A Flame from the Past: Dana Murzyn

Do you remember Dana Murzyn?

Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 1989-90 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Dana Murzyn.

Born in Calgary, Murzyn began his junior career with the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Calgary Spurs, scoring seven goals and 27 points in 34 games. The left-shot defenceman played three regular season games with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers, scoring a goal. In the post-season, Murzyn finished with three assists.

He became a regular with the Wranglers in 1983-84, scoring 11 goals and 31 points in 65 games, playing just two games in the post-season. In his draft year, the 1984-85 season, the defenceman scored 32 goals and 92 points in 72 games, along with 233 penalty minutes. In eight playoff games, he scored a goal and 12 points.

That led to the Hartford Whalers selecting him fifth overall in the 1985 draft. Murzyn never returned to the WHL, as he made the Whalers’ roster in 1985-86 where he scored three goals and 26 points in 78 games. His sophomore season saw Murzyn score nine times with 28 points.

In 33 games to start the 1987-88 season, Murzyn scored one goal and seven points, but was traded to the Flames on the third day of 1988. He finished the 1987-88 season with six goals and 11 points in 41 games for the Flames, bringing his total to seven goals and 18 points.

We all know what happened in the 1988-89 season, as the Flames won their first and so far only Stanley Cup in franchise history. In the regular season, Murzyn scored three goals and 22 points, along with three assists in 21 post-season games to knock off the Montréal Canadiens.

In the 1989-90 season, his final full season with the Flames, Murzyn scored seven goals and 20 points in 78 games. After picking up two assists in 19 games in 1990-91, Murzyn was traded to the Vancouver Canucks for Ronnie Stern

Murzyn retired as a Canuck at the age of 32, playing nine seasons with them where he scored 23 goals and 88 points in 452 games. The only games he played in the minors were in 1998-99 with the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch, splitting his final season there and with the Canucks. For Murzyn’s entire career, the left-shot defenceman finished with 52 goals and 20 points in 838 games.