Fantasy Hockey Profile: Kris Versteeg

By Rob Kirk on November 30, 2012

There’s a term in hockey that is applied to players with a certain amount of panache and style. In the football and basketball world it might be referred to as “swagger,” but hockey is a different beast completely. That’s why hockey has what are called “beauties”. 

I know, it sounds kind of effeminate especially considering the brutal nature of the sport, but its part of the hockey lingo, where terms like “dusty, flow, chirp, rattle, rocket and plug” all defy their conventional definition.

Let me first define what a beauty is before I apply the term to Kris Versteeg. A “beauty” is a player who is steeped in confidence and bravado from either his skills on the ice or his skills in the wee hours of the night.  In short, “beauties” are pretty much like hockey honey badgers, saying, doing and taking whatever they want. For examples of why Kris Versteeg is a beauty you can simply head to YouTube for the latest interviews or singing/rapping that Versteeg has blessed (or cursed) us with.

Versteeg will be entering his second season in south beach with the Florida Panthers. The casual fan in south Florida might not recognize him as quickly as one of the other athletes that own most of the spotlight in Miami. They have a basketball team you may have heard of. Versteeg had the best statistical season of his five-year career and missed 11 games.

He was a driving force behind a Panther team that took the Southeast Division and pushed Stanley Cup Finalist to seven games in the first round of the playoffs. With career highs in goals, points, hits and power play points, Versteeg is still only 26 and could be primed for another offensive explosion. Another year playing with the core group of players in Florida could produce even bigger results.

His status as a beauty shouldn’t be why you draft Kris Versteeg, but the fact that he now has the game to back up the personality should definitely earn him a spot on your roster.