Matt Duchene scored the series-winner against the team that drafted him, and thereby created one of the more striking bits of drama in a Stanley Cup Playoffs full of them.
And now that the Dallas Stars have brought home the Central Division title, it’s a good time to reflect on his journey, and how it brought him here. In his latest post, Mike Heika examined a career path “so jagged, it actually kind of hurt at times”:
Duchene, who was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche, spent eight seasons there, played in just eight playoff games in that span and eventually asked for a trade, fit a decade of ups and downs into one game, and walked out of Ball Arena just a bit reborn.