Morrissey continuing to thrive for Jets this season

CHICAGO -- Josh Morrissey's talent has been evident for a while.

It was obvious to Rick Bowness even before he coached the Winnipeg Jets defenseman from 2022-24, and he expected a lot out of Morrissey once he got there.

"As I told him in our first conversation, 'If you're not in the top 10 in the conversation for the Norris Trophy, I'm mad at myself and mad at you,'" the now-retired Bowness said of the award given annually to the League's best defenseman.

Morrissey finished fifth in Norris voting in 2022-23, Bowness' first season as Jets coach, and seventh last season. It won't be a surprise if Morrissey is in the Norris conversation again this season, as he continues to be one of the top defensemen for the Jets, who host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, ALT, NHLN, KTVD).

The 29-year-old has 38 points (five goals, 33 assists) in 43 games this season, which is fourth among NHL defensemen, behind Cale Makar of the Avalanche (49 points), Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets (48) and Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks (45). Morrissey, who also plays on the Jets' top power-play and penalty-kill units, leads them with an average of 24:12 of ice time per game.

The No. 13 pick by Winnipeg in the 2013 NHL Draft, Morrissey has 349 points (71 goals, 278 assists) in 625 games. He had a career-high 76 points (16 goals, 60 assists) in 78 games in 2022-23, and 69 points (10 goals, 59 assists) in 81 games last season.

Morrissey was also selected to represent Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best tournament that will be held from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.

"It's just a huge honor for me to have the chance to rep Canada again. It's something I've taken a lot of pride in in the past and had the opportunity to do it throughout my career at different points in time," said Morrissey, who won gold with Canada at the IIHF World U18 Championship in 2013 and the World U20 Championship on 2015, silver in the World Championship in 2017, and bronze in the World U18 Championship in 2012.

"With the NHL being back on the international stage, best-on-best competition again for the first time basically since 2016 (World Cup of Hockey), it's exciting to have that opportunity and a real honor to be a part of that group."

Until then, Morrissey is working on keeping the Jets atop the Central Division standings while continuously working on his own game. It's been that way from the start of his career, when Morrissey said he had to bide his time behind other defensemen.

"I felt I had to learn the defensive side of the game and did well with it and just tried to add layers to my game every year. It was a perfect storm when Scott Arniel and Rick Bowness came in," Morrissey said. Arniel, Bowness' assistant the past two seasons, was promoted to head coach after Bowness announced his retirement on May 6.

"I was at a point where I was ready to take that next step, I'd worked hard to improve my skills and improve my game and they also kind of gave me the ball, let me run with it."

Bowness said Morrissey is, "one of those special players."

"He's one of those rare players that has everything you need to be a unique player. He's got the skating ability, he's got an elite hockey IQ, elite hockey sense, elite hockey skills and he's a competitive guy," Bowness said. "He works very hard. He takes great pride in his profession and his job and his ability. He's one of those players that coaches love to coach because of his attitude abilities and compete."

Morrissey has played with Neal Pionk more this season but had usually been on a defense pair with Dylan DeMelo over the past three seasons.

"It was a pretty natural fit with two guys who have similar instincts in regard to feel for the game," DeMelo said of playing with Morrissey. "He has a better skill set than I do but I feel our styles mesh well. I'm more of a defensive guy, take care of my own zone and provide offense when it's there and it gives Josh the freedom to, I don't want to say risk it, but just go a little more offensively maybe than the past where he was just kind of building his brand and just trying to be an everyday player.

"So, every year he's added a layer of offense. When we switched our coaching staff and 'Bones' came in, he really encouraged [Josh] to be offensive. He knew he had the skill set and it kind of skyrocketed. With Arniel here now, it's just taking over more of the same."

The Jets are still stinging a bit from last season, when the Avalanche eliminated them in five games in the Western Conference First Round.

Morrissey said he is hoping the Jets make more of an impact in the playoffs this season. They are currently tied for first in the NHL with 59 points (28-12-3).

"That was difficult for us. Obviously, we had a really good regular season (52-24-6), but this is a tough league. There are a lot of great hockey teams, and you can look at a number of different factors in that round, but we didn't get it done. That really motivated us going into the summer.

"GM (Kevin Cheveldayoff) and his staff believed in our group, for the most part, to not make any drastic changes this summer and bring us back and give us another opportunity. A lot of us have been together for a long time and we pushed each other more this summer to try and take that next step as a group."