[Erick Estrada]

I think one has to put themselves in his shoes. He was in the Hart trophy conversation on an up and coming Panthers team. Basically on top of the hockey world. A year later he's in Western Canada playing on a new team where he and Kadri are expected to replace the team's top two players in Tkachuk and Gaudreau playing under a grumpy coach that utilizes a totally different system than he had been accustomed to playing over his career. Both he and Kadri had issues finding chemistry with their new teammates, adapting to a new system, and his numbers have totally fallen off and as of today he's come full 180 back to where he started his career on a rebuilding team while his ex-teammates are drinking out of the Stanley Cup. Is there a single person here that would be happy if they were in his shoes? Even if he was an 80+ point player in Calgary the reality is that the Panthers would still be Stanley Cup champions and it's likely he's never going to get close to even playing in a Stanley Cup final so that dream, the dream of most NHL players is effectively dead for him.

I'm not going to feel overly sorry for a guy making $10.5 million dollars but I certainly wouldn't expect him to be happy about how his career has unfolded and I can understand his frustrations. The fact that he's talking about being 100% committed to his new role as a mentor at least indicates that he's a true pro accepting that he still has to put the work in and be a good influence rather than just taking the money, sulking, and going through the motions. The situation sucks for him, the team, and the fans but at least he's trying to make the best of it and I respect that.