Report: Brendan Morrison to be released by Vancouver

Vancouver Canucks’ Brendan Morrison speaks to reporters in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Friday Sept. 17, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

AP

The hopes and dreams of many Vancouver Canucks fans may have been dashed today. A report out of Vancouver says that former Canucks star Brendan Morrison will be released from his professional tryout. Ian Walker of Puck World has the story.

Brendan Morrison will not finish his National Hockey League career with the Vancouver Canucks. The 35-year-old native of Pitt Meadows was released from his professional tryout contract by the team on Sunday, according to numerous reports.

Morrison’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, declined comment when reached shortly after the news broke, but judging by the tone, a formal announcement is a mere practicality.

“I’m not going to comment on that today,” said Overhardt. “Call me tomorrow and I’ll have a nice chat with you.”

That certainly doesn’t sound like a happy agent. For Morrison, many Canucks fans were excited about the prospect of bringing back the former top center. Morrison, when teamed with Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund, gave the Canucks one of the top scoring lines in the league years ago. While Bertuzzi has moved on and Naslund has taken his game to Sweden, Morrison has been a bit of a journeyman in the NHL.

By all accounts, Morrison had a good camp and with some teams having issues at the center position in training camp (hello, Calgary), it’s possible that Morrison may not be unemployed very long. Calgary saw enough of Vancouver during the preseason so it’s possible they might’ve seen something they liked from him to want to bring him in. It’d be likely that Morrison would take a less-expensive contract to keep an NHL job.