Say what you may about former Calgary Flames general manager Darryl Sutter - he’s certainly worthy of criticism - but he landed two of the league’s biggest free agent bargains last summer. It isn’t that surprising that Alex Tanguay is providing great bang for the buck, but considering the fact that Brendan Morrison couldn’t even earn a lower spot on the Vancouver Canucks roster, his nice season has been a bit unexpected.
Morrison already missed two games after injuring his left knee last week, but GM Jay Feaster announced that the center will need at least 2-3 weeks for the swelling to go down. Feaster said that he will be re-evaluated once that swelling goes down, so it’s possible he might not play again until the playoffs (if Calgary makes it, of course).
The former Canucks’ No. 1 center has nine goals and 34 assists for 43 points in 66 games, already besting his output from last season, when he played in the high-scoring Washington Capitals system. Morrison also leads the Flames in plus/minus with a +13 rating.
One of the knocks on this Flames team is that they’ve been weak in the pivot position the last few years, so losing one of their best centers could be a pretty big blow. We’ll provide an update on Morrison’s condition whenever that information becomes available.