoughts. We don’t pretend always to be correct because we’re not. However, we’re always in the rink, we’re always there the whole game, and we’re always paying attention. If we have scouts not doing that, they don’t last long with us.”
MS: You had a pretty solid playing career playing D-III hockey at Tufts. Could you describe what that was like?
BM: “Tufts was awesome. I had a few options out of prep school a million years ago. I was the fourth defenseman on a really good prep team at Belmont Hill. We won a Prep Championship, and Ian Moran was on that team.
I chose Tufts because it was the best school I got into. There were rumors of Tufts cutting the program, which were accurate, but the University renewed it for five years. And so I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’m at least going to get four years here, so I’m going to Medford.’
We sucked my first two years, and it was no one’s fault. We had Ben Sands there, who’s since passed. He was a fantastic human being and a caring coach, but he could not recruit because hockey was on the chopping block. He was the Father of Tufts hockey. Then, we had Steve Hoar come on to coach, who won a national championship at Plattsburgh State. Coach Hoar made the game so much fun, and it resonated with all of my teammates.
In my last couple of years as a player, we put together some wins that convinced Tufts to keep the program. I’m proud of that because it wasn’t easy, but we beat many teams with much more institutional support than we did. We were playing for the love of the game and to try to save hockey at Tufts.
I ended up with two degrees from Tufts University. After I finished my undergraduate work, I coached with Steve Hoar as a graduate assistant, which was a lot of fun. I also got my Master’s Degree at the same time. Then, Tufts needed a full-time coach, and it wasn’t something Steve could do. So, I suddenly became the head coach at 25 years old at a University that knew nothing about hockey.
So, I had to learn on the go. I enjoyed interacting with people as academically gifted as some of our players. So many of them are doctors and just doing amazing things now. It was a privilege. I loved every single kid that I ever coached at Tufts University. My oldest daughter grew up there, matriculated there and just graduated. She is in Medical School now.
We were sort of the outcasts of the athletic department, but that’s not true anymore. Coach Norton has them going, and I’m proud to see what they accomplished last year and, hopefully, more going forward. I am a very proud Alumnus. Tufts changed my life in so many ways. I met my wife Laurel there, who was an All-American in Field Hockey.”
MS: You got into coaching at your Alma Mater right after you were done playing. How did that come about?
BM: “I graduated with a Degree in Psychology, which was helpful once I started coaching. Then, I got my Master’s Degree in Education. I had a couple of offers to be an athletic director with some smaller prep schools. I was offered the job before I even finished my second degree.”
I didn’t make any money, but I didn’t care. I lived in an apartment with some guys who went to Tufts and some Somerville guys. We paid $275 a month. I’m sure we had gas leaks, lead paint, and mice, so we just opened our windows. Mike Daly, who won several national lacrosse championships at Tufts and was at Brown until very recently, was one of my roommates, and it was a fun time.
The team got a little better every year. At first, it was local kids on the team—you know, there wasn’t junior stuff. Then, all of a sudden, we were recruiting players from all over the place. We couldn’t survive just on local players.
The transition was quick, and I had been around the program. I knew how the basics worked. By the end of my time, the biggest difference was the amount of money that needed to be raised yearly.
Everybody always asks coaches, ‘What’s your record?’ I wanted to win, but there were serious conversations and issues that we as a staff dealt with with some of our players. We felt really good about how we were able to respond and help those student-athletes. I am still proud to have helped those young men.
People think coaches, especially at the Division III level, sit around and work on the power play. This is false. There are so many other tasks that you have to do because you don’t have a business manager or someone who books your travel, and no one to order jerseys or tape or sticks. I spent many nights in the equipment room after a game washing the game sweaters. It had to be done, and I would not change that experience for anything. Now I can say to interns ‘You have to know how to wash the jerseys before you can coach the team.’
You don’t have somebody who’s booking your ice. In our case, we didn’t have a rink. That stuff started to wear me down a little bit. I loved practice, and I loved being around those young men. It made me feel young, and it was a privilege because they’re extraordinary young people at those types of schools.”
MS: With over 20 years spent coaching at Tufts and being the winningest coach in program history, could you give insight into what can only be described as a significant chunk of your life?
BM: “You coach long enough, you win some games, that record won’t stand for long. I loved it. Where it became difficult was when I had younger daughters. You know, I had kids that were doing things.
They were playing sports and in plays, and I had to miss a number of things because I worked all week, all year. That was a negative for me, for sure.
I missed a lot and wasn’t taking great care of myself. It was hard to coach there but worth all the struggles. I am so proud to have coached at Tufts.
MS: When scouting for NZ, do you use your coaching/recruiting experience? What on-ice traits do you look for that separates players from others?
BM: “Well, sure. When Brendan hired me, he said, ‘I need you to cover the USPHL and NAHL because I don’t know precisely the difference between a Division III and Division I player’. I was like: ‘Okay, that’s not a problem. I can do that. I can generally figure that out. So that’s where some of my experience at Tufts [comes in].’
I value players that help their teams win and make their teammates better. I think a few years ago, I might have said, well, IQ, which is very important, speed, ability to move around the ice and stay around the puck, that’s important.
Now I think, does that player help the team win? So, that’s the most significant trait for me, and it sounds oversimplified, but it’s not. Those players block shots, win faceoffs, take hits to make plays, and can play in any situation. For forwards, I value scoring and going to the net. As a defenceman, I value toughness and the ability to defend your net. Everything happens at the net.
So if players are not going to the net or not protecting their net, I won’t be very drawn to them. You have to be able to skate and process plays. You’ve gotta have quality touches on pucks. I don’t get overwhelmed with the toe drags and all that stuff because everybody can do it now.
But are you a winner? Is your game versatile? Those are the players that I value the most. Versatile, tough, competitive, and the ability to help their team win.”
MS: What are some of your favorite things to do away from the rink?
BM: “I like to go watch my daughters play soccer. I have two daughters playing college soccer now. I can’t do a lot, to be quite honest, with my leg. I liked to garden, which people laughed at, but I can no longer do that. The rinks are my happy place now. Most of what I liked, I can’t do anymore. I was maybe the best Pond Hockey Player for a few years but had to retire.”
I love spending time with my wife. She makes me happy. My favorite thing in the world is my family and kids, but second, I love being in the rink. I don’t know what else to say. It’s my job, hobby, and therapy all wrapped in one.
I love seeing people who are hockey people. They are kind and. It’s such an unbelievable community, and hockey is family. I always know that everybody in the hockey community has your back and vice versa.
MS: You briefly discussed that you had battled and beaten cancer, which is excellent news. I was wondering if there was anything about your journey that you wanted to share.
BM: “I was 45 when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018. Gleason score of 10. They gave me a year to live. Dana Farber took care of the tumor, which had spread to my femur. I’m now having real problems with my leg because of the treatments. My femur broke three times in the last two years.
But when people see me with the cane, that’s what it is. I’m doing very well. You know, I am having some trouble with my hip still. But my message is that I’m doing great, and I feel blessed. I’ll take the lousy hip over the alternative.
Thank God for Dana-Farber. They saved my life. I know there are a lot of other people out there struggling and I pray for them, and if you Google it, there’s an article about it.
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling