Nik Antropov
From Frikipedia
At six-feet-something-ungodly, Kazakh-born Toronto Maple Leafs forward towers over his opponents and teammates. Like the aforementioned Crouch, any successful plays he makes will be coupled with a commentator's qualification as to his aptitude being ample "despite" his size, as if being that tall eliminates his ability to skate, stickhandle, or pass the puck.
Career
Much like the tourism industry and political situation in his native Kazakhstan, Antropov can be described as fragile. Drafted over 10 years ago, after scoring eleventy-one goals in a single game in a World Junior Championships game (ignoring the fact that it was against some country that has never seen ice before), he was thought of as hot property and was, like every other hot Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, thought of as a player that would lead the leafs to championship glory in the new millenium.
His giraffe-like frame has been a burden on his knees, however, and the only certain thing at the start of every new season was that he would miss at least 50 of the 82 games. Leaf fans would keep it fun though, by trying to place bets on which ligament it would be that he tore this year (ACL/MCL, right knee/left knee) and whether it would happen at the start of the year, end of the year, or during the playoffs (assuming of course that the Leafs made it that far).
His relative fragility, and lack of production when in the lineup made him a frequent target of jeers at the Air Canada Centre, and the introduction of the salary cap in 2005 made leaf fans wonder why they were taking a $1.25 million cap hit for a player that had never lived up to his talked-up potential.
2007-08 Season
To this point, Antropov is having a career year. Playing on a line with captain and "contract year hero" Mats Sundin has done wonders for his scoring touch, and at this point, 15 games into the season, he is among league leaders in most categories, and his knees have still not exploded. Not to say that they wont. In fact, according to friki's latest bet, the leafs can only count on his services for a further 11 games before he's back on the sidelines for complete reconstructive surgery.
