ABU DHABI is not the first place that pops up when one thinks of hockey.
It certainly didn’t for four-year-old Jonathan Morello. But his father’s career in landscape architecture took him all over the world. When his company, LANDinc, took on a job in the United Arab Emirates, he brought his family along for a short stint abroad from Canada.
As a kid living in a country with very few ice rinks, Morello was occupied by other sports. There were wrestling classes and pools to swim in. But in his first sport, soccer, he had no problem ruffling some feathers.
“We saw that he was really competitive,” said Morello’s father, Patrick. “He did not like the ball being taken away from him.”
Nowadays, he doesn’t like the puck being taken away from him either. BU’s freshman center has approached everything the same throughout his life: with incredible enthusiasm. That mindset has helped with a seamless transition into college hockey.
The Bruins’ fifth-round pick joined BU this past fall, projecting as a bottom-of-the-lineup player among many teammates with much higher draft status. Currently third on the team in rating at a plus-9 and tied-fourth in goals scored at six, his fifth-round pedigree hasn’t prevented him from producing for a top-tier program.
“We have a lot of trust in him, we know what we’re going to get from him every night,” said BU head coach Jay Pandolfo. “He’s producing a little bit more too than maybe we thought.”
Way before he was impressing his future head coach at BU, life turned back to Toronto for Morello. The number of ice rinks went from one to anywhere he looked. Although Morello was behind the eight ball on his start with hockey, there was no denying his love for the game was there. Starting at age six, he skated as much as he could, even in sub-zero temperatures.
Eventually, he and his father built a rink in his own backyard.
“We used 100 percent of the yard as a rink, and it was a small, inner-city yard. [The rink was] 17 feet wide by 30 feet deep,” said Patrick. “I’d do nothing different. It was so much fun.”
(Patrick Morello)
When Morello came inside, he’d watch games on TV. He grew into a true fan of the sport itself, and his appreciation for the teams in the NHL’s spotlight was apparent. From wearing Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs pajamas to his favorite players being Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron, he couldn’t get enough.
MORELLO ENTERED organized hockey as an undersized player. Early on, his father made sure to provide him with opportunities to be coached and instilled a no-excuses attitude within his son. Nearly every week for the next decade was hockey-centric for Morello. Whether it was a practice or a training session, he approached it all the same.
Morello was fond of practice. He focused on little details from his coaches, who taught him to play the right way. Accountability was a quality that every one of his mentors boasted about.
“He’s one of those kids and one of those families you really root for,” said Colin Murdoch, Morello’s former youth coach with the Vaughn Kings, a Toronto-based AAA club. “He was a good teammate, he worked hard, his parents supported him.”
These days, it’s not common to find those attributes in young players, even in a competitive, elite hockey culture like Toronto’s. Where certain parents would pay for their kids’ ice time, Morello put his nose to the grindstone and worked for it. He even raised money from selling old sticks and furniture online to buy himself new equipment.
“He had an incredibly good work ethic. Even as a young kid, he was pretty disciplined,” said Dave Levtov, a skating coach with the Power Skating Academy in Toronto. “But now it’s even blossomed that he’s not afraid to push himself.”
(Patrick Morello)
Levtov has been practicing with Morello for over 10 years. He still works with him during the NCAA’s semester break. Aside from the focus on skating, he emphasized another aspect of Morello’s growth: his confidence.
“A lot of times players don’t want to fail, they don’t want to fall, they don’t want to look bad because somebody’s watching,” said Levtov. “He doesn’t care who’s watching. He wants to get better.”
Speed developed into one of Morello’s key attributes, which has been highlighted throughout his development. It became a skill that stood out when numbers didn’t pop on the stat sheet. In three junior seasons spent with the OJHL’s St. Michael’s Buzzers and the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, Morello was only a point-per-game player once. The Bruins still took a chance on him in the 2024 draft.
Anthony Stewart, a former NHLer, knows how hard it is to reach the NHL and stick. He noticed Morello’s speed at first glance, but when getting to know Morello through recruitment for his Toronto Young Nationals club team, there was more than what met the eye.
Unlike his teammates, who got rides from their parents after school, Morello took the subway, a 40-minute trek to Stewart’s gym outside of the city, where he’d spend a majority of his afternoons training on and off the ice.
“People would actually see him walking across the bridge,” said Stewart of Morello after he hopped off the train. “About a 15-minute walk with his bag. Some parents would stop and pick him up, or one of us would drop him off afterwards.”
Morello loves the gym. To the point where one of his trainers, Matt Nichol, who has worked with NHL players for 30 years, would have to kick him out of his facility.
“He’s never not been early, he’s never not stayed later. He’s a kid that will stick around after a workout and help to clean up,” said Nichol. “He’s a kid that, when we have interns in the gym, he’ll go out of his way to come over and introduce himself. Little things that don’t appear on a stat sheet and don’t appear in a scouting report, but they matter.”
In the 2022 OHL draft, Morello was one of three players offered a contract out of 54 players who attended tryouts. Taking that OHL contract at the time meant Morello would lose his eligibility for the NCAA. Playing in a tier two junior league wasn’t a commonality for those who were hopeful to get picked in the NHL Draft.
“It was a big, big risk. Very rarely do you see guys get drafted to the NHL [before] the sixth or seventh round, who are from Ontario and not playing major junior hockey,” Stewart said.
Twenty-eight players have been taken in the NHL Draft out of the OJHL. Morello is one of 15 players to be taken before the sixth round. After a second standout season with St. Michaels, in which he won the OJHL’s Top Prospect Award, the Bruins selected him at 154th overall in the fifth round.
Now at BU, Morello has turned himself into one of the Terriers’ most consistent forwards. Any player, in any situation, that has lined up next to No. 10 on the roster sheet has found comfort playing with him.
“Just being relied on in any situation is something that’s key. Whether it’s taking faceoffs or [playing on the] power play, penalty kill [or at] 5-on-5,” Morello said, having filled in for injured teammates during a 4-3 overtime win against Northeastern on Nov. 22. “Being able to fill in for them and make a contribution in any way I can was good.”
Having scored at TD Garden in the Beanpot semifinals on February 2nd, it has been quite the experience for the freshman forward in what could be a future home stadium for him.
“I’m sure it’s exciting for him, knowing he’s drafted by the Boston Bruins and to play in that arena must be special for him. I thought he handled it really well,” said Pandolfo, “It’s all the same what we’ve seen from him, just a pretty consistent game. I’m sure it felt pretty good to get a goal as well.”
His impactful first year of college has been only another step in his development. He’s already surprised some people with his performance, but others believe Morello’s trending towards a status that will surpass what anyone originally thought of him.
“He’s not going to be looking like a fifth-rounder when it’s all said and done,” said Stewart. “He’s going to look closer to a first or second.”
And:
“He’s going to play in the NHL.”