Little's been in the organization since its days as the Atlanta Thrashers and has filled every shoe they've asked him to, from first-line centre (earning a respectable 64 points in 2013-14), to second-line pivot - the position he's been in most often - to third-line checking centre when the Winnipeg Jets felt they needed an upgrade for the playoffs these past two seasons and traded draft picks at the deadline for a few months of Paul Stastny (with success) and Kevin Hayes (a dud).
All in all, he has five 20-goal seasons (with a high of 31 in 2008-09) and been above the 45-point threshold six times, and only failed to hit the 40-point mark once (2009-10) when playing a full season (which excludes his 48-game rookie year and the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign).
This season, he has 5 points in 7 games (a 55-point pace on a full season), although he will miss a considerable amount of time due to a pierced eardrum and ensuing vertigo. As someone who's been off-balance for the better part of the past 15 years, I can tell you that these symptoms are tricky and tend to linger on for s long time; it's also what I think stops Corey Crawford from playing like his usual self this year although he might feel physically fit.
I wish little a full and speedy recovery. He's still just 31 years old - he's technically got a couple of high-level hockey seasons left in him, and he's too young to be stuck in a sofa for the rest of his life.
He signed two rookie cards from his Thrashers days last season, and I'm starting to realize I really liked their colour scheme and logos; had it not been for the Reebok piping, the white (away) uniform would have been amazing, as can be attested from card #301 from Upper Deck's 2007-08 Victory set:
No comments:
Post a Comment