Stefan Legein

It's nice to hear that Stefan Legein has decided to resume his playing career. For those of you who don't know much about Stefan, he is a 19 year old kid and 2nd round draft pick of Columbus in 2007, who "lost his desire to play hockey." He was, I'm sure, one of many kids who struggled with the pressure to constantly perform and becoming grown up while barely finishing high school.

His decision to "retire" at 19 was largely a reflection on the NHL system as a whole rather than Stefan Legein himself. An NHL player is drafted and can start his career at 18, the youngest of any of the Big 4 leagues. Though baseball players can be drafted in high school, the majority of them are drafted while in college, and after they are drafted the norm is for a top prospect to at least spend a year or two in the minor leagues moving through rookie ball, A ball, AA and finally AAA before they make it to the majors. This is not a required progression, but a player rarely makes it to the majors and makes a significant contribution until at least 2 years after they have been drafted. In the NBA, players are required to spend at least 1 year in college, and there is a significant push to require players to spend 2 years in college. The NBA has changed this rule in recent years after a majority of players who were drafted out of high school simply couldn't make it into a rotation or gain significant playing time for their first few years. Without a legitimate development league, the NBA decided that their young phenom's would be better served with at least a year's worth of college to gain playing time and maturity. Finally, the NFL requires their players to spend at least 2 years in college before being draft eligible, and there are a significant number of players who choose to spend 3 or 4 years before being drafted.

In comparison young prospects in the NHL haven't necessarily even graduated from high school before they have the weight of the world put on their shoulders and have expectations that they'll become the saviour of whatever franchise they are drafted by. I'm not sure I am legitimately suggesting that the NHL should or can change the age at which players can be drafted because there is a strong system for developing young players through the major junior ranks, the American college system and the AHL. What I am suggesting, however, is that it's not surprising that one player would find that pressure to be too much at the age of 19 and would lose their interest or passion to play. If you do not have a passion to play hockey, there is no way that you can legitimately play in the NHL and especially for a player like Legein, there is no way that he can properly develop if he is not motivated to do so.

Stefan Legein looks like a really bright kid who gets that he needs to be motivated and to have fun to become a good NHL player. I really hope that he has found that motivation and that he can enjoy hockey even when he is expected to grow up far sooner than most people his age. There are significant expectations on him and they seem to be well founded, he seems to have a signifcant skill set, and also seems to relish the role of agitator, and so it is possible that he could become a Sean Avery type player (without the comments about ex-girlfriends and all his other stupidty), a player who can get under the other teams skin, but can also score 20 goals or 50 points every year as well. Let's hope this time off has been good for the kid and that hockey is fun again for him, not just full of pressure and expecations.

More news and details of Stefan Legein's decision can be found below in TSN's story.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=258235&lid=sublink09&lpos=headlines_nhl