Morrisseau keen to get back into game
Koby Morrisseau has seen enough.
After being forced to watch the entire second half of last season due to injury, the 17-year-old centre was thrilled to make an on-ice contribution with the Regina Pats over the weekend, recording a goal and an assist in two pre-season games against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
“It’s a good feeling to do that and come back from a long injury,” Morrisseau said Saturday after Regina’s 3-1 win over Brandon.
“It feels very good to be with the Pats organization. Hopefully I can have a good year.”
Morrisseau — an off-season pickup from the Spokane Chiefs — hadn’t played a WHL game since Dec. 13 when he suffered his second concussion of the 2016-17 campaign. The Chiefs eventually shut him down for the rest of the season.
“It kind of sucks watching the sport you play and the sport you love,” the product of Grandview, Man., said.
“It was tough. I talked with my parents and stuff like that. We decided to keep going forward and put this behind us and pray that I don’t get injured like that again. It was quite an experience. Hopefully I don’t have to go through that again.”
Although it was a challenging time, Morrisseau believes the layoff had the desired effect. Regina’s medical staff checked him out before the trade and determined he was symptom-free.
“I still have to take precautions,” he said. “But I feel like I got past that part and I’m focused on moving forward.”
The same goes for the Pats, who are excited to add a former top prospect who was selected ninth overall in the 2015 bantam draft. They acquired him on June 12 — along with a conditional fifthround pick in 2020 — for a fourthrounder in either 2019 or 2020, and a conditional third-rounder in 2020.
It was a relative bargain for someone of Morrisseau’s pedigree, but the compensation also took into account his concussion history.
“You never know with concussions but you hear of different guys who had four concussions when they came in and played junior and they never had another one,” head coach and general manager John Paddock said.
“He’s past it. I liked his game the first two periods in each of these games (against Brandon on the weekend). Not that it was bad in the third period but he was just running out of gas.”
Morrisseau is behind the eightball because he suffered a hipflexor injury in training camp. That’s what kept him from making a much-anticipated Pats debut until Friday.
“It’s feeling pretty good now so hopefully I can keep excelling and get my conditioning back to where it was,” said Morrisseau, who admits he wanted a change of scenery after a frustrating rookie season in Spokane (one goal and one assist in just 22 games).
“A fresh start is good. I had time to think about everything. (It was exciting) to come in and show what you can do. It’s like a first impression.”
And a positive one.
“So far, so good,” Paddock said of the six-foot-two, 210-pounder, who played for Canada at the 2016 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
“He’s a big body with skill. He has a lot of stuff that we like.”
The feeling is mutual.
“I love it here,” added Morrisseau, whose new team is playing host to the 2018 Memorial Cup.
“I was excited and pumped (about the trade). It’s going to be a big year. Hopefully there’s a lot more to come that are going to be successful.”