Royals Acquire Goaltender Adam Morrison

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, today announced that the team has acquired goaltender Adam Morrison in a trade with the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL for future considerations. In a separate transaction, the Royals have released goaltender Alex Vazzano, who was signed by the team last Thursday and played in one game making all six saves he was called upon to make after coming on in substitution of starter Connor Knapp in the third period of Reading’s 5-4 loss to the Elmira Jackals on Friday, November 20.

Morrison (6’3/203) (24), a fourth year pro from White Rock, British Columbia, has played in five games this season—all in the ECHL. He began the year with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits and actually earned his second career league Goaltender of the Week Award for his performance in the week of October 19 through 25, 2015 when he went 2-0-0-0 with a 1.97 goals against average and .923 save percentage for the Swamp Rabbits. Nonetheless, Morrison was waived by Greenville and claimed by the Fort Wayne Komets on November 15. He played one game for Fort Wayne, allowing five goals on eighteen shots in 26:14 of game time in a 6-4 loss to the Toledo Walleye on Saturday (November 21).

A former third round pick of the Flyers in 2009, Morrison had a spectacular run with the South Carolina Stingrays in 2014-15 as a part of the goaltending tandem that included perennial all-star Jeff Jakaitis. In fact, in the month of February 2015, Morrison and Jakaitis shared the ECHL Warrior Hockey Goaltender of the Month Award. For his part, Morrison went 6-0-0-0 with a 1.17 goals against average and a .953 save percentage in a stretch that saw him rack up back-to-back shutouts on February 13 and 14 against the then-Gwinnett Gladiators—all of which occurred as part of the Stingrays’ historic twenty-three game win streak. In fact, Morrison would have led the league with his 1.88 goals against average (and his .928 save percentage would have been second) had he played 100 more minutes in the ECHL last year. (He played 1341 minutes and final regular season goaltending statistics were based on a minimum of 1440 minutes.) Morrison, who blanked the opposition four times during the 2014-15 season, teamed up with Jakaitis to register a league record eleven shutouts for the Stingrays in the regular season. Morrison, who has played in two AHL games, has compiled a record of 26-19-6 in fifty-six pro games with a 2.97 goals against average and .903 save percentage and four shutouts.

Prior to turning pro, Morrison, who signed an NHL Entry Level Contract with the Boston Bruins in March of 2012, played five seasons in the Western Hockey League, principally with the Saskatoon Blades. In his final year of major junior, 2011-12, he was traded by Saskatoon to the Vancouver Giants, where he went on to win thirty-five games—fourth most that season in the WHL. In 136 career major junior games, Morrison went 78-39-10 with a 2.93 goals against average and an .899 save percentage with five shutouts.

Reading returns to action on Wednesday (November 25) when the team will travel to WesBanco Arena—where the Royals are winless in their last eight games (0-7-1-0)—to face the Wheeling Nailers (7:05 pm). The game night broadcast for Wednesday’s matchup can be heard live on CBS SportsRadio 1240 am and 98.5 in Reading, Pennsylvania, starting with the pre-game warm-up show presented by Highmark Blue Shield at 6:35 pm Eastern Time. As with all Royals’ road games this season, Saturday’s game will be televised live in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV courtesy of Boscov’s Travel and Apple Vacations. Streaming audio is available free of charge on the Royals’ website (follow the ‘headset’ icon); and streaming video is available on a pay-per-view basis through ECHL.TV.Season Tickets for the 2015-16 Reading Royals ECHL season are currently available. For more information about the Royals, call 610-898-7825 or log onto www.royalshockey.com.