One of the finest hockey players to ever come out of southeast Saskatchewan has retired from the NHL.
Carlyle’s Brenden Morrow made the announcement Thursday at a press conference in Dallas, where he spent the bulk of his NHL career as a member of the Dallas Stars.
Morrow played most of his minor hockey in Carlyle. In 1994-95, he joined the Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins, and recorded 117 goals and 189 points in 60 games.
He then moved on to the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League, where he spent the next four seasons. Morrow was drafted by the Stars in the first round, 25th overall, in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.
In 1998, he helped Portland win the Memorial Cup national major junior title, and in 1999, he helped Team Canada win the silver medal at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Winnipeg.
Morrow joined the Stars in the 1999-2000 season, and they reached the Stanley Cup final. He became one of the Stars’ best players, and was named the Stars captain in 2006. In 2007-08, Morrow enjoyed his best season with 32 goals and 74 points in 82 games.
He was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins in February of 2013. After he finished the season with Pittsburgh, he went on to play for the St. Louis Blues in 2013-14 and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2014-15. Tampa reached the Stanley Cup final during Morrow’s one season with the team.
Morrow became a free agent last summer, but he didn’t sign with anybody, and has decided to retire.
He finished his career with 265 goals and 575 points in 991 NHL regular season games. In the playoffs, he added 19 goals and 46 points in 118 games.
Morrow also enjoyed tremendous success in international competition with Team Canada. In addition to playing for Canada at the 1999 World Juniors, he competed the World Championships in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005, helping Canada to the gold in 2004. He was also part of Canada’s winning entry at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and he won a gold medal with Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Morrow had two goals and an assist at the 2010 Olympics, and scored the winning goal in Canada’s 7-3 quarterfinal rout of the Russians.
