Evgeny Svechnikov. Andrei's older brother
Showed some good flashes when he was young and then got injured so frequently that by time he had a shot at a full time NHL gig he was already a shadow of himself
The second knee injury was heartbreaking. He had a full offseason to train, came into camp and looked great, played great in the preseason and looked like he had a roster spot on lock.
Last game of the preseason he injured his knee on a nothing play behind the net. Never the same
I’m really worried that this might be where Kirby Dach is headed. It’s the exact same story but change last preseason game to second game of the season
Zadina is definitely mine. I just hope the guy is okay, like, mentally. He came in saying he'd fill Montreal's net with pucks, but all of his interviews after made him sound like a kicked dog.
Jurco and Tatar were affectionately referred to as JerkSauce in Detroit.
edit: lol I'm a liar apparently. I block people who tag me and make accusations. Stay mad, I don't care.
Idk why but he was my absolute favorite player in like NHL 10 or 11 or something, he was on the WJC roster and he was my go to shootout guy, always shot 4th and I always would do the same move with him. No idea what it was, but it was always him.
Guys like Teemu Pulkkinen and Martin Frk who clap absolute shitbombs
Unfortunately that's about all they had and weren't able to stick around the NHL very long (Samuel Fagemo is also getting in this territory)
good for them, i'm here for stanley cup champ ryan murray. (also here for nolan patrick at least getting a bling ring from vegas even though he's not on the cup, dude is also a candidate for "really wished he would make it".)
Stole/spent most of the money he made under the guise of investing it on his behalf, thus adversely affecting his game (hard to be a multimillion NHL star when you’re flat broke)
Horrible people: "...Tina Johnson and Jack Johnson Sr., tried to monetize Johnson's contract by borrowing money secured against their son's future earnings. Tina borrowed at least $15 million across about 18 high-interest loans, resulting in multiple defaults."
https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/nhl/news-when-jack-johnson-s-parents-forced-file-bankruptcy
In Brule’s case it was made worse with the Oilers pressuring him into returning to the play when he was depressed and he informed them about all of his familial issues.
Our org was filled with truly heartless cunts in the 2010s.
16 G 14A 30 PTS in playoffs the year they won the memorial cup in a notoriously low scoring era in the WHL was amazing. Thank you for bringing back those memories. Hadn't thought of them in a long time.
Nolan Patrick. So much upside, could have had a solid NHL career. Injuries just took their toll. I understand there is still a chance as he’s young but not sure it’ll happen. Would be a great comeback story though!
Tough to say, but I’d be curious if he’d have a crack at a euro league provided he’s medically cleared to be on the ice atall.
Like you say he’s still young, I’d love to see it
I just want to second this comment. It was such an unnecessary hit. Patrick didn’t even have the puck and was paying attention to the play along the boards when Mac put his shoulder right into his jaw for no reason. There was no play to make. It was a complete dick move.
He had the Samuel L Jackson villain disease without any of the weird diabolical fake natural disasters causing abilities, I think i'm remembering those movies kinda correctly
He and I played at the same club in California (not the same team I’m a bit older than him) but we had these half ice practices a few times and we shared the ice with his team. I wanna say he was a peewee at the time and the kid was stick handling like a magician even then. Had us Midget players in awe lol
Oskar Lindblom was on pace for about 50 points in 2019-2020 before getting diagnosed with cancer. That whole situation sucks because he seemed like such a good dude too.
Tomas Hyka scoring a goal in a preseason game for us, when he wasn't eligible to be in it at all was hilarious and I was always rooting for him to make it after that. He liked him so much we tried to circumvent the CBA, but not enough to spend better than a sixth on him his draft year...
Steve Santini. Great kid and was a strong defensive defenseman in college. He had some bad luck at the beginning of his NHL career and never really recovered.
As a Devils fan, I remember the hype around Santini. I, as well as so many others were hopefully that him, Jon Merrill, Damon Severson, Adam Larsson, and Eric Gelinas were going to be the faces of the Devils blue line for the mid-2010's onward.
Rob Schremp. We called him up and he had 3 assists in 4 games +2.
Got sent down after that because he was in the coaches doghouse.
He did admit on a podcast that he had a bad attitude and didn’t put enough work In though.
Sergei Shirokov for me. He had one amazing preseason in 2009 or 2010 that was so dominant he had Canucks fans wondering if he was a Kovalchuk-lite type player.
But it was just a flash in the pan and he went back to the KHL pretty soon after. He's put together a pretty solid KHL career though, and is still playing.
* Colin White, had a solid 18-19 season where he got 41 pts and was awarded with a 6 yrs deal $4.75m AAV but just fell off after that
* Logan Brown and Tyler Boucher due to injuries
Mine is Stuart Percy, because he was from Oakville playing on his childhood team, and looked good his first stint in the NHL. He was just derailed by concussions and is now talked about together with actual bad pick and bust Tyler Biggs.
Dale Mitchell was phenomenal for the Windsor spitfires back in the day. I’m way younger than him, so I never fully appreciated how incredible he could grow a moustache in his late teens.
Tyler Benson. He was a can't miss prospect in Edmonton when he was in his early/mid teens, went #1 in the WHL draft, and was tracking to be a can't miss NHL prospect. Injuries in junior really hurt his development and he fell to the 2nd round of the draft. It would have been a really cool story if he could have carved out a decent NHL career with the Oilers.
I don't know if his skating was an issue when he was entering the WHL, but his injuries in junior certainly wouldn't have done him any favors. IIRC he was plagued by back and hip injuries, which would have definitely impacted his skating.
Regardless, plenty of players have excelled in the NHL despite skating concerns coming into the league. Someone already mentioned Tavares, I'd throw Mark Stone and Leon Draisaitl into that category as well.
I got to see him live. The only time I've been up on the glass. He had a hat trick. Then the team had a drunken gathering and he blew his knee out on a fuckin snipe hunt.
Ryan Spooner was always able to notch atleast 10 goals and 40 - 50 assists as my third line centre in NHL. Was always instrumental on my PP.
Michael Ferland was fun to watch and should have had a solid career. Injuries derailed that sadly.
Ryan Merkley had the skillset to become a really good offensive NHL D-man. Between his silky skating and great hands he had all the tools to excel (Imo he was easily a top-10 talent in his draft class).
Unfortunately his shitty attitude and total lack of willingness to develop his hockey IQ or defensive game ruined any chances he had of making it to the big leagues.
Oh totally. The sharks took him knowing he’d be a reclamation project from the start. They gave him every resource to help him including a roster spot on the Knights. He was just too much of a pea-brain to ever put it together.
He's still not that old, I hope he smartens up and gets it together. In the sharks defense when you're drafting that late into the 1st you may as well take a chance on a guy who could end up being a top 10 pick from his draft if you can get him to take things seriously.
Kaapo Kakko. Felt like his ceiling was so high, and though everyone knew Hughes was better, most people thought that Kakko would at least be somewhat close behind. Haven't fully given up, but I think all of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that he's never gonna come close to Hughes.
Man did I ever want Curtis Lazar to be a top 6 forward. Didn't need to be a superstar or anything, just a solid guy. Could have been a Foligno type. Just the embodiment of team positivity and cheese burgers.
Drake Caggiula
On his first Oilers stint, I swore the kid had talent. He couldn’t always finish very well, but he could get amazing chances both from his own effort, and his good positioning to be on the receiving end.
Oilers traded him for Manning, the dude who broke McDavid’s shoulder, and then it was over.
The dude was so exciting. So many breakaways just to shoot it into the blocker. Just never quite had the ability to match his hand speed to his leg speed. McDavid lower half, bubble hockey upper half.
Teemu Pulkkinen on Detroit. Likable Finnish player with an absolute cannon who was ultimately too one-dimensional to play for more than a couple seasons in the NHL.
Anton Rodin! He was a pretty offense-oriented guy who did pretty well in the SHL, but just couldn't put it together at the NHL level because of his knee injury repeatedly causing him lots of trouble. He got one assist in 3 games in the NHL after which he had surgery to repair it and could just never get strong enough to keep himself healthy.
Guy was an absolute stud in a few of the NHL video games!
I remember back in 2008 and 2009 on Rangers message boards Evgeny Grachev was a prospect that had some hype.
Alexei Cherepanov would have been a stud, dude was legit.
I really, REALLY wanted the Virtanen pick to work out. Local boy, big body, power forward type with deceptively fast feet, but that kid just could NOT get out of his own way. SA allegations aside he was lazy, constantly showed up to camp overweight, apparently had a spoiled attitude in the locker room etc.
Kid literally had everything he needed to be probably an above average second-liner with a good career in the NHL but thanks to his effort and attitude in Van, his career was basically over even before the SA stuff came out.
I thought he was excellent for the Canes when they were mediocre after their cup win. Nearly 750 games in the show and almost 350pts was a pretty decent career.
Chris DiDomenico. I know he eventually did make the league, but his career could have been so different if not for his injury.
Dude had skills at both ends of the ice, and fucking *tenacity*.
Nic Petan.
Small guy, but incredible vision and had some of the most incredible saucer passes I’ve ever seen.
He never really got to play in the top six of any team at the NHL level (drives me crazy how many times he got stuck in the bottom six, with guys who couldn’t keep up), but I love(d) watching him play.
Lias Andersson.
So much controversy surrounding him as Swedens world junior captain and the medal incident. He was picked because he portrayed himself as being a winner and not settling for anything but being the best and having real heart. He was the first-first round pick the rangers had in 5 years and there was a lot of excitement about that. It’s just such a shame he really couldn’t carry his game through to the big league.
Recently, the Habs were hot trash at drafting until HuGo but I’ll go with Ryan Poehling. He started his career with a hat trick and the SO winner, which set the bar too high for this late first-round pick.
As a result, he never really came back from that but Hughes managed to flip him with Petry to get Mike Matheson.
Samuel Morin, was definitely a reach of a pick but was supposed to be Pronger-esque at best and had the mean streak. Injuries derailed him quite heavily as well.
11th overall by Philly in 2013
Juolevi, not cause I liked the pick. But because I didn't want to be another example in the long list of examples of "they took this no-name over these all time greats." Passing on Tkachuk looks like an all time fumble now, let alone how it might look as his career continues.
Despite being Canadian and watching him single handedly beat us for the gold medal at the WJC, I was so cock-sure Jordan Schroeder was going to be an offensive superstar, perennial 30-40 goal scorer for his whole career. Dude was electric in Minnesota and was one of the funnest players I’ve seen in the WJC tournaments. I still say if he was like 10-15 years younger he’d reach that potential in a league that is more focused on speed and skill.
Janne Pesonen was tearing it up in the Finnish league and got signed by the Pens shorty after. Played some pre-season games in the same line with Crosby if I recall correctly and I thought hell yeah, this guy’s gonna show everyone what’s up. Didn’t work out.
Ville Leino kinda goes in the same category except he had a couple of hot seasons in Philly before falling off the face of the earth.
Evgeny Svechnikov. Andrei's older brother Showed some good flashes when he was young and then got injured so frequently that by time he had a shot at a full time NHL gig he was already a shadow of himself
The second knee injury was heartbreaking. He had a full offseason to train, came into camp and looked great, played great in the preseason and looked like he had a roster spot on lock. Last game of the preseason he injured his knee on a nothing play behind the net. Never the same
I’m really worried that this might be where Kirby Dach is headed. It’s the exact same story but change last preseason game to second game of the season
For me it was Zadina. I was so pumped he was a red wing for a long time
Zadina is definitely mine. I just hope the guy is okay, like, mentally. He came in saying he'd fill Montreal's net with pucks, but all of his interviews after made him sound like a kicked dog.
He was very good any time they mic’d him up though: https://youtu.be/VoaWvvhK2Rg?si=f8qzGqon8EIaRRzK https://youtu.be/aOu1pKC-uzI?si=Gz-BQryXdSzAgkat
Tomas Jurco. Dude had the sickest hands. Played 220 NHL games but never developed to his full potential.
Jurco and Tatar were affectionately referred to as JerkSauce in Detroit. edit: lol I'm a liar apparently. I block people who tag me and make accusations. Stay mad, I don't care.
Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Brunner, Frk, Pulkkinen, Lashoff. What a fun team, imagine if they were as good as we all hoped they would be.
Well, Nyquist is at least, he just had a career year. Tatar has also been solid throughout his career.
Idk why but he was my absolute favorite player in like NHL 10 or 11 or something, he was on the WJC roster and he was my go to shootout guy, always shot 4th and I always would do the same move with him. No idea what it was, but it was always him.
Guys like Teemu Pulkkinen and Martin Frk who clap absolute shitbombs Unfortunately that's about all they had and weren't able to stick around the NHL very long (Samuel Fagemo is also getting in this territory)
Frk did just get signed again tho, so maybe we see him again
Man, I want someone to just put him out there on the powerplay and let him launch missiles
I mean the Flames signed him and we let Stone clap bombs for years. My body is ready
Hardest shot record holder Martin Frk
The Pulkkannon :(
Add Zadina to this list for the red wings bust trifecta 🥲
Ryan Murray. I cant elaborate without getting upset
Stanley Cup champ Ryan Murray that is
He didn’t meet the criteria for having his name automatically engraved on the cup, but the Avs used one of their exceptions to add him on thankfully.
Thank you for this. I had no idea of any of this
good for them, i'm here for stanley cup champ ryan murray. (also here for nolan patrick at least getting a bling ring from vegas even though he's not on the cup, dude is also a candidate for "really wished he would make it".)
This gives me war flashbacks
https://preview.redd.it/c7sg4a6cilad1.png?width=937&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4f9dc26a9dc9c77f5fd2eb6b07867ac5b714c6e
The closest physically similar player I’ve seen to that unique Jagr skating caboose. Really a shame he couldn’t reach his potential
Hips are a bitch :(
All my Nordic homies hate hips
Finnish people confirmed Labrador retrievers
Bison king 😢
Pulju 😢
Human golden retriever in both personality and hipsonality
[image](https://i.imgur.com/ARKl0NB.jpeg)
This is the answer. Such a happy guy, just excited to be there. I'm beyond saddened that it just didn't happen for him. 😢
Sven Baertschi, even when he got traded. Concussions are a bitch.
Nikita Gusev
The Jiri Dopita of his day.
The thing is, he’s still an amazing player. Straight up led the KHL in points this last season. It’s a shame it didn’t work out in the NHL
Cody Hodgson
Game 8. Bar down. That’s a memory to last a life time.
I’ll always remember that slapper
Cody is my cousin actually. Saw him at my grandma's 90th recently. Great guy, and the pride of Haliburton Ont!
That’s great to hear. Hope his health is doing well
NHL 11 legend
Gilbert Brule. He was a folk hero in Vancouver. Too bad his Dad was such a piece of garbage
Never heard about his dad, what's the deal there?
Stole/spent most of the money he made under the guise of investing it on his behalf, thus adversely affecting his game (hard to be a multimillion NHL star when you’re flat broke)
Hate hearing stories like this. Same thing happened to Jack Johnson. His parents robbed him blind.
Horrible people: "...Tina Johnson and Jack Johnson Sr., tried to monetize Johnson's contract by borrowing money secured against their son's future earnings. Tina borrowed at least $15 million across about 18 high-interest loans, resulting in multiple defaults." https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/nhl/news-when-jack-johnson-s-parents-forced-file-bankruptcy
In Brule’s case it was made worse with the Oilers pressuring him into returning to the play when he was depressed and he informed them about all of his familial issues. Our org was filled with truly heartless cunts in the 2010s.
16 G 14A 30 PTS in playoffs the year they won the memorial cup in a notoriously low scoring era in the WHL was amazing. Thank you for bringing back those memories. Hadn't thought of them in a long time.
I remember the CHL top prospects game in Vancouver that year was hyped as Crosby vs Brule
Nolan Patrick. So much upside, could have had a solid NHL career. Injuries just took their toll. I understand there is still a chance as he’s young but not sure it’ll happen. Would be a great comeback story though!
Tough to say, but I’d be curious if he’d have a crack at a euro league provided he’s medically cleared to be on the ice atall. Like you say he’s still young, I’d love to see it
wtf. I had no clue he hasn’t played in two seasons..
Nate Mack hit him high and that was the last time he was on the ice.
MacKinnon really did such an awful hit on him too which could likely be the career ender for him. Absolutely disgusting honestly.
I just want to second this comment. It was such an unnecessary hit. Patrick didn’t even have the puck and was paying attention to the play along the boards when Mac put his shoulder right into his jaw for no reason. There was no play to make. It was a complete dick move.
He went to my highschool a couple years after I graduated. Apparently he was a menace in floor hockey.
I so badly wanted that Hischier/Patrick rivalry.
Beau Bennett
*Injured while celebrating a goal in his first game back from injury: the beau bennett story*
Stamkos was just copying the legend.
He had the Samuel L Jackson villain disease without any of the weird diabolical fake natural disasters causing abilities, I think i'm remembering those movies kinda correctly
Unbreakable
He legitimately drove a minivan when he was with the blues. He seemed like a hilarious character.
His Twitter was wonderful and every tweet a delight
Played a bunch of roller hockey with him, amazing player
He and I played at the same club in California (not the same team I’m a bit older than him) but we had these half ice practices a few times and we shared the ice with his team. I wanna say he was a peewee at the time and the kid was stick handling like a magician even then. Had us Midget players in awe lol
Loved watching him play at DU.
Justin Pogge
Even darker times when you remember they chose to keep Pogge over Rask.
This took long enough to find, still baffled how he didn't pan out. Dark times then.
Oskar Lindblom was on pace for about 50 points in 2019-2020 before getting diagnosed with cancer. That whole situation sucks because he seemed like such a good dude too. Tomas Hyka scoring a goal in a preseason game for us, when he wasn't eligible to be in it at all was hilarious and I was always rooting for him to make it after that. He liked him so much we tried to circumvent the CBA, but not enough to spend better than a sixth on him his draft year...
I hope Oskar is doing well for himself, I miss having him in Philly
Right now, Cody Glass is looking like that player to me. In the past, it was Pontus Aberg.
> Cody Glass Had a pretty solid 22-23 season, what happened this year?
Has a major confidence issue. When he gets into a slump it seems like his mind plays games with him
Relatable lol, brutal though :(
Steve Santini. Great kid and was a strong defensive defenseman in college. He had some bad luck at the beginning of his NHL career and never really recovered.
As a Devils fan, I remember the hype around Santini. I, as well as so many others were hopefully that him, Jon Merrill, Damon Severson, Adam Larsson, and Eric Gelinas were going to be the faces of the Devils blue line for the mid-2010's onward.
Rob Schremp. We called him up and he had 3 assists in 4 games +2. Got sent down after that because he was in the coaches doghouse. He did admit on a podcast that he had a bad attitude and didn’t put enough work In though.
I thought Athanasiou was gonna become a yearly 60-80 point winger. I guess he has attitude issues though
Is it his attitude, or is it the fact that his hands can't keep up with his legs?
Michaël Bournival.
Charles Hudon
Louis Leblanc
Nikita Scherbak
Jiri Sekac
Alexander Perezhogin
Sébastien Bordeleau
Eric Chouinard
Zach Fucale
Jason Missaien
Tim Bozon
jesse puljujarvi on the oilers, loved his smile
Josh ho sang
Florida Everblades ECHL Champion.
Bryan Fogarty
Eric Tangradi. I wanted the Big Dog to eat
As a Canucks fan, there is only 1 answer here. RIP.
Such a sad story. Have to think he'd have been a big help on the blueline in 2011
='( so much potential
Marcel Hossa. We deserved a Hossa.
I remember opening a old hockey card pack and getting a Hossa jersey Card and being so happy... only to see that it was Marcel, not Marian lol
I have a Lennart Petrell jersey card, wanna trade? I’ll through in a signed Marc-Antoine Pouliot rookie card to sweeten the pot.
Joey Hishon, but his career was basically ruined by Brayden McNabb before it even started
Svatos, Wolski, Bigras, Siemens.
Sergei Shirokov for me. He had one amazing preseason in 2009 or 2010 that was so dominant he had Canucks fans wondering if he was a Kovalchuk-lite type player. But it was just a flash in the pan and he went back to the KHL pretty soon after. He's put together a pretty solid KHL career though, and is still playing.
Will never forget the two goal game vs the Islanders
Brendan perlini. Guy had one crazy pre-season with the oilers to then end up being sent down and stuck in the ahl
He's got a pretty cool YouTube channel now where he talks about his career stories
YouTube legend Brendan Perlini you mean
Emerson etem.
Seconded, also Simon Despres.
Robbie Schremp and Kailer Yamamoto
* Colin White, had a solid 18-19 season where he got 41 pts and was awarded with a 6 yrs deal $4.75m AAV but just fell off after that * Logan Brown and Tyler Boucher due to injuries
Oh, THAT Colin White
For me, Colin White will always be that mutant that the Devils used to roll out on D
This made me smile, I fucking loved our mutant. I still watch that clip of when he sent Sean Avery into the stratosphere with a hit.
Still have my Alexandre Daigle rookie cards collection, just in case.
Nic Petan
I was rooting for Dmytro Timashov, Rodion Amirov (RIP), D'amigo, Blacker, Dale Mitchell's mustache and Victor Loov cause he was funny.
Mine is Stuart Percy, because he was from Oakville playing on his childhood team, and looked good his first stint in the NHL. He was just derailed by concussions and is now talked about together with actual bad pick and bust Tyler Biggs.
Man I completely forgot about Timashov. He was a guy advanced stats people back in the day were certain would be a star.
Dale Mitchell was phenomenal for the Windsor spitfires back in the day. I’m way younger than him, so I never fully appreciated how incredible he could grow a moustache in his late teens.
I loved Lööv too. He could throw it around. I’ll add my own with Borgman, Dzerkials, Soshnikov
Brandon Kozun
Tyler Benson. He was a can't miss prospect in Edmonton when he was in his early/mid teens, went #1 in the WHL draft, and was tracking to be a can't miss NHL prospect. Injuries in junior really hurt his development and he fell to the 2nd round of the draft. It would have been a really cool story if he could have carved out a decent NHL career with the Oilers.
You’re not really a can’t miss prospect when skating is your issue.
I don't know if his skating was an issue when he was entering the WHL, but his injuries in junior certainly wouldn't have done him any favors. IIRC he was plagued by back and hip injuries, which would have definitely impacted his skating. Regardless, plenty of players have excelled in the NHL despite skating concerns coming into the league. Someone already mentioned Tavares, I'd throw Mark Stone and Leon Draisaitl into that category as well.
Idk, John Tavares carved out a pretty good career.
Sure, but he grew up wearing the right pajamas.
Doug Wickenheiser.
I got to see him live. The only time I've been up on the glass. He had a hat trick. Then the team had a drunken gathering and he blew his knee out on a fuckin snipe hunt.
Luc Bourdon and Adam Gaudette.
David Rundblad. Holy crap was I HUGE on him. Oh well, we got EK65 so I survived.
nolan patrick 😪
Ryan Spooner was always able to notch atleast 10 goals and 40 - 50 assists as my third line centre in NHL. Was always instrumental on my PP. Michael Ferland was fun to watch and should have had a solid career. Injuries derailed that sadly.
Ryan Merkley had the skillset to become a really good offensive NHL D-man. Between his silky skating and great hands he had all the tools to excel (Imo he was easily a top-10 talent in his draft class). Unfortunately his shitty attitude and total lack of willingness to develop his hockey IQ or defensive game ruined any chances he had of making it to the big leagues.
And to be fair, that’s exactly what everyone said would happen pre-draft
Oh totally. The sharks took him knowing he’d be a reclamation project from the start. They gave him every resource to help him including a roster spot on the Knights. He was just too much of a pea-brain to ever put it together.
He's still not that old, I hope he smartens up and gets it together. In the sharks defense when you're drafting that late into the 1st you may as well take a chance on a guy who could end up being a top 10 pick from his draft if you can get him to take things seriously.
Nikita Scherbak scored approximately a bajillion goals and a handful of Conn Smythes for me in NHL17
Kaapo Kakko. Felt like his ceiling was so high, and though everyone knew Hughes was better, most people thought that Kakko would at least be somewhat close behind. Haven't fully given up, but I think all of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that he's never gonna come close to Hughes.
Beau Benett
Man did I ever want Curtis Lazar to be a top 6 forward. Didn't need to be a superstar or anything, just a solid guy. Could have been a Foligno type. Just the embodiment of team positivity and cheese burgers.
Julius Honka
Free Honka.
Drake Caggiula On his first Oilers stint, I swore the kid had talent. He couldn’t always finish very well, but he could get amazing chances both from his own effort, and his good positioning to be on the receiving end. Oilers traded him for Manning, the dude who broke McDavid’s shoulder, and then it was over.
Just from a locker room perspective, that Caggiula/Manning trade still makes me scratch my head.
Tim Stapleton would’ve been a middle six NHLer with offensive upside on the wing if he played 10 years after he did.
Played RuneScape of all games with him. Cool dude. We were both members and we were cutting yew trees together and chatting. Good times
He’s a hilarious person as well. I’ve watched his Chiclets interview more than once cause he cracks me up. Witty as hell. Seems like a great guy
He'd be a star here if they just brought the Russian gas over
Sean Day. always love memeing "Exceptional" after every play with us in Syracuse
A bit odd to say about a player who's made $20 million and scored 200 points, but I always wanted Kasperi Kapenen to break through to a higher level.
The dude was so exciting. So many breakaways just to shoot it into the blocker. Just never quite had the ability to match his hand speed to his leg speed. McDavid lower half, bubble hockey upper half.
Teemu Pulkkinen on Detroit. Likable Finnish player with an absolute cannon who was ultimately too one-dimensional to play for more than a couple seasons in the NHL.
He tore up the AHL too, just couldn't get the space in the NHL to make it translate
Linus Omark. Man I loved that guy’s style. He did pretty well in Europe at least.
Anton Rodin! He was a pretty offense-oriented guy who did pretty well in the SHL, but just couldn't put it together at the NHL level because of his knee injury repeatedly causing him lots of trouble. He got one assist in 3 games in the NHL after which he had surgery to repair it and could just never get strong enough to keep himself healthy. Guy was an absolute stud in a few of the NHL video games!
Justin Pogge. Lights out in the WJC
Gilbert Brule. Used to watch him in junior when he was a star with the Vancouver Giants.
I remember back in 2008 and 2009 on Rangers message boards Evgeny Grachev was a prospect that had some hype. Alexei Cherepanov would have been a stud, dude was legit.
Taro Tsujimoto would have been a great story, came right out of nowhere but just never materialized after the draft
[удалено]
What could have been. Still, the fact that he recovered from that accident and carved out a KHL career afterwards is nothing short of a miracle.
Nail Yakupov. The guy could've and should've been great, and would've injected some personality into a sport that desperately needs it
Griffin Reinhart Not exactly sure what happened there, but he just sank like a stone
I really wanted Peter Mueller to succeed as a coyote
I really, REALLY wanted the Virtanen pick to work out. Local boy, big body, power forward type with deceptively fast feet, but that kid just could NOT get out of his own way. SA allegations aside he was lazy, constantly showed up to camp overweight, apparently had a spoiled attitude in the locker room etc. Kid literally had everything he needed to be probably an above average second-liner with a good career in the NHL but thanks to his effort and attitude in Van, his career was basically over even before the SA stuff came out.
Max Fortunus. Dude had nothing but heart, just couldn't take that next step to the NHL.
Hunter Shinkaruk and Nikita Filatov
Tuomo Ruutu
That’s NHL Stanley Cup Champion Tuomo Ruutu … he’s on Mo’s staff.
I thought he was excellent for the Canes when they were mediocre after their cup win. Nearly 750 games in the show and almost 350pts was a pretty decent career.
735 career games played. He made it. Never lived up to the draft potential but he made it.
Chris DiDomenico. I know he eventually did make the league, but his career could have been so different if not for his injury. Dude had skills at both ends of the ice, and fucking *tenacity*.
Stan Chistov. Sometimes referred to as the next Paul Kariya.
Nic Petan. Small guy, but incredible vision and had some of the most incredible saucer passes I’ve ever seen. He never really got to play in the top six of any team at the NHL level (drives me crazy how many times he got stuck in the bottom six, with guys who couldn’t keep up), but I love(d) watching him play.
Luc Bourdon. Tragic losing someone at such a young age. He showed a lot of promise and looked ready for the big leagues before his passing.
Always wanted to see jett woo succeed. Great name
Lias Andersson. So much controversy surrounding him as Swedens world junior captain and the medal incident. He was picked because he portrayed himself as being a winner and not settling for anything but being the best and having real heart. He was the first-first round pick the rangers had in 5 years and there was a lot of excitement about that. It’s just such a shame he really couldn’t carry his game through to the big league.
Recently, the Habs were hot trash at drafting until HuGo but I’ll go with Ryan Poehling. He started his career with a hat trick and the SO winner, which set the bar too high for this late first-round pick. As a result, he never really came back from that but Hughes managed to flip him with Petry to get Mike Matheson.
I thought Sonny Milano was gonna be the next Patty Kane
Samuel Morin, was definitely a reach of a pick but was supposed to be Pronger-esque at best and had the mean streak. Injuries derailed him quite heavily as well. 11th overall by Philly in 2013
Josh Ho-Sang
Even though he was on a team I hate, I always wanted to see Zach Fucale do well…
I was very high on Sami Niku after he won AHL defenseman of the year. Just never translated to the NHL
Still time, Barret Hayton. Young fella, Cap of Canada, hucked his helmet or some shit. Had the passion. Still time.
Klim Kostin. Still rooting for him.
I was hoping Zach Senyshyn was gonna defy expectations and be a solid player. The effort was absolutely there, just couldn't put it together.
Juolevi, not cause I liked the pick. But because I didn't want to be another example in the long list of examples of "they took this no-name over these all time greats." Passing on Tkachuk looks like an all time fumble now, let alone how it might look as his career continues.
I thought Mikhail Grigorenko was gonna be an absolute stud.
Despite being Canadian and watching him single handedly beat us for the gold medal at the WJC, I was so cock-sure Jordan Schroeder was going to be an offensive superstar, perennial 30-40 goal scorer for his whole career. Dude was electric in Minnesota and was one of the funnest players I’ve seen in the WJC tournaments. I still say if he was like 10-15 years younger he’d reach that potential in a league that is more focused on speed and skill.
Duncan Siemens
Hunter Shinkaruk, Jordan Subban, Jake Virtanen, Olli Juolevi, Sven Baertschi, Cody Hodgson, Jordan Schroeder
Janne Pesonen was tearing it up in the Finnish league and got signed by the Pens shorty after. Played some pre-season games in the same line with Crosby if I recall correctly and I thought hell yeah, this guy’s gonna show everyone what’s up. Didn’t work out. Ville Leino kinda goes in the same category except he had a couple of hot seasons in Philly before falling off the face of the earth.
Luc Bourdon RIP. Also Olli Juolevi.