These days, he finds himself patrolling the blueline for the ECHL's Stockton Thunder.
With no disrespect to Nick Diaz and his 209 pride, that's not exactly a step up in the world.
Still, he's 'living the dream' as they say and remains optimistic about the future.
He was in town Wednesday night to play the Kings' ECHL affiliate (Ontario Reign) and after the game I caught up with him to talk about his former teammate Kevin Westgarth.
MM: Overall, is the Westgarth we see now similar to what you remember?
DM: In college everybody wears cages, so there's not a lot of fighting, not a lot of toughness. He definitely hit like a truck. He actually put up quite a few points, especially his senior year. He has an amazing slap shot and he actually has quite a bit of skill - as I'm sure people aren't quite aware of yet. I think as the years progress in the NHL he'll get his shot to move up into maybe a little bit different of a role and maybe play a tough guy role who plays on the third or second line.
MM: Second line?
