Is Marian Gaborik Paying for the Player He Is or the Player He Can Be?

When healthy, it goes without saying that Marian Gaborik is one of the NHL's most prolific goal-scorers that poses just as much of an offensive threat as players like Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Dany Heatley. When healthy . You see, Gaborik's problem has nothing do with his play when he's on the ice but rather the amount of time he spends off it. A lot. Upon being drafted third overall by the Minnesota Wild in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, Gaborik's first three years in NHL saw him miss a total of only 16 regular season games as he quickly rose to stardom becoming the team's franchise player. And despite playing under a very defensive-minded head coach in Jacques Lemaire, Gaborik still managed to enjoy back-to-back 30-goal seasons in 2001-02 and 2002-03. It seemed as though things could only go up for the talented young winger but his career would take a serious turn for the worse when he returned to the NHL after the lockout for the 2005-06 season. A groin injury would see ... (link)