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FeedIs Kassian a loose cannon?
A big, tough, sandpapery winger who loves to hit, battle and mix things up along the boards and elsewhere ... the Buffalo Sabres knew exactly what they were getting when they took Zach Kassian with their first-round pick in the June 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
At least on the ice, anyway.
I wonder now whether the organization is starting to get a little edgy over the winger's off-ice antics. In case you haven't heard, the 6'3" 215-pound winger was arrested early Sunday morning for alleged fisticuffs at a Southern Ontario watering hole, reportedly splitting the lip of another bar patron before splitting from the pub.
To be fair, no charges have been filed against Kassian, the big blaster who's spent the last few years manning the wing with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. To be even more fair, we don't know the details of the brouhaha. I mean, let's be real: mix two parts Canadian kid with ten parts whiskey then add a pinch of 3 a.m., and you might want to seek shelter.
To be exceedingly fair, Kassian's just nineteen. He's just been released into the apparently wild Ontario summer bar scene and might've been sticking up for a friend or responding to another dude's jabbering and prodding. There's a world of difference between an insecure teenager and an adult who knows how and when to turn the other cheek.
After all, to pontificate that none of us were ever in the middle of some bar brawls—whether we instigated them or not—would be the pot calling the kettle an elderly Mormon pacifist.
And the same old story is sure to repeat itself every summer: NHLer or NHL prospect hangs around bar too long, bloodies his nose and knuckles, as well as someone else's, and spends the night in the clink. Just ask the Staal brothers. It's what we've come to expect.
That said ...
This isn't the first incident involving Kassian, whose reputation in OHL circles preceeds him. He's an outright villain in some Ontario loop locales after a decidedly dirty hit on the Barrie Colts' Luca Caputi early last season. His rap sheet grew by twenty games following the hit to the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect's noggin.
Kassian's probably got one year remaining in the OHL before he gets a shot to crack Buffalo's lineup in September 2011. Give credit to GM Darcy Regier for acknowledging that Kassian's toughness is a sorely needed ingredient mostly missing from his current group. Who among us doesn't like the idea of having him and Pat Kaleta in the lineup, grinding and fighting away to keep opponents on the up-and-up?
But one has to wonder whether off-ice baggage could begin compromising the youngster's progress. Will he repeat the same kind of late-night antics at closing time down on Chippewa? Kassian's apparent pattern of putting himself into bad situations should give anyone pause about his future in The Show. This isn't a late-round fringe guy, this is a first-round draft choice. If he fails to develop into a full-time NHLer, it'll be an Erik Rasmussen-esque disaster for the Sabres, a risky call of "hit me" when there's eighteen showing on the Blackjack table.
Let's follow young Zach's example and not pull punches: the legacy of drinking and partying is a firmly entrenched part of hockey culture, especially in Canadian major-junior leagues, and there are cautionary tales all over the place: Bryan Fogarty, a gifted young blueliner whose career and life were destroyed by booze; John Kordic, whose cocaine- and booze-fueled rabid pitbull of a lifestyle ended in tragedy in Quebec; David Frost, the Grand Wizard of Scumbags, whose "boys" have attested to his tacit encouragement of drinking.
As anyone who's shared a taxi or partied in a tiki hut with Ed Belfour can attest, hockey's unspoken subculture of pitcher after pitcher can and has ruined many a promising career. Am I skating too far offside to worry Kassian's headed down that path?
To reiterate, Kassian's nineteen, a year-and-a-half away from ordering a beer on this side of the Niagara. We can cut him some slack, I suppose, because he's still just kid. But after he's signed his first pro deal, he'll be making adult money, and it will be time to man up.
Contrary to what many might tell you, being a man more often than not means cutting yourself off at 1 a.m., brushing off drunken rantings of idiotic "fans" and calling a cab.
