Seriously, he might have had a dozen! I played with a guy in our non checking leagues and he kept getting concussed. With real checking all the time, I wouldn't be surprised if he is finished. Maybe he should just give it up
Yup, such a young player. I think we should keep this in mind when thinking about all these other young players we have. Crazy to count out Nylander yet, for instance
I see some very good things and some somewhat troubling things with our defense as we move forward
Good: they are young and can all get better. Nelson is an example of what can happen to a young defenseman after getting some time to develop. I never thought he would make it but he went down and worked hard and looks pretty good. I'd expect that all our young d can improve from Risto on down.
Bad: the lack of scoring. This is very bad. Last team in the league to get a goal from the blue line and it took two months! Maybe they can collectively improve enough to start contributing more in future years. They have to or we probably won't win a cup
Good: Depth. We are starting to see them not have to play Josh Gorges! They have enough decent NHL players to fill out the roster each night even though there are injuries
Bad: no real stud. Risto is as close as we get but he is no Duncan Keith or Victor Hedman. This is a real concern. Most of the great teams have that one great defenseman. This might get addressed in the draft but if not I don't see us getting the super star back there and we will have to hope the group as a whole improves to the point the are a great unit.