First round picks who were barely professional level?

[Hexy]

Angelo Esposito

Selected 20th overall, never got it going in the AHL, banged around in Europe and managed to fail even in the Austrian League (1 goal, 8 pts in 35 games)

 

[cptjeff]

Philippe Paradis! Went 27th overall to the Canes back in '09 because they wanted to get bigger, so they went off the board and took a big center most had earmarked for the third round instead of the top ranked options at C, Landon Ferraro, a boom or bust skill guy who busted, or Ryan O'Reilly, who was regarded as a high floor, low ceiling guy, and who did not bust.

He wound up as a scrub in the AHL who only got any ice time at all because of his 1st round pedigree. A monumental drafting mistake in Canes history.

Also, for some reason the Leafs gave us Jiri Tlusty for him, an actual NHL player who had real if brief success playing on a top line in the NHL. I guess the Leafs just wanted Tlusty out of town after his sexting 'scandal'.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Many 1st round busts hang around in the AHL for years despite not being at that level just because they're 1st round picks.

Zack Phillips comes to mind. After playing in the AHL he had a decent year as a pro in the Swedish 2nd tier, but other than that he has more or less spent his career in semi-pro leagues.

 

[God]

I'm not actually sure if Patrick White or Libor Polasek is the worst Canucks first round pick ever, but the latter was drafted in an era where everybody was trying to find the next Lindros so there are probably a ton of examples in the 90s. At least with White, there isn't really an excuse for making that pick when his physical profile was nothing to write home about and neither was his production.

I will throw Philippe Paradis's name into the mix but he's not the worst named yet.

 

[mattihp]

Jesse Niinimäki was a head scratcher for many Finns, didn't stand out in juniors. He had a couple of decent seasons in Liiga eventually that were good, but in general was enigmatic.

 

[Romang67]

Alex Bourret, drafted #16 overall out of the (sadly now folded) Lewiston MAINEiacs, played 3 seasons in the AHL, never made the NHL, made it back to the AHL for 6 more games in his career. Spent most of his career in the LNAH.

Even for the Thrashers, that pick was unusually bad.

I'm not sure the previous year's first rounder, Boris Valabik, was necessarily a better hockey player, but you get A LOT of leeway as a 6'8 Slovakian D-man when Chara is one of the best players in the league.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

Kris Chucko was drafted 24th overall by the Flames in 2004.

He played 2 NHL games and 277 in the AHL, where scored a career high 28 goals five years after he was drafted, and was out of hockey by 2011.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

Zach Senyshyn Drafted 15th overall by the Bruins probably meets what you are looking for. Famously was a reach at 15 that draft year.

Yup. He's not even playing in North America right now.

 

[BonMorrison]

Tyler Boucher certainly trending this way.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Logan MacMillan is probably the best example from a Ducks’ perspective. Massive problem child with attitude issues, traded to Calgary, couldn’t hack it in the AHL or ECHL for 2 years before he headed to Europe, had a decent-ish season in Austria but did nothing in either the VHL (Russian 2nd division) or England (weirdly was a PPG player in Romania) and his career was done by 30.

Knew him personally.

You know those guys who just ruin the mood anytime they’re around?

He was that guy

 

[Machinehead]

Kris Chucko was drafted 24th overall by the Flames in 2004.

He played 2 NHL games and 277 in the AHL, where scored a career high 28 goals five years after he was drafted, and was out of hockey by 2011.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Why did you shout at the end?

 

[seafoam]

Griffin Reinhart was living on the coattails of his family name, Memorial Cup win, and WJC appearance, and draft slot but was a below average AHLer who has already been retired for a couple years.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Without a doubt, Patrick White.

 

[1specter]

Kris Chucko was drafted 24th overall by the Flames in 2004.

He played 2 NHL games and 277 in the AHL, where scored a career high 28 goals five years after he was drafted, and was out of hockey by 2011.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

If I'm not mistaken, didn't Chucko have very serious concussion issues? I remember reading about his story a bit and it was pretty depressing, he was basically living in dark rooms and doing nothing for long periods of time, this was back when the education around concussions was still very poor as well.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

McCarron has actually been a pretty good 4th liner for the Preds. Barely professional implies they can't even play in the AHL.

I thought he was a used car salesman by now tbh

 

[1specter]

Philippe Paradis! Went 27th overall to the Canes back in '09 because they wanted to get bigger, so they went off the board and took a big center most had earmarked for the third round instead of the top ranked options at C, Landon Ferraro, a boom or bust skill guy who busted, or Ryan O'Reilly, who was regarded as a high floor, low ceiling guy, and who did not bust.

He wound up as a scrub in the AHL who only got any ice time at all because of his 1st round pedigree. A monumental drafting mistake in Canes history.

Also, for some reason the Leafs gave us Jiri Tlusty for him, an actual NHL player who had real if brief success playing on a top line in the NHL. I guess the Leafs just wanted Tlusty out of town after his sexting 'scandal'.

You just gave me PTSD with this name lol. I remember idiot teenage me thinking how Burke may have fleeced Carolina and picked up a good prospect lmao, pure copium. He only lasted ~7 months in the Leafs system before they flipped him in a package for Kris Versteeg (who was then also traded away for a first and a third).

 

[Suntouchable13]

You just gave me PTSD with this name lol. I remember idiot teenage me thinking how Burke may have fleeced Carolina and picked up a good prospect lmao, pure copium. He only lasted a year in the Leafs system before they flipped him in a package for Kris Versteeg (who was then also traded away for a first and a third).

Jesus Christ, the older I get the more I realize what a disaster Burke was lol. Just awful.

 

[1specter]

Jesus Christ, the older I get the more I realize what a disaster Burke was lol. Just awful.

The worst part was his successor being Nonis, an even bigger idiot and also boring - at least Burke had some flash and could shock with you an interesting trade here and there. Complete morons that wasted crucial rebuilding years of this team.

 

[BKarchitect]

Some odd definitions of “barely a professional hockey player” in this thread…

Best Avs examples off the top of my head are:

Joey Hishon
- 2010 17th overall pick in round 1. Progress devastated by injuries. Played:
NHL: 13 GP
AHL: 174 GP
KHL: 48 GP
SHL: 22 GP

Conner Bleackley
- 2014 23rd overall pick round 1. He just sucked. Played:
NHL: 0 GP
AHL: 133 GP
ECHL: 230 GP

Was gonna add the legendary Duncan Siemens, 11th overall pick in 2011…but his 20 NHL and 320 AHL games qualifies him as a success among the Avs legendary group of awful non top-10 first round picks…

 

[1specter]

Griffin Reinhart was living on the coattails of his family name, Memorial Cup win, and WJC appearance, and draft slot but was a below average AHLer who has already been retired for a couple years.

The Oilers trading a first (which turned into Barzal) and an early second for him is one of the funniest trades I've ever seen. That move was peak Chiarelli, he really started his time with the Oilers with a bang.

 

[Stephen]

Tyler Biggs went 22nd overall and it's actually kind of crazy how ineffective he was in some relatively bad European leagues.

Guys have summer jobs in the league he most recently played in and he wasn't at all particularly good.

He has to be in the discussion for worst NHL 1st rounders of all-time in pro hockey as a whole. Even Hugh Jessiman had a successful AHL career.

He's a WJC gold medalist!!

I always like retelling this story about Tyler Biggs whenever people reference him as a bust.

I went to a Marlies game way back when and saw him score a great goal on the breakaway looking every bit the 90s prototypical skilled power forward. He was already in controversial territory by then but I was thinking this guy is pretty impressive live and could see why the Leafs picked him, hopefully he pans out.

Then to make sure I wasn’t daydreaming the whole thing I found a video of it on YouTube!



Hard to imagine this is like one of 11 goals he managed to score at the AHL level.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

Why did you shout at the end?

Because it still hurts.

Kris Chucko began a streak of three Flames 1st round picks who combined to play 20 games for them.

Chucko.
Matt Pelech.
Leland Irving.

So again.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Colten Teubert has to be close, he got some pro games but that's because he was big meanie during the big meanie era so guys tried to force him in, but he was worthless in NA Pro, and flamed out of the DEL.

Matt Zultek for the Kings, as well. 15 OA, rentered and was drafted in the 2nd round, and bounced around the ECHL for a bit before busting out of even lower leagues

 

[WiHockeyGuy]

Marek Zagrapan, Dennis Persson, Artem Kryukov.

Zagrapan is the most "successful" of the group, with some ok AHL numbers and some decent euro seasons, but still nothing great.

 

[Treb]

This is a good one and first real answer of the thread. Mediocre player even in German and Austrian leagues.

Not sure I would qualify him as mediocre in those leagues and he was good in the ECHL as well (wiining the Cup once). He was also Captain at the end in Austria and won twice.

Biggs fit the bill better even though he skated around longer in the AHL.

Fischer retired two years after Biggs despite being 5 years older.