Foxy Friday: Erik Gudbranson

My, how big your hands are…

Erik is a 21-year old defenseman for the Floria Panthers. (I accidentally typed 12-year old defenseman.  My brain loves Damn You, Autocorrect!)

I think he should also be their mascot, because tickets to Saturday’s game vs. Tampa Bay are $11 on StubHub.  That’s $11 to see this:

Though he’ll probably wear a shirt.  Is there a $15 ticket package where he doesn’t?  I will mail you $5 – you can tuck the last dollar into his hockey shorts.

If you were going to choose a place to professionally play your favorite sport, you could do worse than Florida.  Yesterday I had to scrape the ice off my car door with a credit card just to get to the ice scraper inside.

Erik doesn’t have that problem.  He probably drives a Jeep with no doors on it while wearing flip flops and a really tan left arm.

Erik made his sophomore season debut with the Panthers just last week.  He missed the first 9 games of the year recovering from a September wakeboarding crash, which he admitted to his team.

Since the injury was non-hockey related, he was suspended – and thus unpaid – for the duration of the lockout.  His honesty about the event seems to have gone a long way with his teammates and the press [link].

Honest, charming… go ahead and sigh.

Does that make you want to give him a hug?

Now Erik is back in the lineup and earning his way to full ice time [link].  Last season he had 2G/6A in 72 games.

Gudbranson was selected 3rd overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.  I couldn’t see him over the screaming for Taylor Hall (#1) and Tyler Seguin (#2), so it’s taken me a while to get to Erik.  Still not sure how this escaped my attention.

.gif by stu-bickel.tumblr.com

He was the 2010 OHL Scholastic Player of the Year, for the athlete who “best combines high standards of play and academic excellence.” [link]  If they had an award for holding babies, he’d have won that too.

Erik does a lot of charity work for cancer fundraising – even shaving his head to benefit St. Baldrick’s in February 2012 [video].  His youngest brother Dennis is a leukemia survivor.

The start:

The finish:

That’s pretty foxy… or literally Fox-y.  Fox-esque?

Honestly, what are the chances you’re still reading the words on this page?

Here’s Erik talking junior hockey.  Enjoy it while you plan the rest of your life around the Panthers schedule and following Erik on Twitter – @Guddy44.

PS: A while back, someone suggested Erik for Foxy Friday.  I had *just* seen him in the Gongshow catalog the day before.  Thanks to whoever that was for reminding me!