Option 1: In another offseason, Simo might have tried to beg off the marketing. For the fourth year in a row, he's played at the WJC, and never on an also-ran - he's played the full slate of games every single year. Yeah, the medals look nice but having a shorter offseason for four straight years takes its toll on you; there's less time to decompress and relax and just rest up, because even at the junior level hockey is a bruising game.

This year, unfortunately, has to be different. Not just because he's making the jump to the big leagues, but because he's going to be doing it as part of the Blizzard's big marketing push to keep the fans invested during the lean years in Edmonton. The Blizzard took a gamble on him - and got him out of Minnesota, so he stands a chance of getting paid properly rather than dealing with penny-pinching bs - and Simo's sense of duty tells him it's time to repay that.