The Phantoms are heading into this season in need of making some changes to stabilize their defensive game, and while it’s going to take a number of things going right for them to take those necessary steps forward, one hope in all of that is that the return of defenseman Ty Murchison –who put together quite the impressive first stint with the team last year — from injury can help pull things in the right direction for them.
How did his 2025-26 season go?
Heading into last season, Murchison was one of the bigger individual question marks, in terms of how his game would translate to the next level — after he graduated up from the college level — and what kind of role he would be able to work himself into, given how many other defensemen were hanging around on the roster, also jockeying for minutes. And though there were some rough moments for him over his first handful of games — times when his positioning was just a little bit off, or else when he tried to ride the line of playing with noticeable physicality but ended up jumping over it and getting himself penalized — he proved to be a quick study, and it only took a few weeks before he seemed to much better figure out what he could and couldn’t get away with, and how to more effectively use his angles to provide better positioning.
His game wasn’t always a flashy one — though some big hits and a pair of goals registered did bring a bit of it — he was able to settle in really nicely as a stabilizing force for the Phantoms on the back end. He showed a nice ability to kill plays along the wall, but also a really commendable willingness to put his body on the line and get in front of a shot for a block, and allow his teammates to live to fight another day. It’s work that can be a bit underrated in the moment, but the Phantoms found out quickly how much of a linchpin those elements were, after he took an upper-body injury in January which would ultimately end his season (just 29 games in for him), and they had to go without for the rest of the year.
It was in this way that Murchison made serious progress towards making himself essential to the defense core as a whole, work that was a little unexpected in just how it all came together for him, but which also certainly went a long way towards earning him that brief call-up to the Flyers in December. It’s clear, though, that he understands the place he’s at in his development, as there was no dip in his productiveness on the other side of that recall, as he continued to show a nice diligence in continuing to chip away at the improvements in his game.
What are we hoping to see from him this season?
In spite of his rookie season ultimately being quite a short one, Murchison put in some really good work to build a sound foundation for himself, and from here it’s all about continuing to build up from there. He was able to deliver quite a bit in the way of strong initial returns in the first half of last season, but there’s still room for him to work to expand his puck moving game further — the strength of his skating remains still something of an under-tapped asset in that regard — while still keeping his defensive zone positioning as stable (if not even more) as ever.
What’s more, it’s even more important for him to show that he was able to take some lessons from all of that time spent watching from above, and to be able to implement them into his game, keeping his upward trajectory rolling to prove that those positives shown last season weren’t just a flash in the pan.
What became quite apparent for the Phantoms as they got deeper and deeper into the season — and longer and longer without Murchison, in turn — was that their collective defensive play pretty desperately needed some shoring up, particularly to insulate their goaltenders a bit more, but really to make everyone’s lives a little bit easier, and while it’s going to take a number of different angles of approach to take the team defense to the next level (through systems and personnel), the hope is that Murchison can get onboard quickly with any changes to the structure and contribute to a new commitment for the group to keep pulling in the right direction.
What kind of role do we expect him to play?
The Phantoms cleared out a bit of space on the back end, so they won’t be heading into this season with quite so severe of a logjam as they had last year, but the battle for minutes among the defensemen will still be a heated one. There’s certainly no shortage of talent in this mix, and with standing more or less equal, particularly between Murchison and Hunter McDonald, the ongoing battle for top usage will be a really interesting one to watch play out. The broad strokes of Murchison’s expected usage are already knowable — he’s already made himself one of the team’s top options on the penalty kill, and has shown that he can hold up under, at the very least, a middle of the lineup deployment with (what would seem) a higher volume of defensive zone starts — but whether he can provide a game consistent and responsible enough to win out for top usage at 5-on-5 will be the big question. He’s been plugging along nicely, adapting his game to the AHL, but an ability to grab onto that role would go a long way towards asserting his mastery of this level, whenever that might happen.
