[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Split98

This is just nutty. Giordano's first full season was 2009-10 and Bouwmeester had really entered the NHL in 2005-06. Bouw also already had 36 NHL points from his rookie NHL stint already under his belt, and Gio had 35 NHL points from his. They started off pretty evenly, but 4 years apart.

At the end of Gio's 19 point rookie year, Bouwmeester added 29 points to his total (lowest since 2003-04, with his new team) to his 232 point total

He wasn't the 40ish point defenseman we thought he was, and he hasn't been since he left Florida - but that is a pretty good defenceman Gio is passing at the same age.

Gio just blew the doors off the kid a lot of people were fawning over at the start of the race. He also started back in Russia and didn't reach the starting line before Bouw was approaching the mid-way point.

With all that you said, it's pretty amazing to think that Giordano will be one of the top 100 scoring defensemen in NHL history. He didn't even turn into a top pairing defenseman until 2009, so really he's only been doing this level of play for 9 years. Just think if he figured it out sooner or didn't go to Russia!