Josh Morrissey Thriving as Jets' No. 1 Defenceman

The man most commonly referred to as 'J-Mo' within the Winnipeg Jets' dressing room has found himself a brand new gear for the 2022-23 NHL season. Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre marked Josh Morrissey's 21st game of the season, and 444th of his eight-year career with the team that drafted him 13th overall back in 2013. Through his 21 games this year alone, Morrissey is already approaching what would be a career-high in assists. Operating at nearly an assist-per-game pace thus far, Morrissey's 20 helpers place him in the top-five among NHL assist leaders, while trailing just San Jose's Erik Karlsson (21) and Vancouver's Quinn Hughes (21) in terms of assists by defencemen. This past week, Morrissey was named the NHL's Second Star of the Week, following a seven-day span to which he put up three goals and four assists for seven points in just four contests. "Last year was kind of the coming out party a little bit," Blake Wheeler said of his defenceman. "And now he’s establishing himself as a premiere defenceman in the NHL. We’ve seen it, we’ve seen a lot of it here throughout the years. Last year we saw it pretty consistently. He’s certainly elevated his game. We’re certainly proud of the way he’s playing.” The week saw two overtime breakaway game-winners from 'J-Mo' as well as a three-assist performance in a dominant 7-2 shellacking of the Blackhawks in Chicago. His three assists in one game were the most by a Jets defenceman in team history. On Tuesday, Morrissey picked up his 20th assist of the season, pulling ahead of Dustin Byfuglien in the franchise record books as the fasted blueliner to hit 20 assists in a season. Byfuglien previously did so in 25 games. “When Josh and I were talking over the summer, I mentioned to him that, listen, I remember coming in here with Dallas and coaching against you, and part of our pre-game was focused on Josh Morrissey," head coach Rick Bowness said last week. "Because he was their best defenceman. We talked about that, and that’s what I said we need from you. It’s there. And we’re going to get it out from you. You’ve got the green light, I want you a lot more involved with the offence. I want you skating. At the end of the season, and this is what I told him, when there’s a discussion of who the top 10 D are for the Norris Trophy voting, I want to see his name in there. And he’s taken great pride in that.” One of just two defencemen across the league (Erik Karlsson) to lead his team in points, the 27-year-old Jet is now up to six goals and 25 points on the year, putting him just behind his career-highs of 12 goals, 26 assists and 37 points.