Montreal Canadiens‘ 5th round pick in the 2011 draft (#138 overall) 2nd year defenseman Darren Dietz(44) is filling in one of the holes at the blue line due to a string of injuries to the parent club regulars.
In 8 games he has his first pair of NHL assists and 6 penalty minutes, while usually skating fairly limited minutes.
The 6’1″ 201 lbs. d-man also looks to insert himself right into the action and effect plays, much like he did through 3 seasons of juniors with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL.
He averaged over 30 assists in his final two campaigns and over 40 points from all three years.
He’s putting up ok numbers in the minors and has virtually matching goals and assists in the AHL (4-12-16) in the last two seasons, currently for St. John’s IceCaps, but if he ever goes back down should edge that total up slightly for career bests in all categories.
The 22-year old is on a three-year entry level deal and set to become a restricted free agent at the end of 2015/2016. It would be easy to think he’ll be given a qualifying offer to continue.