Joined: Mar. 2017
Posts: 493
Likes: 30
Kassian was great, when he played for Vancouver. The question was always if he could cut the drugs out of his life. The time he wasn't playing in Vancouver, he was in a rehab and the team was doing their best to keep it out of the media which would just pile on more problems for him to deal with. I'm glad that he cleaned up and hopefully it sticks.
It was funny when Edmonton signed him and dumped Gagner. By the time Kassian moves on to a new team Edmonton will forget about how they used to call him the devil incarnate for the slash that was more boneheaded than malicious.
The biggest losers were Buffalo. Not only did they get Hodgson and his dad, they signed him to a big contract they almost immediately bought out. I don't know if the Toronto media fooled them (they got Gary Roberts to blame the Canucks before he knew the facts and caused him to apologize), or if GM Mike Gillis was a genius by inflating Hodgson's stats with easy matchups. Hodgson had a bad back which is what cut his career short (knock on wood that Roberts doesn't do the same to McDavid), so the Canucks were looking to trade him before papa Hodgson forced their hand... I wonder what the other offers were for Hodgson and Kassian, because there was disclosure about past back problems for Hodgson or substance abuse issues with Kassian.
Maybe if Kassian didn't make the local news with his car crash, Montreal would have sent him to the AHL instead. Still, it might have needed to be Bakersfield where hockey doesn't impress anyone, the town is a boring wasteland, and there's plenty of sunshine.
Pasta88Sauce, ConnorMcHellebucyk and oilersfan150 liked this.
Reply
CapFriendly
CapFriendly