Brunnstrom Makes History

There's a lot of well-hyped rookies in the spotlight this season. Aside from 1st overall draft Steven Stamkos, no first year player will be more scrutinized early in the season than Fabian Brunnstrom.

The 24 year old Brunnstrom of course was the highly coveted undrafted, unsigned European veteran from last season. Dallas obviously won the sweepstakes, edging out a number of teams, most notably Vancouver.

Brunnstrom had a quiet pre-season (1 goal, -3 in six contests) and started the first two games of the regular season in the press box.

Tonight Brunnstrom finally made his NHL debut, and he made it one to remember. He scored three goals, a natural hat trick nonetheless, and had a 4th goal disallowed. All that in just 14 minutes of ice time.

Brunnstrom becomes just the third player in NHL history to score three goals in his very first game, joining Alex Smart (1943) and Real Cloutier (1979). The NHL record for points by a player in his first game belongs to Al Hill, who scored 2 goals and 5 points in 1977.

I bet Brunnstrom finds himself in the lineup on Thursday when the Stars visit St. Louis.