Joe Murphy, once a No. 1 overall NHL draft pick and Stanley Cup champ, now is homeless in Kenora, Ontario, according to a documentary that will air Wednesday.
At the pinnacle of his sporting career, the former Michigan star was drafted No. 1 overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 1986, the Detroit Free Press noted.
He continued to play for several years, according to NHL stats, but over time his name slipped into obscurity.
Now he is the subject of the TSN documentary "Finding Murphy" which takes a closer look at the former hockey player's life post NHL, which is in stark contrast to his heyday.
Murphy's career was punctuated with several prominent highlights, including helping Michigan State win the 1986 national title and helping the Edmonton Oilers win the 1990 Stanley Cup, the Detroit Free Press noted.
However, his playing career was also marked with numerous head traumas which included a fractured skull, Oilers Nation reported.
He was part of a failed class-action concussion lawsuit against the NHL this year, the Detroit Free Press said.
In his filing, Murphy noted that the NHL ignored mounting evidence that its players could sustain brain damage resulting from head injuries and concussions from the sport.
"Mr. Murphy suffered multiple head traumas during his NHL career that were improperly diagnosed and treated by the NHL," the lawsuit argued. "Mr. Murphy never was warned by the NHL of the negative health effects of head trauma."
It is unclear whether these traumas are what led to his homelessness, however, in an interview with Dryden Now last month, he admitted that he "de-escalated" and lost everything.
At the time of the interview Murphy said he was sleeping in a tent in a farmer's field and occasionally working as a laborer when he needed money.
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