ASU Hockey: Forward Jared Morris replenishes unit hurt by graduation

Arizona State hockey has spent the offseason bolstering its blue line, but Monday's announcement signals that coach Greg Powers and his staff are still reloading up front.

The latest commit is Jared Morris, a 6-foot-1-inch, 201-pound forward from La Salle, Manitoba, Canada. Morris becomes the fourth Canadian recruit of the offseason.

"Jared is a monster pick up for our program," Powers said. "He's a big-time talent up front and gives us a pure goal scorer which we needed losing the guns that we graduated."

Very excited to add goal scoring machine @Morrj20 from @dauphinkings #BIGpickup @ASUD1Hockey #wedontrebuildwereload, @mjhlhockey

— Greg Powers (@asucoachpowers) June 23, 2014

Morris joins fellow Canadians Mak Barden and Connor Mailey as Arizona State's forward recruits, a position that was hurt by graduation, as Powers mentioned. All four top scorers were forwards and all four- Kale Dolinski, Danny McAuliffe, Brian McGinty and Colin Hekle- graduated.

Morris spent last season with the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, where he scored 18 goals and nine assists in 39 games. His best season in 2011-12 when he was with the Winnipeg Blues of the MJHL. That season he registered 68 points in 60 games, with 29 goals and 39 assists.

Powers said Morris passed on multiple chances to play NCAA hockey in order to come to Arizona State.

"Finding kids like Jared who have tremendously high character, are great students, and can score at will is tough but we've done that with Jared," Powers said. "He is going to fit in perfect with our system and culture, and will be a big piece to us defending our championship with his goal scoring ability."