We should all be ashamed of ourselves. Before last season, some Chicago Blackhawks fans and others were hyping up this 18-year-old kid who tore up the Ontario Hockey League, scoring more than 100 points in three straight seasons.
But his size was what made several folks skeptical on whether his game would translate to the pros, or if he would even make it to that level. We were told to “pump the brakes,” on the 2016 second-round draft pick, but DeBrincat had no such plans.
DeBrincat made the Blackhawks out of training camp and played well enough for coach Joel Quenneville to keep him in the lineup for all 82 games of the regular season.