Kelowna Rockets’ general manager, Bruce Hamilton, was true to his word on Monday by granting goaltender Jake Morrissey his outright release.
Hamilton said on the weekend that he would sort out the Rockets’ goaltending situation this week. He decided Morrissey, a fifth-round pick by the team in the 2012 Western Hockey League bantam draft, was the odd man out.
Tending the net for the defending WHL champs will be 20-year-old Jackson Whistle and Michael Herringer, 19, who teamed up to earn a 3-0 win over the Vancouver Giants in the Rockets’ final pre-season game on Saturday. Morrissey played on Friday against the Giants in Langley and came out on the short end of a 5-4 decision.
A Calgary minor hockey product, Morrissey played 11 games as a backup to Whistle last season. In November, he broke his finger, and the Rockets acquired Herringer, who played well in Morrissey’s absence. In fact, he came in relief of Whistle in a few playoff games — instead of Morrissey.
It could be that Morrissey will be best remembered in Kelowna for a strange night of hockey at Prospera Place on Dec. 3 of 2014 against the Saskatoon Blades.
Late in the third period, after a hard hit by Nick Merkley on a Blades player that produced a multi-player scrum, Morrissey and Saskatoon goaltender Nik Amundrud skated to centre and started exchanging punches.
Both goalies were given five for fighting and game misconducts. That forced the Rockets to bring in backup goaltender Sam Bobyn‚ the 17-year-old son of team doctor, Mike Bobyn, to finish out the game.
Bobyn, a Kelowna Minor Hockey Association graduate, who was playing recreational hockey when he got the call as a backup due to injuries to both Jackson and Herringer, faced just two shots in the final 11-plus minutes of work.
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