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STL fan in MN said:
Jets prospect Chaz Lucius forced to retire due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.


He was drafted 1 spot behind Bolduc in 2021. Was a pretty highly touted prospect a couple years ago but has then stagnated and dealt with a lot of injuries. Now we know why…tough break for him.
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Brutal news for the kid.

I hope (and believe) that the formal mechanism here will be to put him on LTIR next year so he earns his NHL salary. That's a small consolation compared to the expectation of an NHL career, but earning that $832k will be almost 200% of his career earnings to-date and should be a huge deal for a guy that needs to completely re-set his career path and won't get the lifetime health/pension benefits that guys with actual NHL careers earn. Hopefully the Jets do right by him and offer a job in their coaching/scouting staff if he wants to stay in hockey (and if he doesn't want to put down roots in Winnipeg hopefully they exhaust their contacts to get him a role somewhere). The kid left college after a year to sign with the Jets, who haven't exactly had much luck signing guys out of the NCAA. Now is the time to show some financial and career-path loyalty to a guy who signed quickly.
 
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Brian39 said:
Brutal news for the kid.

I hope (and believe) that the formal mechanism here will be to put him on LTIR next year so he earns his NHL salary. That's a small consolation compared to the expectation of an NHL career, but earning that $832k will be almost 200% of his career earnings to-date and should be a huge deal for a guy that needs to completely re-set his career path and won't get the lifetime health/pension benefits that guys with actual NHL careers earn. Hopefully the Jets do right by him and offer a job in their coaching/scouting staff if he wants to stay in hockey (and if he doesn't want to put down roots in Winnipeg hopefully they exhaust their contacts to get him a role somewhere). The kid left college after a year to sign with the Jets, who haven't exactly had much luck signing guys out of the NCAA. Now is the time to show some financial and career-path loyalty to a guy who signed quickly.
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Initially I thought this was a new diagnosis, but I think that’s incorrect. I believe he has known about this all along and reached the point where a medical retirement made more sense, but it was probably long foreseen. I’d like to think this was a family plan to maximize his earnings given the situation.
 
Stupendous Yappi said:
Initially I thought this was a new diagnosis, but I think that’s incorrect. I believe he has known about this all along and reached the point where a medical retirement made more sense, but it was probably long foreseen. I’d like to think this was a family plan to maximize his earnings given the situation.
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They badly bungled the plan if that is the case. If they had this diagnosis following his 2022/23 shoulder surgery and brought it to the team, he would have been declared medically unfit to play the 2023/24 season onward and he would have earned his NHL salary for all 3 years of his ELC. Trying to play through it the last 2 years meant that he made his $92k AHL salary instead of a $832k NHL salary each year. That's just shy of $1.5M he missed out on by trying to play hockey. That would be a disastrously bad decision had they known about the diagnosis. It would be about $750k in lost wages had they known going into the 2024/25 season.

I have no reason to disbelieve his statement that it is a recent diagnosis. This is a pretty rare disorder and while I'm far from an expert, everything I see with a quick google search suggests that it can take 10+ years of symptoms before getting an accurate diagnosis. He very likely had several different medical staffs treating his injuries across 2 junior teams, an NCAA team, an AHL team, and an NHL team and any individual injury easily could be chalked up to 'that gigantic physical specimen of a human being caused violent trauma to you.' A lot of the symptoms are increased joint flexibility and excess bruising. Moreover, unless he actively sought a 3rd party opinion, his diagnosing doctor would have been a team doctor that wouldn't have cleared him to play or kept it from the Jets.

I think 'player appears injury prone and at 21 gets a brutal diagnosis' is way more likely than 'player hides diagnosis from his pro team to miss out on $1.5M of earnings and keep getting hurt in the AHL.'
 
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Probably a little of column A (Yappi) and column B (Brian).

My wife is an RN and has a type of muscular dystrophy (charcot-marie-tooth) so I get to listen to her drone on...I mean tell riveting stories...about diseases caused by genetic mutations. EDS is hereditary and it is my understanding that it gets diagnosed under repetitive flare-up events, kind of like multiple sclerosis. You could do genetic testing, but I know that's really a personal preference and a family decision. It sounds like he has EDS Type I or II (just based on the statement description, but I could be wrong), so I have to imagine that one of his parents also has EDS. Someone smarter than me that actually has experience here could probably explain it better.

If one parent has EDS with dominant inheritance, the family definitely knew what was coming down the line and I hope they didn't keep him in the dark about it. That's literally a 50/50 shot of passing that gene to your offspring. I found out last summer my mom has a hereditary genetic disease that she never told me about and I really wish she had.
 
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ds774622 said:
Probably a little of column A (Yappi) and column B (Brian).

My wife is an RN and has a type of muscular dystrophy (charcot-marie-tooth) so I get to listen to her drone on...I mean tell riveting stories...about diseases caused by genetic mutations. EDS is hereditary and it is my understanding that it gets diagnosed under repetitive flare-up events, kind of like multiple sclerosis. You could do genetic testing, but I know that's really a personal preference and a family decision. It sounds like he has EDS Type I or II (just based on the statement description, but I could be wrong), so I have to imagine that one of his parents also has EDS. Someone smarter than me that actually has experience here could probably explain it better.

If one parent has EDS with dominant inheritance, the family definitely knew what was coming down the line and I hope they didn't keep him in the dark about it. That's literally a 50/50 shot of passing that gene to your offspring. I found out last summer my mom has a hereditary genetic disease that she never told me about and I really wish she had.
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I diagnose EDS not infrequently. I see kids with scoliosis, chest wall deformities, spontaneous pneumothoraces or chest pain with exercise. It comes up pretty regularly in my work.

The variety that threatens aortic wall stretch and fatal dissection is the reason not to play pro sports. Having joint laxity or lens dislocations would make it difficult to be good enough to play pro sports, but I don't see why it would force a retirement if you got a new diagnosis.

I don't want to speculate, but it could be a new diagnosis that is an excuse to finally give up on a career maybe, that was already heading that direction. I thought maybe he had some financial incentive for it to be a 'medical' retirement vs just hanging them up.

Its pretty hard to believe a guy could go through the scrutiny of draft preparation and no doctor there notice his body type and other telltale signs. And if he had such mild problems that there WERE no telltale signs, I'm thinking its got to be risk of health problems that forced the retirement...which would be aortic dilatation as the main concern.

There are some details of this story that make little sense to me.
 
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Memento said:
Ray Shero has passed at 62. Greg Millen passed not even a week before at 67. That's...close to my folks' age, and it's...really sobering. May they rest in peace and paradise.

Longtime NHL executive Ray Shero dies at 62

Millen dies at 67, 'left an indelible mark' on NHL as CBC, SN analyst | NHL.com
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Yeah that’s sad. That’s way too young.

Also this week, Cardinals 2011 World Series legend Octavio Dotel passed away. I remember him being good for STL during that run, and when I was a kid I loved him on the Astros.

Not a great week in sports. Bummer to see this stuff.
 
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BlueDream said:
Yeah that’s sad. That’s way too young.

Also this week, Cardinals 2011 World Series legend Octavio Dotel passed away. I remember him being good for STL during that run, and when I was a kid I loved him on the Astros.

Not a great week in sports. Bummer to see this stuff.
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Mhm. Dotel's death (along with the other hundred or so deaths from that tragedy) was hard to swallow because it shouldn't have happened.
 
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The Frozen Four begins today with the semifinals. Any of you STL area folks heading to the games?

4pm: Denver vs Western Michigan, ESPN2

7:30pm: Boston University vs Penn State, ESPN2

Things I’ll be watching for:
•WM is the highest seed left (#3 overall). They don’t have a lot of name recognition (top player is Philly 5th rounder Alex Bump) but they’re solid, big, physical and play a good two-way game. They’re good in close games. Can they win their 1st Natty?

•Denver is the reigning champs and are led by Zeev Buium. They’ve had an up and down season but they know how to win this time of year. Most Nattys at 9. Can they make it 10? Coach David Carle is legit. Jack Devine lead the nation in scoring with 57 pts. This afternoon’s game is a rematch of the NCHC title game which WM took in double-OT. I’ll pick Denver to win today but it’s a toss-up.

•BU lost Macklin Celebrini and Lane Hutson from last year’s team but they’re back in the Frozen Four again. They also had an up and down year but their young guns have caught fire. Their best player is Lane’s clone - Cole Hutson but they also have Tom Willander and Cole Eiserman. Leading scorer is Quinn Hutson. He’s the eldest brother.

•Penn State is the Cinderella team. 6th just in the Big 10 this year, last at-large team to get a bid to the tourney yet they pulled off two upsets to get here. Nashville 7th rounder Aiden Fink is their top player. They’ll need 2 more huge upsets to win it all. I don’t like their chances but in a winner take all environment, anything can happen.

•Will there be any ice issues near the Broncos logo? The NCAA sent the wrong (old) Broncos logo to Enterpsise Center and that’s what got put on the ice. The WM athletic director balked when he saw pics of the rink on Monday and Enterprise Center fixed it by Tues evening. I can only assume that meant shaving the ice down in that area an inch, removing the old logo, putting in the new logo and then slowly building the ice back up. As a former zam driver myself that’s led the effort to paint the ice at a rink a few times, I can tell you this was not an easy task.
 
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STL fan in MN said:
The Frozen Four begins today with the semifinals. Any of you STL area folks heading to the games?

4pm: Denver vs Western Michigan, ESPN2

7:30pm: Boston University vs Penn State, ESPN2

Things I’ll be watching for:
•WM is the highest seed left (#3 overall). They don’t have a lot of name recognition (top player is Philly 5th rounder Alex Bump) but they’re solid, big, physical and play a good two-way game. They’re good in close games. Can they win their 1st Natty?

•Denver is the reigning champs and are led by Zeev Buium. They’ve had an up and down season but they know how to win this time of year. Most Nattys at 9. Can they make it 10? Coach David Carle is legit. Jack Devine lead the nation in scoring with 57 pts. This afternoon’s game is a rematch of the NCHC title game which WM took in double-OT. I’ll pick Denver to win today but it’s a toss-up.

•BU lost Macklin Celebrini and Lane Hutson from last year’s team but they’re back in the Frozen Four again. They also had an up and down year but their young guns have caught fire. Their best player is Lane’s clone - Cole Hutson but they also have Tom Willander and Cole Eiserman. Leading scorer is Quinn Hutson. He’s the eldest brother.

•Penn State is the Cinderella team. 6th just in the Big 10 this year, last at-large team to get a bid to the tourney yet they pulled off two upsets to get here. Nashville 7th rounder Aiden Fink is their top player. They’ll need 2 more huge upsets to win it all. I don’t like their chances but in a winner take all environment, anything can happen.

•Will there be any ice issues near the Broncos logo? The NCAA sent the wrong (old) Broncos logo to Enterpsise Center and that’s what got put on the ice. The WM athletic director balked when he saw pics of the rink on Monday and Enterprise Center fixed it by Tues evening. I can only assume that meant shaving the ice down in that area an inch, removing the old logo, putting in the new logo and then slowly building the ice back up. As a former zam driver myself that’s led the effort to paint the ice at a rink a few times, I can tell you this was not an easy task.
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Penn State isn't as much of a surprise as it seems. They got off to rough start, but they were perhaps best team in Big10 2nd half of season.
 
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Blues no longer are the masters of their own destiny. That could wind up being a very big point they lost against EDM.

Still in good shape, but not having the tie-breaker against MIN and CAL having a game in hand and only 3 points back - if CAL holds on - puts their backs against the wall. They probably need to win both games to ensure they make the dance.

At least as of now its not looking like a 3 point game. MIN last two are against VAN and ANA, both of whom are playing well recently. CAL has SJ, EDM, LA.

This could get real tight..
 
sbet1998 said:
Blues no longer are the masters of their own destiny. That could wind up being a very big point they lost against EDM.

Still in good shape, but not having the tie-breaker against MIN and CAL having a game in hand and only 3 points back - if CAL holds on - puts their backs against the wall. They probably need to win both games to ensure they make the dance.

At least as of now its not looking like a 3 point game. MIN last two are against VAN and ANA, both of whom are playing well recently. CAL has SJ, EDM, LA.

This could get real tight..
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The Blues control their fate. If they win both Calgary will finish behind them. 97 points. Most Calgary can get is 96.
 
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Stupendous Yappi said:
The Blues control their fate. If they win both Calgary will finish behind them. 97 points. Most Calgary can get is 96.
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I was just about to hit post on an edit saying the same thing when you responded, nice timing LOL. I used that new math for a minute there when looking at CAL's games in hand. Thought they had 4 left after tonight for some reason. Beer may or may not be involved.
 
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Rinzel is going to be a handful, too. Needs a lot of work in his own end, as most 20 year olds do, but he is a one man break out. I’m seeing a lot of Parayko in the transition and offensive side of his game.
 
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