Perhaps it’s a bit ambitious to give Scott Morrow a report card for last season. He played in just 29 games through numerous call ups, contributing six assists while playing primarily a third pairing role and averaging about 15 minutes TOI per game. It’s not much to evaluate, though in his time there were clear strengths and weaknesses to the kid’s game. A key part in the K’Andre Miller trade, it behooves the Rangers to put him in a position to succeed and also work on his weaknesses to round out his game.
Aside: I’m a dummy and have been completely forgetting shot heatmaps from Hockeyviz all year. I blame *gestures wildly at everything.*
Scott Morrow is pretty easy to analyze as a defenseman in his young career. He’s a terrific puck mover and skater. What’s interesting about how the Rangers generate attempts with him on the ice (shot heatmap) is that their chances increase in volume in high danger areas, not just where Morrow would shoot from. This suggests that Morrow excels in generating high danger chances, backed up by his xGAR and xGF/60 numbers.
But naturally, there are defensive concerns. Opponents generate more high danger chances from his area of the ice, and that shows up in his xGA/60 and xGAR against numbers. It’s not a surprise, though it’s something he does need to work on. He spent most of his time with Matthew Robertson, who may not have been a strong complement for Morrow, as Robertson also excelled in transition but not necessarily in strong defensive zone play. Perhaps Morrow would be best served with a purely defensive defenseman like Marcus Pettersson or Vlad Gavrikov, should he make the Rangers next season.
As mentioned above, it behooves the Rangers to see what they have in Scott Morrow and put him in a position to succeed. There’s an NHL player here, but he needs to have the right partner so he can not only take risks without fear, but learn on the job.
