When he joined the Colorado Avalanche it didn’t take long for Nail Yakuov to become a favorite of mine. After the 2016-17 Season of Sadness it was a breath of fresh air to be introduced to a player who was laughing and joking with his teammates. He was clearly going to be fun to watch.
Looking at Yakupov’s year with the Avs it would be easy to focus on the numbers. Of course I was disappointed when things trailed off for him, especially when it led to him being a healthy scratch for a lot of the latter half of the season.