On Josh Morrissey and how he re-defined himself as one of the NHL's top offensive defensemen

A player I find fascinating. And can this be replicated by others?

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

I find Josh Morrissey’s career fascinating.

For years I viewed him as a solid, but unremarkable defender with the Winnipeg Jets. I watched him play a lot as a beat writer in the Central Division, and to me Morrissey was the Jets version of Esa Lindell, a key piece, but not really a driver of anything.

Then Morrissey exploded offensively during his 27-year-old season.

After registering 166 points (40 goals, 126 assists) in his first 423 NHL games, the Jets defender has 156 (27 goals, 129 assists) in his past 169 games. In each of the past two seasons he’s received Norris Trophy votes, and through 10 games this season he’s tied for fourth amongst NHL defenders with 11 points.

Morrissey also isn’t necessarily a volume shooter, like many NHL defenders that put up high point totals who tend to get additional residual assists off rebounds and retrievals. This season his 19 shots rank 40th in the league amongst NHL defenders. The year Morrissey had 76 points, he ranked 20th in the league with 172 shots.

Morrissey’s usage also hasn’t dramatically changed. The 24 minutes, 14 seconds he’s been averaging in ice time is only a slight uptick compared to the 23:20 he averaged in the prior three seasons.

So what changed, and how did Morrissey go from a serviceable defender to one that other teams had to game plan around?

To answer this question I spoke to Morrissey this week and then called newly-retired and former Jets head coach Rick Bowness.

Turns out that before the 2022-23 season, when Bowness was about to take over in Winnipeg, the coach and player met to discuss Morrissey’s role in the Jets overall game plan.

“I remember going into Winnipeg with Dallas and thinking about him as a someone who could really be a difference maker in games,” Bowness said. “He’s an elite skater, he’s got great hockey IQ and he’s got a high skill level, you put those together and you’ve got an offensive defenseman. So when I took the job (in Winnipeg) I challenged him with that, that we would get more from him and in return he should be in the conversation every year for the Norris Trophy.”

While Bowness sometimes gets a bad rap for being too much of a defensive coach with his forwards, in his career he was always more willing to give more of the green light to defenders. Victor Hedman has credited Bowness with his growth as an offensive force from the blue line, and when Bowness took over in Winnipeg, the Jets defender was given more of the green light to join the rush than he had before.

“Their defense wasn’t nearly as involved as it needed to be in the offensive rush,” Bowness said. “We emphasize that we need to get all of our D involved in the offensive attack, we noticed the year before there were opportunities the year before for their D to jump in and simply didn’t, and Josh took advantage of us giving him that opportunity.”

But for Morrissey to even be in this spot, to become one of the NHL’s top offensive blue liners in his late 20s, he had to find his spot in the NHL as a solid defender first.

“I think when you look back at my career, when I first came into the NHL, there really wan’t any opportunity on the offensive side of the game,” Morrissey said. “We (Dustin) Byfuglien, (Tyler) Myers, Jacob Trouba, were young and in their prime. Toby Enstrom was there, so we had quite a bit of money on the backend with really talented players, so the opportunity for me then was defensive role, PK, 5-on-5.”

“And that really wasn’t my calling card, growing up I was more of an offensive player, so I had to adapt and learn a new style to my game,” Morrissey added. “It really helped me and made me a better all-around player, and my NHL career was no longer depending on being an offensive defensemen, it was just being a solid one overall.”

Morrissey recalls that once the Jets depth chart shuffled, and he ended up with more of an offensive role, even before Bowness arrived, he was able to be a calmer offensive contributor. There wasn’t pressure for his offensive game to keep him in the NHL, instead it was about simply adding to an already solid base.

“I do think it takes time for defenders to find themselves in the NHL, you need to play and see situations, see how they develop in front of you,” Morrissey said. “You need to evolve in how you see and feel the game as it happens.”

Current Jets coach Scott Arniel looks at Morrissey as a player that never lost the defensive identity, even when the offensive numbers started to pop. It’s why Morrissey still draws penalty kill assignments in Winnipeg and has more of an even distribution of offensive zone deployment than some other notable point producers like Cale Makar or Roman Josi.

For point of statistical reference: when it comes to offensive zone start percentage, Makar is near the top of the league at 73.68. Josi is second at 70.97. Morrissey’s OZ start is at 61.54.

One of the reasons I find Morrissey’s career so fascinating is because I wonder how and where it can be replicated.

In Dallas, for example, Nils Lundkvist struggled the past two seasons to get a foothold with Stars coach Pete DeBoer. There was always an excuse that he was an offensive player that needed to be given that opportunity. What if, and just humor me, Lundkvist would have just won the job defensively despite being roadblocked?

In Detroit, the other larger readership of this site, I’ve loved watching Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson’s growth this season. Both have effectively buckled down defensively earlier in their career, more so by necessity, but Morrissey’s career arc makes me at least wonder if one of them can add that offensive element to truly be in the Norris Trophy conversation in their mid to late 20s.