21-year old New Jersey Devils‘ 2nd round pick in the 2009 draft (#54 overall) defenseman Eric Gelinas(24) failed to score a rookie season recall and stuck with Albany of the AHL through 75 games, one short of a full regular season.
He arguably put up better numbers during his first pro year than he ever did in any of his time in juniors. In 2011/2012 he was tied for 3rd in the league for scoring by rookie d-men with 37 points (16 goals and 21 assists) and was first by a long margin on the A-Devils.
At 6’4″ 205 lbs. he’s still probably a good 15 pounds light of his eventual playing weight, but this is a guy that probably won’t be playing in the minors much longer.
2012/2013 will only be the 2nd year into his 3-year entry level deal he signed.