A long time National Hockey League veteran may be taking his current status within the league a little bit for granted, and if one NHL insider is to be believed it could cost him his spot at the NHL level.
In a recent article for The Athletic, Minnesota Wild insider Mike Russo took a look at the Wild's training camp roster and made his best attempt to predict on that roster would shake out by the time the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season rolls around. Russo had plenty to say regarding the Wild's roster but his comments regarding one player in particular, a well established NHL veteran no less, are what truly stood out in the piece. Russo believes that Minnesota Wild forward J.T. Brown is not only on thin ice, but fully expects that the long time NHLer will be starting his season in the American Hockey League.
Brown joined the ranks of the Minnesota Wild for the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season and according to Russo it was not a good first impression with the gritty forward. Brown was not good in his first full season, recording just 3 goals and 5 assists over his 56 games played, and he finished off that bad first impression by embarrassing the organization. Just prior to the final game of the regular season Brown was arrested for public intoxication and was in fact forced to miss the game as a result, not exactly leaving on a high note after an ugly season with a new team. That on its own would have been bad enough for Brown coming into this season, but it sounds like he got things started off on the wrong foot once again this time around.
According to Russo, Brown failed the skating test done at the start of every training camp by head coach Bruce Boudreau. That is a very bad sign for Brown as the test is used by Boudreau to determine who put in the work during the offseason and who did not. Although we have no idea what Brown's offseason looked like, we assumed that this led to Boudreau believing that Brown belong in the category of those who did not put in the work.
Russo suspects that this, along with the previous black marks against Brown, will result in him playing out this season in the AHL.
