Through the month of December, Burgundy Wave will do a short review of every player who received even a paltry sum of minutes in 2012. We start with the goalkeepers and then move our way up to the forwards. Today, we'll cover Conor Casey.

Name: Conor Casey
Number: 9
Appearances: 18
Stats: 2 goals, 3 assists

For half of his games this season, Conor seemed like he hadn't yet gotten over that injury he had been recovering from since 2011. For the other half, he seemed to be playing to just get to the end of the season. It's one thing to run like your boots are lead, but he was just never able to get his mojo going, and eventually he ended up in Philadelphia. An unfortunate end to the Rapids career of the best forward in the history of the team.

Casey still did some of his trademark things very well -- he was able to open space for other players, he chipped in a couple of assists and he generally made the offense look better most of the time he was on the field. Still, you can't play as many games as he did and only score two goals. Gary Smith ran a system that essentially ran on Casey's talents -- if you don't believe that, look at how many goals that players who weren't Casey were scoring every year except 2010 -- and Oscar Pareja couldn't pull off the same.

If they had brought him back on the cheap, I have no doubt he would have been worth it. Good luck in Philly, big guy -- we'll see you on the Wall of Honor soon.

PLAYER RATING: 3.5

.GIF TO SUM UP HIS SEASON:

World was on his shoulders, but he couldn't keep it up.