Best late Bloomers

[Brodeur]

I'd put Danny Briere up on this list.

I remember reading about Briere admitting that he was a lazy entitled player early in his career. He thought on pure skill he was an NHL player, but then he got waived and cleared which was a huge wakeup call. To his credit he made some changes on and off the ice and turned things around.

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Dan Cleary was an early favorite to go #1 in 1997 but had a mildly disappointing draft season which caused him to drop to #13. He was expected to be a pure skill guy but carved out a niche as a role player in his late 20s.

 

[MadLuke]

Nobody playing 20+ minutes a night in the NHL at 20 years old or however young he was could be seen as a late bloomer, even if he did end up improving at a rate that was unexpected.

Would have done that of course, but he was a 11 minute "#6-7# at 20, 22 when he started to see 20 minutes a night on a regular basis, 24 for your first Norris vote is not that old too, specially for that position, you are right. But has for being a 3rd round pick and getting a chance in the nhl in his early 20s, that in the context of being 6 foot 9 with a great athletic background and super high ceiling, those 2 points could have been part projection, part where he was hockey development wise and making him look more ahead that he was. Maybe in term of ability-dev would he have been 5'11'' he goes undrafted and do not get on an nhl game untils he his 22.

Maybe Markov as a better late bloomer case, 6th round pick, 28 years old season first Norris attention

 

[carjackmalone]

Nazem Kadri

 

[Brodeur]

Not sure if he exactly counts, but John Madden wasn't an NHL regular until he was 26. Signed as an undrafted college free agent at age 24 and then spent a couple seasons in the AHL.

I remember there being some confusion about his birthday back in the day. Some magazines / hockey cards had him listed as a 1975 (instead of 1973) birthday. So at least early in his career we thought he was younger than he actually was.

 

[carjackmalone]

Valeri Nikushkin was thought to be finished by 25

What a late career turnaround minus the legal troubles

 

[JackSlater]

Oates is a good answer, Brett Hull too. Both playing junior A in their last year of junior, Hull had tremendous genes but by his own admission was lazy and disinterested. Guys like Marchand or Reinhart had uneven development but they were elite junior players, both playing at the WJC at 18 and with big roles at 19. Marchand played on a deep team but obviously fell into a perfect situation, and Reinhart had to deal with the Buffalo stink.

 

[Sentinel]

Datsyuk?

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Datsyuk?

For as deep a team as the Red Wings in a low scoring era, I’d say he looked promising immediately and only got better from then on. Of course, he makes the NHL at 23 and it’s difficult for me to know what to make of his earlier years in Russia. Kind of looks like he only had his breakout season in the top flight of the Russian league the season prior to joining Detroit, which does strike me as pretty late at 22, for a future NHL superstar nonetheless.