Best players to just not get the shot in the NHL

[Slats432]

So, I was doing a dive on a goalie. Brandon Maxwell who is working with a cognitive company. He looks like it was working, but he had lost his job in DEL and was playing in DEL2. I thought, if things are going well, how did he get demoted.

He lost his job to Kristers Gudlevskis. I looked at his stats and could understand why. Kristers has fantastic numbers. I looked back at his previous stats and found his NHL career although extremely short was kind of nuts.

This guy has no losses and GAA and SV that are crazy.

Are there any other guys out there with under say 10-20 games that look like they should have played?

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[FissionFire]

Tony Hand

 

[Slats432]

Tony Hand

That was Hand's choice. He decided he didn't want an AHL deal and went back to England.

 

[FissionFire]

That was Hand's choice. He decided he didn't want an AHL deal and went back to England.

Still looked like he could be a player. Probably would have for any team other than the Oilers, who were stacked.

 

[Albatros]

Jan Čaloun, had 11 points in 11 games for an awful Sharks team, including 6+3 in the first 6, but was still buried in the minors and never got a proper chance.

 

[Slats432]

Jan Čaloun, had 11 points in 11 games for an awful Sharks team, including 6+3 in the first 6, but was still buried in the minors and never got a proper chance.

That's crazy, then put up over a ppg in the minors for two more seasons.

 

[Mike C]

Vladislav Tretiak

 

[Slats432]

Vladislav Tretiak

I think I am trying to go with guys that wanted to play but for whatever reason didn't get the opportunity. Maybe that had some games in the NHL and had good numbers but didn't get the opportunity they deserved. We can list tons of guys that decided not to come over from Europe, but that isn't what I was going for.

 

[Mike C]

I think I am trying to go with guys that wanted to play but for whatever reason didn't get the opportunity. Maybe that had some games in the NHL and had good numbers but didn't get the opportunity they deserved. We can list tons of guys that decided not to come over from Europe, but that isn't what I was going for.

Gotcha. Tretiak wanted to play but was denied clearance to come over by the Soviet Federation. In his case the decision was out of his hands

 

[MartyOwns]

i'll go to my grave saying ari ahonen never got a fair shake

 

[Slats432]

i'll go to my grave saying ari ahonen never got a fair shake

Could very well be true. Looks to have had a good AHL rookie season. (Without checking them all, at least 15-20 goalies with worse stats that year have played some NHL games) His 2nd was pretty poor though. Might have been disillusioned when sent down again.

 

[Brodeur]

i'll go to my grave saying ari ahonen never got a fair shake

He didn't clearly outplay Scott Clemmensen over a few AHL seasons, so I don't know if Ahonen really got dealt a bad hand.

My Devil "what if" is Christian Berglund; On an unrelated note, it made me feel old that his son was a 2nd round pick a couple weeks ago. My Cliff's Notes on Berglund:

- Spring 2001 - Ranked #20 on The Hockey News Future Watch, ahead of Brian Gionta. Devils didn't have the budget to retain Alexander Mogilny, but they thought perhaps Berglund/Gionta/Pierre Dagenais could crack the lineup soon.



- 2001-02 season - Berglund and Gionta both are AHL rookies. Berglund produces at a better clip than Gionta in the AHL and NHL. Patrik Elias missed a few games with injury and Berglund briefly took his spot on the top line with Arnott-Sykora. Coaching change #1 goes down as Larry Robinson is replaced by Kevin Constantine. Injuries to Sykora and Gomez forces Gionta/Berglund to get some playoff action.



- 2002-03 season - Coaching change #2 with Constantine replaced with Pat Burns. Devils swap Sykora for Jeff Friesen which opens up a RW spot for Gionta while putting another veteran LW in front of Berglund. Berglund opens the season as the 4th line LW and doesn't find traction. Gets sent down midway through the season and eventually misses the rest of the regular season after getting injured in the AHL. He was healthy enough to practice with the big club during the 2003 Cup run, but I don't know if he was ever considered to dress as the team used Jiri Bicek and Mike Rupp after Joe Nieuwendyk missed the finals with a back injury.

- 2003-04 season - Berglund and Gionta start on the 4th line opening night. Gionta would work his way up to the top line with Elias-Gomez by the end of the season. Unfortunately Berglund got hurt again. Desperate for offense, Lou shipped out Berglund at the deadline for Viktor Kozlov. In a brief cameo with Florida, Berglund pots 3 goals in 10 games. I was optimistic that Berglund could score 20 for them the following season.

- 2004-05 season - Coaching change #3 as Florida fired John Torchetti and GM Rick Dudley and replaced them with Jacques Martin and Mike Keenan. And then that pesky lockout happened.

- 2005-06 season - Out of the lockout, Keenan goes on a veteran signing spree adding Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, Jozef Stumpel, Martin Gelinas, and Chris Gratton. Berglund is offered a two way contract but chooses to stay in Europe since he's not promised an NHL spot.

- 2006-07 season - Keenan is ousted and Jacques Martin becomes GM/coach. Martin never expressed interest in bringing Berglund back.

At least for me, Berglund went from promising 21 year old to 26 year old afterthought in the blink of an eye. Lots of coaching/GM changes and a lockout during a make it or break it season was tough. Not sure if he would have been anything more than a 15-20 goal 3rd liner with some sandpaper, but I always wondered if he might have stuck around the NHL without the lockout. Kinda interesting to contrast Gionta who hit 1,000 GP while Berglund didn't crack 100.

 

[morehockeystats]

The Europeans wanted to come. In the 1970s-1980s all the players from the USSR and Czechoslovakia really wanted to come.

I think Mozyakin is the best player never to want to play in the NHL. Shipachyov is probably the one who didn't get a proper shot, possibly arriving to the NHL overripe. Patrick Thoresen comes to mind as well.

 

[adsfan]

Mark Van Guilder played one game for Nashville in 2014, as a thank you from the organization.

He was 30 for that game. He could have played with an expansion team.

 

[OrrNumber4]

I always think of Nolan Schaefer, who had great results in 7-game/5-start run before never playing again in the league. Only to find out almost two decades later that the coaches, who saw him at every practice and had all the analytics, knew it was an absolute mirage and that Schaefer had no NHL future.

 

[Albatros]

The Sharks also had Toskala playing very well as the backup, so there was simply no space in the roster.

 

[Mike C]

Check out Lane Macdonald. Great college player. Drafted by Flames. Recurring migraines forced him to give up the sport

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Goalie Zach Fucale, drafted 36th overall by the Canadiens in 2013.

4 GP in 8 years: 1.75 GAA, .924 SV%. Longest shutout streak to start a career in NHL history, 138:31.

Now starting for Traktor in the KHL.

 

[Albatros]

Fucale was an AHL backup that never found enough consistency to become more. Also in the NHL couldn't stop anything once his streak came to an end, allowed 4 weak goals in less than 10 minutes and that was that.

 

[Zine]

The Europeans wanted to come. In the 1970s-1980s all the players from the USSR and Czechoslovakia really wanted to come.

I think Mozyakin is the best player never to want to play in the NHL. Shipachyov is probably the one who didn't get a proper shot, possibly arriving to the NHL overripe. Patrick Thoresen comes to mind as well.

I'd say Bykov and Khomutov are the best players who couldve played in the NHL but refused.

Shipachyov, Pavel Patera, Sergei Zinovyev are some others who weren't given a legitimate chance.
Nigel Dawes wouldve been quite good in the newer 'wide open' NHL of the 2010s-present.

 

[Albatros]

Patera did too little to use the chances he was given, in Dallas he got to play with good linemates but couldn't adjust, probably didn't help that he didn't speak English and there weren't any other Czechs in team, refused to join the farm team when sent down. Later in Minnesota he had plenty of Czechs and Slovaks around him, but it didn't work in a bad team with lesser linemates either, got an extension for another year but again chose to not to stay after being sent down.

 

[JianYang]

I think I am trying to go with guys that wanted to play but for whatever reason didn't get the opportunity. Maybe that had some games in the NHL and had good numbers but didn't get the opportunity they deserved. We can list tons of guys that decided not to come over from Europe, but that isn't what I was going for.

Tretiak was offered a contract by the Canadiens (as was Fetisov). I don't believe they knew about the offers until some time later.

The soviets regime was not going to let them go.

 

[Moose Head]

Tretiak was offered a contract by the Canadiens (as was Fetisov). I don't believe they knew about the offers until some time later.

The soviets regime was not going to let them go.

I recall Tretiak telling a story that he once had a clear opportunity to defect but didn’t have enough time to think the decision through and chose not to.

 

[Howie Hodge]

Has to be Taro Tsujimoto here in Buffalo.... No chance at all.

 

[mattihp]

Mika Nieminen. His skills with the puck was incredible. His speed of thinking the game was made for the NHL.

Kimmo Rintanen was one of the best stickhandlers ever in Finnish hockey. There was rumours of a PTO with the Rangers towards the end of his career that he didn't accept.

Toni Rajala got a shot, but he matured and got so much better when it comes to puck control and drawing attention from the opposition.