Hockey fans and especially Canadian boys try to take an example from their idol Wayne Gretzky, while forgetting that such a hockey player, according to experts, is born once in a thousand years. Although the NHL hockey clubs are filled with talented young people, but not everyone is doing well. And more often, a hockey biography has the appearance of a bumpy bumpy path than a wide rolled highway. And Giroud Alexander is a vivid example of this. Not deprived of hockey talent, the athlete could not find himself in any of the NHL teams, which he dreamed of playing in since childhood. In the end, he leaves North America and goes to work in Europe. Let's see how this voyage of the Canadian striker ended.
Giroud Alexander: the path to the professionals
The future athlete was born back in 1981 and, like all the boys of that time, dreamed of playing for the Montreal Canadiens. Probably, such a career was planned for his child by his parents. And like a normal Canadian boy, Giroud Alexander takes his first steps in youth hockey. He begins his appearances for the Hull Olympics in the main junior hockey league of Quebec. Alexander Giroud, a hockey player who is seventeen years old, spends 67 games per season and scores fifteen goals. It seemed enough reason to attract attention. But no. Next season, he has already played five matches more and has already scored 52 goals, a great reason to be noticed, but it wasn’t there. The next season he spends in the same league with no less success, but receives an invitation only to one of the adult teams of the American hockey league.
He will need to spend another five long seasons in the AHL, playing an average of seventy matches per season and scoring about one hundred and twenty goals so that an athlete will receive an invitation to NHL hockey already at a solid hockey age.
Relationship striker and NHL
The relationship between the hockey player and the National Hockey League did not work out. The first NHL club with which Giroud Alexander signed a contract is the New York Rangers. The player spends for the team only one match and again goes on loan to the AHL. In this league, Alexander holds an enchanting season, having played 67 matches and scored seventy points for 42 goals and 28 assists. Now he is noticed by the Washington Capitals. But in it the hockey player spends only nine matches with two goals scored and returns to the AHL for two seasons, after which time “Kepitalz” will return the hockey player to the team, but that season will be unsuccessful - only 12 matches and one puck, then the year of the AHL and the last coming to Washington, and again with the same success. There will be two more clubs in which Alexander Giroud will try his luck, but the result, unfortunately, is the same.
AHL - home hockey player
Moreover, in the AHL, a hockey player won almost all the awards that can be obtained in this league. But he failed to gain a foothold in at least one of the NHL clubs. If you look at the statistics of the player, then in this league he twice became the owner and once the finalist of the Calder Cup. Thrice was a participant in the matches of all AHL stars and received many more prizes. In 2009, recognized as the most valuable player in the AHL, and next year the league's top scorer. In 2012, the hockey player’s patience bursts, and he understands that his childhood dream will not come true, and by then he has already exceeded thirty, he is leaving to work abroad.
Riga Dynamo - the first step in the KHL
The first team that Girau Alexander encountered in the post-Soviet space was the Dynamo Riga team. It takes one season to get acquainted with the league. The attacker spends nearly fifty matches and scores sixteen goals in five assists. What happened next, one can only guess. Giroud Alexander, whose hockey did not come to court in Riga (or the athlete considered that in the KHL a very busy pace for a thirty-year-old hockey player), without ending the season, goes to Switzerland.
The game in the Swiss hockey league as an option for earning
The hockey player's acquaintance with the Swiss league also lasts exactly the season. If we talk about this season, then it is clearly ambiguous. The hockey player stands for two Swiss clubs, in the beginning for “Clotten Flyers” he spends only four matches, scores three goals, but he sits on the penalty box for twenty-five minutes. Either the Swiss decided to repeat the words of the famous commentator Nikolai Ozerov that we do not need such hockey , or based on some other considerations, but the hockey player was transferred to another Swiss club, Ambri-Piotta. In this club, the athlete will play out the whole season, and his acquaintance with the Swiss hockey league will end. Most likely, Swiss hockey as a way of making money is not so bad, but it obviously can not be compared with sports such as NHL hockey or KHL hockey. Therefore, the athlete, having served one season in this league, returns to the KHL.
Return to the KHL and plans for the future
The club that Alexander Gira chose was Zagreb-based Medvezhchak. Of course, this year the hockey player will be full thirty-six years old. At this age, it is quite difficult to play hockey, especially in the position of the striker. There are many known players who played longer, but these were mostly goalkeepers or defenders. In such an advanced hockey age, enormous health is needed to rush around the court with young hockey players. Will Alexander Gir have enough of it? Time will tell, though his team did not make it to the playoffs. Nevertheless, the striker was able to score eighteen times at the rivals.