Countdown to Camp - Jan Hejda

[Former Ladder]

Today's look at our upcoming roster for the Countdown to Camp series focuses on, Jan Hejda.


Jan has been a perfect soldier, playing a lot of minutes in the Sacco era and doing so with little complaint. Then the new coaching staff came in and it seemed we had a pretty darn good defender in Mr. Hejda. He was easily our #2 defenseman for the first half of the season (I think that injury hurt him more than we thought and he came back and played less than 100% the remainder of the season). But, as he has always done, Jan soldiered on and played the playoffs with pins in his thumb to hold it in place. Let us hope that an offseason of healing can bring him back to what we saw in the first half of last season (not that he was terrible for the rest of the season).

Can Hejda regain his early season form or has age begun to catch up with him? Will Jan receive a contract extension during or after this season or do we let him walk? Do we see him paired with EJ, Barrie or other?

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[Avs71]

Took a nose dive towards the end of the season. Hand injury obviously didn't help, and it really brought down his play in the playoffs. I think he will be with Barrie to start the season, and the weaker competition and less minutes will really help him. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if Holden averages more minutes a game than him.

 

[Freudian]

Hopefully he's got enough in the tank for another year.

 

[S E P H]

Took a nose dive towards the end of the season. Hand injury obviously didn't help, and it really brought down his play in the playoffs. I think he will be with Barrie to start the season, and the weaker competition and less minutes will really help him. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if Holden averages more minutes a game than him.

He took a noise dive because of the hand injury.

 

[Avs71]

He took a noise dive because of the hand injury.

His play was slipping well before that.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Still pissed Roy didnt sit him for the final game. It was a nothing game and he gets injured trying to catch a puck. That Wild series would have been completely different had our guys not get injured all a sudden. [MOD]

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Still pissed Roy didnt sit him for the final game. It was a nothing game and he gets injured trying to catch a puck. That Wild series would have been completely different had our guys not get injured all a sudden. [MOD]

Last game we had chance to win the conference? Or was it second last?

Barrie was the key injury IMO, without him our transistion game sucked balls, but you're right. Hejda looked horrible after his hand injury, he could barely use his stick anymore. It was awful. That's how it goes in playoffs, people underestimate how much luck is factor in playoffs as well, If you happen to get injury-bug, you're gonna lose to some teams you shouldn't lose, but that's variance. Maybe some year we will lucky with injuries.

 

[tigervixxxen]

No, we were set by the last game.

There wasn't anyone available to play though. Barrie had that injury from the San Jose game and didn't play and there wasn't anyone extra. Elliott was in as it was.

 

[Freudian]

Hejda slowed down in January last season. It's not that strange. He's 35-36 and play a style where he blocks a lot of shots. It takes a toll on players. Roy probably have to manage his minutes a bit better next season.

 

[Avs_19]

The nose dive started before the Olympics. The scary part is that the two weeks off during the Olympics didn't help him too much and he won't have that time off this season. Roy needs to limit his minutes but it's going to be difficult because he's one of our better defenseman. Even more difficult if Stuart plays like he did last season.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

I wonder if letting Stuart and Hejda split time on the top pairing would keep both fresher, without screwing up chemistry too badly.