Have I mentioned that April 12th is one of my favourite days of the year? Yes it’s behind Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and New Years Eve, but it’s still near the top. What day could be so special to be ranked so high you ask? It’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins birthday!

The growing boy has turned 25 today! Can you believe it? It feels like just yesterday we were drafting the little guy first overall and all our dreams were coming true before our eyes.  I feel like I have a close connection with Nuge because I too just turned 25 a couple weeks ago. Did you all know that we were in the same draft year? My development fell a little behind Ryan’s though…. politics, amirite?

Nuge is a very special player to our team and as of yesterday, Chiarelli has officially said that he’s a core member to the organization. The young man deserves to have an amazing birthday and I hope all his wishes come true. Since it’s the offseason I hope he gets to pig out on some ice cream cake from Dairy Queen as well. But not TOO much cause he’s got the World Championships to think about around the corner.

In honour of Nuge’s birthday, here’s a few of my favourite pictures of him: