On Thursday, the Dallas Stars officially retired former captain Brenden Morrow. His legacy will carry on as one of the greatest in Stars’ history.
What is the ultimate goal of an NHL career? Chances are not all players share the same belief about this topic.
For most, it is probably winning the Stanley Cup as many times as they can. For others, it could be becoming one of the most respected and determined players in the league. For some, it could simply be becoming the captain of a team and being a part of that team for their entire career. Most would probably look for a mixture of all the above.
But there are some that get into the NHL because of their determination and love of the game. And once they get in, they make the most of the time they had. Brenden Morrow is a member of this field of players.
Yesterday, the Dallas Stars held a formal ceremony in which they signed Brenden Morrow to a one-day deal so he could officially retire with the organization.
“The game of hockey has given me so many opportunities in my life,” Morrow said in his the press conference yesterday. “Winning a gold medal for Canada at the Olympic Games and appearing in two Stanley Cup Final series are things that I only dreamed of growing up. Getting to perform on those stages is still surreal to me.”
Morrow was a significant part of the organization and one of the true “Dallas Stars”, and he will go down in history as one of the club’s greats.
After being drafted 25th overall by the Stars in the first round of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, he continued his journey to the league with two more years in the WHL.
The Stars won the Cup in 1999, and Morrow would join the team the following season. He would stay in the NHL for the remainder of his career.
Morrow immediately made an impact on the team. In Morrow’s first season in the pros, he played 64 games and tallied 33 points (14-19-33). He would help the Stars along to their fourth straight playoff appearance. With six points (2-4-6) in 21 games, Morrow would help the Stars offense push forward and return to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year, though they would fall just short.
Over the next couple of seasons, Morrow would score anywhere between 35-49 points a year while striving to play close to, if not the entire NHL season. His contributions towards the bottom lines proved to the Stars that he was a viable addition to the lineup.
Before the 2006-2007 season began, the Dallas Stars asked Mike Modano to step down from the captaincy position in order that they might award it to Morrow. Not that Modano had been a bad captain, but the Stars believed that the younger Morrow was a bright piece of the Stars future. That same offseason, Morrow passed on free agency to sign a six-year contract with the team.
Morrow, though not the greatest points producer or goal scorer, was an essential part to the Stars’ tenacity. His physical edge and furious drive on the ice helped him stand out as the overall leader of the Stars club.
Morrow captained the Dallas Stars from 2006-2013, and will go down as one of the greatest captains in the team’s franchise history. After a wicked rush in the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs that saw the Stars advance to the Western Conference Finals, the Stars began hitting the downward slope in a long and unappealing semi-rebuild.
As the 2012-2013 lockout season dragged along, it was clear that the Stars were almost to where they needed to be, but not yet. This forced then GM Joe Nieuwendyk to make some tough decisions, one of them being to trade away Morrow. While he was still playing a decent role with the team, sending him to a place where he could compete and win a Cup was a major point to focus on.
The Stars sent him to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a prospect. Morrow would advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with them but lose to the Boston Bruins. After that, he signed with the St. Louis Blues on a one-year deal. He finished his career off with the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he would once again make it to the Stanley Cup Finals but fall just short of winning.
Overall, Morrow had an excellent career. His final stat line has him playing in 991 NHL games, scoring 265 goals and tallying 310 assists for a total of 575 total points. 835 of those games, 243 of those goals, and 285 of those points were played and tallied as a Dallas Star.
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Coming from a personal standpoint, I went to Stars games every once in a while growing up, but never really got into them or focused on them. I truly started intently following them towards the end of the 2011-2012 season, and Brenden Morrow was one of the first players I focused on. His leadership and determination were evident, even for a first-year follower.
We here at Blackout Dallas would like to congratulate Brenden on a fantastic career and thank him for all of his dedicated years of service to the Dallas Stars. The Dallas Stars are a truly gifted organization in the fact that they don’t rely on big name players to come in for a year or two and win a Cup, only to be shipped off that next offseason. They have dedicated players that love the organization and want to come back when their career is all said and done.
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Sure Morrow didn’t take away a Stanley Cup or any big trophies. But the memories he gained and the impact he had on the Stars organization and fan base as a whole were more than enough to celebrate over. All in all, it was a career well spent. In yesterday’s press conference, it didn’t seem like he would have wanted it any other way.