Just look at that smile.
Colorado Avalanche fans may not be familiar with Zach Redmond, but by the end of this season they will be. Redmond is a freshly-signed free agent pickup for the Avs, signed to a two-year deal worth $1.5 million. He’ll be a bubble player for the team this year and will likely be trying to fill the shoes of the still-unsigned Cory Sarich or Andre Benoit. Ryan Wilson also spent a lot of time on the bench this year and has had injury struggles in the past, so although Wilson has a year remaining on his contract, Redmond may get some of his ice time as well.
The Texas-born Redmond is one of three triplets, which makes his story interesting enough, and he was drafted in 2008 by the Atlanta Thrashers after four promising years playing for Ferris State University in Michigan. When the Thrashers relocated to much-colder Winnipeg, Redmond went with them.
What makes Redmond’s signing with the Avs so encouraging isn’t the story of his relocation on a folded team nor his college play. Redmond has come back to pro hockey after an injury so severe that many who are on the receiving end never recover to full athletic form. In fact, many don’t even survive.
An average person will bleed to death in two or three minutes if their femoral artery is severed, and unconsciousness may come as soon as thirty seconds after the laceration. This is exactly what Redmond suffered in February 2013 after taking a skate to his thigh during practice with the Winnipeg Jets.
Redmond was rushed to the hospital and underwent a three-hour surgery to repair the cut, and Jets fans were heartbroken.
He had been a promising young defenseman who had a chance to step up to the Jets roster for the first time when Zach Bogosian was out due to a wrist injury. After cracking into the Jets lineup, Redmond played big minutes, averaging over twenty minutes of TOI per game. He scored two assists in his third NHL game, then managed a short-handed goal in his fourth. The devastating injury came less than two weeks later.
Though Jets coach Claude Noel assured the fanbase that Redmond “would be fine,” fans and media speculated if there might be permanent damage. Depending on the location of the cut, there could be damage to his sciatic nerve, and the fact that Redmond spent several days hospitalised was testament to the seriousness of his condition.
He spent most of March recovering at home in Michigan, then in April, his doctors announced that he was expected to make a full recovery, which they called “miraculous.” Six weeks later, Redmond was back on the ice, working through obvious pain but undeterred.
“Just seeing him definitely took your mind off of what was going on, first and foremost,” Andrew Ladd told the Winnipeg Free Press. “To see him back and doing so well is awesome for everyone in this room. It took our mind away from things going on, and all the negativity, and you just focus on how well he’s doing and having him around again.”
Redmond was sent down to Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate St. John’s Ice Caps for conditioning, which came as no surprise. The Jets failed to make the playoffs that year, but Redmond was re-signed.
Another injury to Zach Bogosian in September 2013 saw Redmond recalled for his first NHL game since his injury. He played three games for the Jets before being sent back to St. John’s once Bogosian had recovered. The floundering Jets placed Redmond on the roster for the Ice Caps’ AHL playoffs run, and that was when he began to show off his recovery in earnest.
Redmond was a vital contributor to the Ice Caps during their campaign, where they lost the Calder Cup Finals to the Texas Stars. Redmond contributed two goals and twelve assists for a total of fourteen points in the AHL postseason.
The Jets offered him a deal to remain in Winnipeg, but Redmond chose to sign with the Avalanche.
It makes sense that Redmond would take a deal with Colorado rather than remaining with the Jets: Winnipeg is a team that is heavy on defensive talent such as Tobias Enström, the aforementioned Bogosian, and up and comer Jacob Trouba. The Avalanche’s defensive performance surprised many last season, but even the most diehard fans admit the team’s blue line is still a work in progress.
So will Redmond help fix that? Likely not immediately. It’s hard to say what impact Redmond’s lineup will have on the team, considering he’s likely chasing the seventh defensive spot, which typically isn’t a game-changer. However, he is determined to play for a team where he will remain on their NHL roster full time, a fact which he told the Denver Post’s Mike Chambers recently:
The move from Winnipeg was “nothing personal. They are pretty crowded up top on the right side, even with (Dustin) Byfuglien at forward. It was a good opportunity to move somewhere where I can try to get into the lineup every night.”
Redmond is a classy addition to the Colorado lineup with good things to say about his old clubs:
My hopes are that Zach Redmond might turn out to be this season’s Nick Holden, who was a surprise find that spent much of the first half of the season scratched, only to blossom into a real contributor both offensively and defensively by the time the Avs entered the playoffs. Holden was a basically unheard-of quantity who worked his ass off, and it shows in how his play has developed.
If one thing can be said of Zach Redmond, it’s that he’s a hard worker. He’s come back from a brutal injury to offer sustained playoff success in the AHL. He might just be the surprise defensive pickup for 2014-15 that the Avalanche need. And even if he doesn’t ascend to Nick Holden levels of surprise, his $700,000 cap hit means he’s a risk more than worth taking.
