Did the NHL ruin hockey for Stefan Legein?
Alan Bass
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: Sports
Quite a character. Stefan Legein. One of the Mississauga/ Niagara IceDogs' star forwards. He scored 43 goals and 75 points in 64 games with 115 PIM in 2006-2007, and showed what a great player he truly is... or was. Columbus saw this, and picked him 37th overall in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
On Tuesday, August 19, 2008, he suddenly shocked the hockey world, by announcing his "retirement" from hockey. Stefan Legein, the 19-year old wonder, "retires," from a sport he is not even paid to play, yet.
So basically, he quit. Stefan Legein, a player who was basically guaranteed millions in his career in the NHL, decided to quit playing the game he loved so much.
Or did he love it?
After he showed up for development camp, Legein gave Columbus "the notice a couple weeks before training camp that he did not want to report." "We got concerned about Stefan's passion and commitment last spring," Scott Howson, Columbus Blue Jackets' GM told me in an interview earlier this month, "When he told us he'd rather go home after he signed with Syracuse."
Legein was a beloved player by everyone in the locker room. He was known as a jokester, a prankster, and any other synonym there is, but not in a bad way. Take a look at the Youtube clip of him interviewing John Tavares.
As you can see, he is a great, lovable guy, that many people like to be around. He is also talented at hockey, which always helps when you are drafted in the National Hockey League.
But now he works in a pizza parlor.
Show of hands, folks, if you had a choice to be an NHL player, or a worker at Pizza Hut, what would you choose?
I thought so.
Legein, though, is not the only player who has done this. Dan Ryder, brother of NHLer Michael Ryder of the Boston Bruins, after scoring five points in his first six American League games with the Quad City Flames, decided to bolt the team and return home to Newfoundland. Ryder has since returned to his AHL team for this 2008-2009 season.
On Tuesday, August 19, 2008, he suddenly shocked the hockey world, by announcing his "retirement" from hockey. Stefan Legein, the 19-year old wonder, "retires," from a sport he is not even paid to play, yet.
So basically, he quit. Stefan Legein, a player who was basically guaranteed millions in his career in the NHL, decided to quit playing the game he loved so much.
Or did he love it?
After he showed up for development camp, Legein gave Columbus "the notice a couple weeks before training camp that he did not want to report." "We got concerned about Stefan's passion and commitment last spring," Scott Howson, Columbus Blue Jackets' GM told me in an interview earlier this month, "When he told us he'd rather go home after he signed with Syracuse."
Legein was a beloved player by everyone in the locker room. He was known as a jokester, a prankster, and any other synonym there is, but not in a bad way. Take a look at the Youtube clip of him interviewing John Tavares.
As you can see, he is a great, lovable guy, that many people like to be around. He is also talented at hockey, which always helps when you are drafted in the National Hockey League.
But now he works in a pizza parlor.
Show of hands, folks, if you had a choice to be an NHL player, or a worker at Pizza Hut, what would you choose?
I thought so.
Legein, though, is not the only player who has done this. Dan Ryder, brother of NHLer Michael Ryder of the Boston Bruins, after scoring five points in his first six American League games with the Quad City Flames, decided to bolt the team and return home to Newfoundland. Ryder has since returned to his AHL team for this 2008-2009 season.