It’s hard not to root for a guy like Yanni Gourde who played for the Kalamazoo Wings a scant number of years ago, and was even cited by our man (who used to be) in Kalamazoo, JustinG! Back in 2016, Justin wrote in an interview with the Kalamazoo front office:
It’s great to build success at an early level. If you have affiliates that win, it breeds an expectation in the players that success is the norm and they carry that throughout their development. As far as players who are pushed up the ladder, current Syracuse Crunch Yanni Gourde spent 2013-14 in Kalamazoo scoring 34 points in 30 games.