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You may recall highly-touted prospect Mika Zibanejad's ugly concussion history from last season. Zibanejad's first concussion diagnosis came in January of 2012 while playing in the SEL with Djurgarden. Three months later, he suffered his second, this time during the course of practice with AHL affiliate Binghamton.

The belief over the summer was that Mika Zibanejad had overcome post-concussion symptoms and returned to playing form. That's been thrown out of the window quickly as hockey turns into the winter months.

It's impossible to know whether Mika Zibanejad suffered a third concussion during the course of the season with Binghamton this season, or simply never recovered from his previous hit in April. But, early Thursday, Ottawa brass finally confirmed what many already suspected -- health issues, and health issues alone have kept Mika Zibanejad from both AHL action and the WJC, which has been a serious point of contention amongst Swedish hockey fans and the Senators organization.

Via Steve Lloyd:

#Sens Ast GM Tim Murray just told us they kept it quiet at the time, but Zibanejad U-20 decision had a lot to do with his health.

Unfortunate? Certainly. But, it's even more perplexing today as to why front offices in Ottawa and Binghamton tried so frantically to keep Zibanejad's "health issues" from becoming public knowledge. It's not as if his concussion history is a secret. The organization went to pretty great lengths to make up reasons for his routine scratchings from the Binghamton lineup, including tooth aches, headaches, fevers, strep throat, and the flu. Each of these ailments individually are quite believable, but stringing them together over the course of nearly a month was suspicious. The 6th Sens was the first of many to point out this absurdity of excuses.

The good news: no more reason to speculate on what's keeping Mika Zibanejad from skating either in North America or Europe. The bad news: well, everything else. Zibanejad's pair of concussions haven't helped his development as a prospect, and it's possible that he could be shelved indefinitely until he returns to 100%.

Back with more later.

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