Syracuse Crunch center Philippe Paradis(63) was held pointless in 12 Calder Cup Playoff games until he finally erupted with a hat trick in the team’s Eastern Conference Finals‘ clinching 7-0 victory over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Originally a Carolina Hurricanes‘ 1st round pick in the 2009 draft (#29 overall) he was traded to Toronto Maple Leafs before he could ever take the ice for the team as a prospect.
He lasted only four games with Toronto Marlies, scoring a pair of assists before he changed hands quickly a second time, becoming property of Chicago Blackhawks.
He started with their minor league affiliate Rockford IceHogs much like he did the previous season on an ato after finishing up his last junior campaign in the QMJHL with PEI Rocket.
The 6’2″ 209 lbs. forward was signed to a three-year entry level contract and spent his rookie season in the AHL.
He continued to ply his trade in the league to start his sophomore run but when he was either playing too diminished a role or failing to put up the numbers found himself reassigned to Toledo Walleye of the ECHL for a short, five-game run tallying no points before being returned.
Once again trade bait and shuffled off to Tampa Bay Lightning‘s organization just before the deadline, he started up right away with their minor league affiliate and in 8 games leading up to the postseason contributed only an assist.
He’s still not seeing a lot of minutes on the ice but has been pretty much consistently in the lineup. Nothing like answering the bell at the right time to keep the parent club interested.
The 22-year year old has one year left on his deal after which he becomes an restricted free agent at the end of next season.
Original story: 6/2-13
He would post AHL career 6 goals and 9 assists for 15 points in 56 games but that’s still far short of the marks he put up in his last three years of juniors.
Although maybe still short of what is expected it was enough to earn him another one-year look.
For 2014/2015 he increased goals scored to a still modest 8 and tied those 15 points from the previous campaign but was also a surprising nice +10 rating in just 34 games due to a late season injury that shortened his progress.
Entering his second restricted free agency, Tampa Bay has decided to continue watching the 24-year old possibly thinking he’s late to develop.