from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,
When you’ve played 636 games in the American League and only 31 in the NHL by the time you’re 29 years old, you’ve unfortunately got a billboard that screams Career Minor Leaguer.
Winger Alexandre Giroux, who had some sweet hands with 110 goals in his last 138 games in the chocolate capital of Hershey, Pa., in the past two years, knows the score. He has to prove he can be an NHLer, and this might be his best chance after there was no room for him with the Washington Capitals, who had Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin on left wing. Giroux grabbed the one-year, one-way $500,000 contract offer from the Edmonton Oilers as if it were a life-jacket this summer. He may well have been the best player in the second-best league in the world, but the clock’s ticking on his NHL dream....
“I’m not sure why he’s not in the NHL ... you’ll have to ask him. To me, he’s got great hands and great vision. He’s a good skater, not a great one, but that’s not fatal when you have hockey sense like him. Bottom line is he’s going to make it very interesting on us through training camp,” said coach Tom Renney, who was in New York when Giroux was in their system.
Original Story:
http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php...
