The curious case of Ryan Dzingel.

There has been a lot of activity in the first few days of the National Hockey League's free agency period for 2019, but one name has seemingly vanished from the conversation. 

I am referring of course to veteran forward Ryan Dzingel, formerly of the Columbus Blue Jackets and most notably of the Ottawa Senators. The former 7th round draft choice (204th overall) and the 2011 NHL Entry Draft has defied the odds throughout his career but after a spectacular offensive season there was an expectation that Dzingel would cash in. 

The 27 year old forward appeared in 57 games for the Ottawa Senators where he recorded a very impressive 22 goals and 22 assists for a total of 44 points over that stretch. He would then be traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets where he picked up 4 goals and an additional 8 assists for a total of 12 in just 21 regular season games with that organization. That works out to 78 games played, 26 goals and 30 assists for a total of 56 points on the season, pretty solid numbers from a player in the prime of his career.

It is for that reason that it seems odd that Dizingel has seemingly been mentioned in connection with almost no organizations across the NHL, in spite of his solid production during the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season. Dzingel was briefly mentioned in connection with the Blackhawks but that team looks like it would be unable to accommodate such a move, and outside of that there has been almost no mention of the former Senators forward. It appears though that there may be more than just hockey playing a factor in Dzingel's prolonged free agency this summer.

In a recent article for the New York Post NHL insider Larry Brooks has suggested that there may be a number of "red flags" associated with Dzingel due to the fact that even the Blue Jackets are not attempting to sign him. You would figure a team that lost so much talent this summer would try to hang out to an asset like Dzingel, but according to Brooks there has been no effort on the part of the Blue Jackets to do so.