Earlier this season, the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks swung a deal that in part involved twenty-eight-year-old Right Winger from Russia in Andrei Kuzmenko and while Kuzmenko has only played eight games and his production is down significantly, there may be a valid reason for the decline.
As seen below, David Pagnotta at TheFourthPeriod reports that Kuzmenko has been dealing with health issues, specifically a major virus and he is not close to 100%. This itself is the reason for his absence from the lineup.
Fans, front office staff and coaches alike sometimes like to point fingers at a player for under performing and while he was the major piece moved in the deal that sent Elias Lindholm to the Canucks, it should be noted that hockey players are human and the things the public deals with is something that they deal with, to an extent.
The Flames are on the outside looking in as they are five points out of a playoff spot and may still make some deals to clean house while bringing in younger talent or draft capital for the future, but losing a player of Kuzmenko's potential would be hard on any National Hockey League franchise. Hopefully, all goes well and the Flames and Flames faithful see him back with his teammates in no time.
