About a year and a half ago, the Carolina Hurricanes signed Derek Ryan to a one-year deal. I was writing for another site at the time, and I speculated about how he could be an x-factor for the club.
At that point, no one knew a whole lot about the player Carolina was getting. He was a star player in Austria after going undrafted and playing his way through the Candian collegiate level. The year prior to joining the Hurricanes organization, he played one year in Sweden, leading the league in assists and points en route to winning the league MVP award, but the big question was just how well would that success in Europe translate to the North American professional game.