Luke Glendening has been a winner and leader throughout his hockey career, starting with two seasons as the University of Michigan Wolverines' captain, leading them a CCHA title and NCAA Final. He then won the Calder Cup with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins in 2012-13, following a 26-point rookie season in the pros.
After starting the 2013-14 season in the AHL, posting 12 points (5 goals and 7 assists) in 18 games, he was recalled by the Detroit Red Wings, who were facing a ton of injuries, and he hasn't looked back since. Sure, he took a personal step back with just 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) in 74 games last year, missing the last six because of injuries as the Wings ended a 26-year consecutive playoff streak, but the 28-year-old whose cap hit is below the $2M mark should hover around 10 goals and 20 points per year, and a half-point-per-game average in the playoffs, which makes him a valuable NHLer.
He has a tremendous work ethic and has become a good two-way center who starts most of his team's penalty-killing shifts.
I was extremely happy to pull this card from a raffle/group break last month, showing him in the Wings' red 2016 Stadium Series uniform, which includes the old-school stylized "D" on the chest, although I am not fond of the football-style huge numbers on the arms:
Glendening was likely to be left available at the expansion draft in a couple of weeks, but an ankle surgery may have the Vegas Golden Knights looking to grab another Detroit player instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment