The term “good soldier” gets thrown around a lot in sports. Not in a literal sense, obviously, but as a player who simply puts his head down, goes to work, and does his absolute best, no matter the circumstances surrounding him.
Scott Darling has been a pretty good soldier these three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks.
He started off by toiling away in the minors, a guy who had been bouncing around various teams until the Blackhawks signed him to a one-year NHL contract in 2014. He put up good numbers, got called up, put up more good numbers, helped the team win a playoff round, helped them win a Stanley Cup: all at a $570,000 cap hit.