Aside from the sensation that was Patrik Laine and the emergence of Mark Scheifele as a top centre in the league the underlying story was the arrival of Josh Morrissey on the Jets blue line. Some within the greater Winnipeg fan and media base had suggested in any other year Morrissey’s season would have had him in the Calder conversation. Maybe. Perhaps not as a finalist but as some one who deserved recognition Morrissey’s name could have been there, in almost any other year.
Many believe that Morrissey and Trouba should be the top defence pair and that despite his contract and popularity the time has come for Dustin Byfuglien to move to the second pairing. Morrissey may be ready to the step but a cautious coach like Paul Maurice might need some convincing. Maurice, through his time in Winnipeg, presents as a low event coach who is hesitant to change his system to encourage more action from his players. The emergence of Morrissey could help change that but now entering his sophomore year as an NHL player the true convincing for coach and fans of his ability begins.
Morrissey was the only Jets defenseman to play a full 82 games last year. He had almost 300 less minutes of ice time than Dustin Byfuglien at even strength but played two games more. When look at rates for various data what comes across as interesting is that Morrissey was often in the middle of the pack when compared to his blue line team mates. To say that he was ‘steady’ last season seems almost too accurate.
When looking at stats such as relative corsi for Morrissey was third on the team and might have been higher had Myers played more games and has his rate balance out over time. The interesting aspect to Morrissey’s game is that he seems not to have some glaring hole or weakness that becomes exposed through the more advanced statistics.
Perhaps the one area of interest is Morrissey’s on-ice shooting percentage and save percentage- aka PDO. Morrissey, in all situations, had a 10.77% on-ice shooting percentage while conversely having a .8896 save percentage. To be fair any Jets defenseman who had played more than 50 games did not have a great on-ice save percentage (except Paul Postma) but it’s certainly something that’s worth looking at going forward.
Would the save percentage be influenced by Morrissey’s play? That’s a debate for others and not one without controversy. However when looking at his GA/60 Morrissey does not stand out as awful in comparison to his teammates. He’s closer to a net 50 in Goals For % than all others aside from Byfuglien and Postma who are above.
What does the future hold for Morrissey this season? Certainly expectations are going to be higher for him, as they should be, but what about his play? One thing that some talk about with Morrissey is that he did not play to his reputation of throwing big hits like he did in junior. Remember though that once Paul Maurice arrived behind the Winnipeg bench full time in 2014 Jacob Trouba also looked like a young stallion with the reigns pulled back on him.
Morrissey threw the second highest number of hits on the team and also blocked the most shots. Are these two related perhaps not but on a micro-level a player who consistently goes to hit and does not achieve separating the opposition player from the puck may find himself incapacitated to follow the play.
Thus like all players learning the professional game Morrissey needs to learn when and where to use a physical solution so as not to create other problems elsewhere. More importantly Morrissey has to see the group of forwards he has with him and learn to start the transition out of his own end using those forwards. While not the fastest group there is speed throughout the top two lines and any defenseman would be wise to recognize the chance to enable it, not just Morrissey. That being said should his minutes increase that would be one area of his game he could continue to develop.
If one looks at straight production it seems reasonable to expect Morrissey to expand on his 6 goals and 14 assists. One would think that he could earn more time on the power play but that might be hard with a healthy Tyler Myers and the recently acquired Kulikov. It’s easy to forget that Paul Maurice’s combinations and usage are at times puzzling.
It might be best put that Morrissey has to avoid the ‘sophomore slump’ by continuing to work on his game and not resting. It’s a cliche attempt at saying ‘don’t get cocky kid’ but it’s probably the most appropriate. At the risk of being overly cliche one could say ‘Morrissey has all the tools in the tool box’ and that might be accurate but so would be ‘having a coach who hands them out’. For Morrissey this year is about himself and personal development but even more so what the head coach decides to do. That might be troubling for more than a few fans.