Despite logging heavy minutes and elite production for the Jets, Winnipeg’s top blueliner plummeted 10 spots in the annual rankings, sparking debate over his suggested decline.
Apparently, Josh Morrissey forgot how to play hockey over the last 12 months.
At least, that's how Jets fans (and most Central Division - and even Western Conference clubs) will interpret the NHL Network's latest ranking of the league's top defencemen.
The annual top-20 list was unveiled this week and somehow, some way, Winnipeg's No. 1 blueliner found himself all the way down at No. 16.
That's 10 spots lower than last summer.
You read that right - 10 spots.
Photo by Bob Frid/USA Today Morrissey entered the 2025-26 season ranked sixth by NHL Network, firmly entrenched among the game's elite following three consecutive seasons of Norris Trophy-calibre hockey. One year later, he's apparently barely hanging onto a spot in the top 20.
The problem? His play hardly warrants such a dramatic fall.
Sure, Morrissey's offensive totals dipped from the heights of previous seasons. He didn't reach the 76 points he recorded during his breakout 2022-23 campaign, nor the 69 he produced the following year.
Instead, Morrissey had to settle for 14 goals and 55 points in 77 games.
Some decline.
And if you remember correctly, it wasn't exactly a banner year for his Jets. Offence was not happening. Backup goaltending took the lead. Injuries occurred and a veteran heavy lineup skated slowly through the 82 game slate.
The now 31-year-old has produced at least 10 goals and 55 points in four consecutive seasons. Among active NHL defencemen, only Cale Makar and Rasmus Dahlin can say the same.
And Morrissey wasn't exactly sheltered while doing it.
He averaged a career-high 24:43 of ice time per game, once again serving as Winnipeg's do-everything back-ender. Power play, penalty kill, late-game situations, difficult matchups - J-Mo's fingerprints remained all over virtually everything the Jets did from the blue line.
Yet NHL Network dropped him from sixth to 16th - make it make sense.
There were, admittedly, reasons why Morrissey's season didn't carry quite the same shine as years past.
Winnipeg took a significant step backwards after winning the Presidents' Trophy in 2024-25, while Morrissey's highly anticipated trip to the 2026 Winter Olympics ended almost as soon as it began. An upper-body injury suffered in Canada's opening game against Czechia knocked him out for the remainder of the tournament and followed him back to Winnipeg.
But none of that suddenly made Morrissey the NHL's 16th-best defenceman.
This is still a player who has established himself as one of hockey's premier offensive blueliners over the past four seasons. His 2022-23 breakout wasn't a one-off. He backed it up in 2023-24. Then again in 2024-25. Then, even in what could reasonably be described as a "down" year, he scored 14 times and put up 55 points.
That's a pretty comfortable floor.
There is certainly an argument to be made that other defencemen have passed him. The NHL is overflowing with high-end talent on the blue line and younger stars continue to emerge.
But 10 of them in one season? That's where NHL Network's ranking becomes difficult to swallow.
Perhaps Morrissey won't mind.
Before becoming a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, he spent years as one of the league's more overlooked defencemen. He knows what it's like to play without the national recognition his performance deserves. For the first time in a while, he gets to do it again.
Morrissey enters 2026-27 healthy, still firmly entrenched as the engine of Winnipeg's blue line and now armed with something he hasn't had much reason to carry over the past few seasons: A chip on his shoulder.
NHL Network believes there are 15 defencemen better than Josh Morrissey. Now Winnipeg's stud gets an entire season to prove them wrong.
