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Leafs prospects you followed closely who became absolutely nothing

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Mess said:
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Checkout how BB was doing at the AHL/CHL professional level and the little opportunity the Leafs were giving him.

"Play the Kids" fell on death ears ... Can you imagine the Leafs organization having a player in their system today producing for the Farm team at those levels with so limited opportunity to to do it for the Leafs?
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I remember watching him in St Catharines, he was amazing.
 
I always thought Kenny Ryan would amount to good bottom 6 guy. He played a big role in Windsor's back to back Memorial Cup runs, and for whatever reason couldn't progress well to the pro ranks.

Someone above mentioned Vorobiev, and I remember there was quite a bit of "he's NHL ready", and it was just a matter of convincing him to come to N America.
 
- I really liked Robbie Earl as well. Always had that great speed/dynamism to his game.

- I do not remember how 'good' I expected Jeremy Williams to be, but I do remember wanting him to be given more of a shot. He seemed to score every time he was called up.

- It was hard not to get excited about Staffan Kronwall, given his brother's success and hard-nosed game in Detroit. (Looking it up now, Staffan is 6'4" and Niklas is only 6'0." Even more of a shame that he couldn't put it together).

- Marcel Mueller and Sondre Olden too. I have no idea why in hindsight. Olden was a smooth skater, I guess.
 
htpwn said:
- I really liked Robbie Earl as well. Always had that great speed/dynamism to his game.

- I do not remember how 'good' I expected Jeremy Williams to be, but I do remember wanting him to be given more of a shot. He seemed to score every time he was called up.

- It was hard not to get excited about Staffan Kronwall, given his brother's success and hard-nosed game in Detroit. (Looking it up now, Staffan is 6'4" and Niklas is only 6'0." Even more of a shame that he couldn't put it together).

- Marcel Mueller and Sondre Olden too. I have no idea why in hindsight. Olden was a smooth skater, I guess.
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It was the dark times when the leafs weren’t good but not bad enough to get a good pick. We traded picks to try to get into the playoffs. We were holding on to hope that these prospects would pan out.
 
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Stuart Percy
Matt Finn
Andrew Nielson
Matt Frattin
Joe Colbrone
Jerry D’Amigo
Jamie Devane
Jeremy Bracco
 
Alexanderthe89 said:
I will die on this hill. Tyler Biggs should have played in the NHL. Since he was drafted in the 1st he was miscast as a player that had to carry a line offensively and that killed his development.
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Funny enough the small sample size of games I saw of Biggs he always looked a half step faster than anyone else on the ice. Stone hands though.
 
Literally everyone in the 2015 draft.

And I always held out hope for Keaton Middleton. Without a hint of irony, what I want for Christmas is more fridge prospects. PLEASE DUBAS, USE YOUR DRAFTING WIZARDRY TO GET US A 6'4 DEFENSEMAN.
 
Man this is a depressing thread lol
I remember having high hopes for Viktor Stalberg, he was a great skater with size. One game he was flying into the zone and a dman caught him, he was concussed and never played the same way again.

When Kenny Ryan was drafted the quote from Burkie was 'This kid is built like a linebacker'. Um, that's great but his chosen sport is hockey.

I had very high hopes for Tyler Biggs, he was supposed to be our Tom Wilson but yikes did that one fail hard.
 
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Lots of dud names in this thread. Bit of frustrating nostalgia. Here's a few that haven't been mentioned (that I noticed).

Casey Bailey. I thought he'd be the next Bozak-style free wallet. Was stoked when he signed with us out of college, and thought he was NHL quality in his first few games.

Joey Crabb. It was an insult to Phil Kessel when he had to play a stretch with Crabb (and Darryl Boyce) on his line. And we all knew Crabb wasn't ever going to be a legit 1st line talent. But for a while there he looked like a player who could score on a bad team, and that's what we needed.

Richard Panik. I always thought we stole one from Tampa with Panik. And he did go on to have a 22 goal season in Chicago. So maybe he wasn't nothing. But It seemed like he was just a decent coach away from being a legit top 6 scoring winger. It never happened here.
 
Unless it's a guy we drafted in the top 10 or so, I've learned to be skeptical until we see what they can do at the AHL level. A ton of guys look fantastic in junior, and then hit a wall at the AHL level and never recover. A few examples I can think of are Finn, Pogge, Biggs, Stefanovich, Blacker, etc.

Success at the AHL, especially at a young age, is generally a pretty good indication of NHL upside (unless there's an obvious thing that can hold them back, like skating, size, etc). Success at the junior level isn't particularly indicative.
 
therealkoho said:
Some may remember, but after this tilt, some people started calling Keith "Muhammed" Aulie

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"Wookie on skates"

Oh man, he had some major hype coming with Phaneuf in that trade.

I think he was the one that was paired with Tyler Myers in the World Juniors and they were just huge and no one could do anything against them.

Peak World Juniors back then. Big, physical d-man, Tavares dominating, Eberle coming up clutch, PK clapping pucks, Hard to believe that was 13 years ago.
 
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dubplatepressure said:
Funny enough the small sample size of games I saw of Biggs he always looked a half step faster than anyone else on the ice. Stone hands though.
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Completely agree. He could have been an early, slower version of Hyman. Great complementary player on a skill line. He might still have busted I just wish he would have been given a shot.
 
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Christ said:
Kyle Wellwood...Quinn did not like him hotdogging
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Wouldn't know a weight room if it walked up and hit him on the head. That was all pure natural skill. Not much of a work ethic off the ice though. His brother had a promising future, but severed tendon in his ankle by a skate (maybe achilles?) derailed his career with Phily.
 
Brad Ross - Drafted to become the next Darcy Tucker, and didn't amount to shit.

Sondre Olden - I couldn't tell you why, but I loved this pick. I think maybe because he was a big dude with hands and he came from a non-traditional hockey nation. Part of me thought we may have found the guy in the draft that everyone had slept on.

Stuart Percy - I thought this kid was going to be the player we have in Timmy right now. He was a great prospect until almost overnight he wasn't. It was very odd IMO. I know he dealt with injuries his entire career, but I always saw an NHL'er in him. For whatever reason it just never seemed to materialize for him

those were the 3 that instantly come to mind for me. I will likely add Dmitry Ovchinnikov to that list at some point though lol
 
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Thought Dominic Toninato had a legit chance to become a 4/3rd line tweener.

While that didn't quite happen, he's still managed to be a decent option for a 13th forward.

Had hoped Nikita Korostelev would have become a boom pick too from the 2015 class which definitely didn't happen
 
When it comes to the Leafs it isn't just potential, it's luck I have seen too many hyped or injured. Scott,Amirov,Bracco etc. It goes back decades i.e Pogge. Temper your expections. Out of our top 20, 5 will play and have impact. Potential versus reality.
 
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