Getting to Know Zack Kassian

The Sabres took RW Zack Kassian with their first round pick in the NHL Entry Draft last night (13th overall)…so who is he? Well, he’s 6′3″, 205 pounds, and played for the Peterborough Petes the past two seasons. According to his profile at Hockey’s Future, he gained a bit of notoriety for hitting John Tavares in a ‘Top Prospects’ game that left that other Tavares with a shoulder injury. By the way, good on the TSN crew for mentioning Johnny Tavares but couldn’t they have tossed out the team name, too?

Kassian had 63 points in 61 games last year for the Petes, chipping in 136 penalty minutes also. But honestly, you are going to know all that from all the other profiles…so let’s critique his ‘favorites’ from NHL.com:

NHL Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
NHL Player: Todd Bertuzzi
Shootout move: Shot (glove side high)
Video game: NHL ��09
Movie: Step Brothers
TV Show: Man Hunter
Cartoon: Bugs Bunny
Website: dropyourgloves.com
Book: Hockey tough
Pump up song: ��Thunderstruck�� by ACDC
Restaurant: Applebee��s
Activity away from the rink: Xbox 360
Breakfast food: Steak and eggs
Superhero: Superman

Hopefully, that first one is subject to change now that he’s been drafted by a rival…right?? And he’s not winning any friends by naming Bert as his favorite player, either. Can’t say anything about the shootout move until we see it in action. An NHL game for fave video game is the easy answer. Dropyourgloves.com is at least a nice choice to see. Any positive feelings garnered from that are lost when he names Applebee’s as his favorite restaurant. Tell me, my Canadian friends, how bad is food up there that anyone would have that as their favorite eatery? Steak and eggs is a solid breakfast, but Superman seems like another easy cop0ut choice.

In all seriousness, though, as long as he (eventually) punches a Flyer in the face and eliminates the Leafs from the playoffs a time or two, all of that would be forgiven. Let’s see what happens on Day Two. Time to make some moves.