Where Is Brendan Morrison Now? A New Kind of Hook

Brendan Morrison was the center on the West Coast Express, the Vancouver Canucks’ top line with Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi, and he once played 542 consecutive NHL games. He finished with 934 games and 601 points for seven teams. His second career kept the West Coast in its name, and it has a habit of pulling old Canucks teammates back into his orbit.

Where is Brendan Morrison now?

Brendan Morrison hosts Reel West Coast, a fishing and adventure series that airs on Wild TV and Waypoint TV and runs on its own YouTube channel. As of January 2026, he was still fronting the show, which Global News described as his own fishing series when he appeared at the Vancouver Boat Show that month.

Brendan Morrison: then and now
Known for	Center on the West Coast Express in Vancouver
Position	Center, shoots left
Born	15 August 1975, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia
Drafted	1993, second round, 39th overall, New Jersey Devils
College	University of Michigan, Hobey Baker Award 1997
NHL career	14 seasons, 934 games, 601 points, seven teams
Last NHL season	2011-12, Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks
Current role	Host of Reel West Coast, as of January 2026

Wild TV lists at least nine seasons of the show. The 2024 season alone took him to the Yukon, to Bamfield on Vancouver Island, to Chile and to Cabo San Lucas for marlin, with stops at fishing lodges along the way. Former Canucks have joined him on the water, among them Willie Mitchell and Dave Babych, and Morrison has said he wanted to bring Naslund and Bertuzzi on for an episode. As he put it to Vancouver Is Awesome, it would be the old line together again, “on the water instead of on the ice.”

Brendan Morrison at Michigan: the overtime winner and the Hobey Baker

Brendan Morrison became a star in college before he played in the NHL. On 30 March 1996, he scored at 3:35 of overtime to beat Colorado College 3-2 in the NCAA final in Cincinnati, giving Michigan its first national title in 32 years. He was named the Most Outstanding Player of that Frozen Four.

A year later, he won the 1997 Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey, the first Michigan player to do so. He left Ann Arbor with a school record 284 points, and the University of Michigan inducted him into its Hall of Honor in 2013. New Jersey had already drafted him in 1993, 39th overall.

Brendan Morrison and the West Coast Express

Brendan Morrison came to Vancouver on 14 March 2000, when the Devils traded him and Denis Pederson to the Canucks for Alexander Mogilny. In Vancouver, he settled in as the center between Naslund on the left and Bertuzzi on the right.

The line peaked in 2002-03. Naslund scored 104 points, Bertuzzi 97, and Morrison 71, his career high, which made 272 points between the three of them. The Canucks finished with 104 points and won a playoff round against St. Louis.

Morrison’s point totals in Vancouver ran from 51 to 71 in every full season from 2000-01 through 2006-07. The line remains one of the best-known in Canucks history, and the Markus Naslund story on our site follows what became of his left winger.

Brendan Morrison’s iron man streak: 542 games in a row

Brendan Morrison did not miss a regular season game for six full seasons and parts of two more. His streak reached 542 straight games: eight for New Jersey and 534 for Vancouver. When it ended in December 2007, it was the longest active run in the NHL and the 11th longest in league history at the time, according to the Associated Press.

A wrist he had hurt in a September exhibition game finally needed surgery. He had played through it for more than two months.

Brendan Morrison’s NHL stats

Season	Team	GP	G	A	P
1997-98	New Jersey	11	5	4	9
1998-99	New Jersey	76	13	33	46
1999-00	New Jersey and Vancouver	56	7	28	35
2000-01	Vancouver	82	16	38	54
2001-02	Vancouver	82	23	44	67
2002-03	Vancouver	82	25	46	71
2003-04	Vancouver	82	22	38	60
2005-06	Vancouver	82	19	37	56
2006-07	Vancouver	82	20	31	51
2007-08	Vancouver	39	9	16	25
2008-09	Anaheim and Dallas	81	16	15	31
2009-10	Washington	74	12	30	42
2010-11	Calgary	66	9	34	43
2011-12	Calgary and Chicago	39	4	7	11
Total		934	200	401	601

Figures are from Hockey-Reference. He added 30 points in 61 playoff games.

Brendan Morrison played 543 of his 934 NHL games for Vancouver, and 393 of his 601 points, almost two-thirds, came in a Canucks sweater. That includes five straight 82-game seasons from 2000-01 through 2005-06, with 308 points in 410 games.

What happened to Brendan Morrison after the NHL?

Brendan Morrison played his last NHL games in 2011-12, with Calgary and then Chicago. He never filed retirement papers; he told Maple Ridge News in April 2014 that he knew his playing days were over and had no regrets.

By then, fishing had already become his second career. In January 2013, he hosted Sportfishing Adventures, a lodge-and-resort travel series from Mountain View Productions in Mission, British Columbia, that aired on CHEK and Wild TV. Reel West Coast followed, with Morrison as the host. He also founded the Tofino Saltwater Classic, a charity fishing derby that held its 10th edition in 2019.

Hockey has not let him go completely. He turned down a job offer from the Canucks after his playing career, but told Vancouver Is Awesome: “I would never rule out getting back into the game.”