Former Capitals prospect Connor Hobbs is calling it a career, at least on the professional side of it. The 23-year-old told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post that injuries between his time in junior and the pros plus a loss of enthusiasm for playing have led him to make this decision.
Hobbs was a fifth-round pick of the Capitals (143rd overall) back in 2015 and showed some offensive promise at the junior level. In his final WHL season with Regina back in 2016-17, he was the top-scoring defenseman in the league, tallying 31 goals along with 54 assists in just 67 games.
However, that failed to materialize into much success at the AHL level with Hershey. After recording 16 points in his rookie year and 18 points in 2018-19, he was limited to just 16 games last season due to a torn rotator cuff which helped Washington decide to non-tender him earlier this month. The injury still hasn’t healed entirely as he isn’t expected to be fully cleared until December.
Hobbs isn’t done with playing hockey entirely though as Harder notes that the blueliner is still skating with the Saskatchewan Huskies, a U Sports team even though their season was recently cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic; the Canadian college level anticipates to return in 2021-22.
He’s not very Fast or Furious anymore, so Shaw will be very disappointed.
Would love to see him at U of S cranking up that 100mph snapshot.