Most hyped prospect?

[bobbop]

Wayne Dillon. No one else even comes close.

Dillion was a junior phenom who signed with the WHA Toronto Toros in 1973. In his two years with the Toros he had 30 and 29 goals and 160 total points. The Rangers shocked the hockey world when he was picked 12th overall in 1975 and then made stealth moves to get him out of his WHA contract. This guy was advertised as the second coming.

Dillon joined the Rangers as a 20 year old in 1975 and it didn't quite work out as planned. He scored 38 goals over two years and was down to 5 goals the next year. He went back to the WHA and was out of hockey altogether three years later.

I don't remember what went wrong here but I don't know anyone in hockey (I was in hockey in those days) who didn't think he was going to be a big NHL star.

 

[mti79]

People were saying Prucha> Crosby early in their careers, before they joined the NHL. He had mad hype man.

I remember those conversations and they were always ridiculous but they came after both had debuted in the NHL. To me, a hyped prospect is someone that hasn't or has barely played in the NHL. Prucha had success in his rookie season but I don't remember him being touted as better than Crosby before the season started. I had actually never even heard of Prucha before he came out of nowhere that season. He wore #58 in the pre-season so it's not like the Rangers were expecting much.... although many rookies get weird numbers to begin with.

 

[Tawnos]

It depends on what you mean. Hype, as a noun, refers to exaggeration. Hype, as a verb, refers to excitement.

In the former, most of the names have already been mentioned, though I'll throw out Vladimir Vorobiev, Daniel Goneau, Josef Balej, and Marcel Hossa.

In the latter, well I was pretty young, but I remember Weight and Amonte being very hyped. I also remember my dad talking about Granato and Sandstrom as being hyped prospects. Oddly, all 4 of those players were traded and had great careers.

 

[KreiMeARiver*]

Segregated by eras since I've been a fan

Leetch

Kovalev

Kloucek
Brendl
Lundmark

Al Montoya

Anisimov
Grachev

Kreider

 

[tjs252]

Brendl, Lundmark, Grachev, Leetch in some order.

 

[Crease]

Grachev was overhyped for sure. Not so much because of his potential but because at the time there was no one else in the cupboard with a prayer of scoring 25 at the NHL level.

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

Pavel Brendl

Consideration also goes to Jamie Lundmark

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

But the 1999 Draft sucked. I mean the Sedins went before the pick of Brendl and then after that, the only guys who really stand out are Zetterberg and Ryan Miller. Those were the only four guys who really stood out, if I remember correctly.

 

[Crease]

Brendl wasn't hyped because it was a weak draft. People were literally saying that Brendl was going to change the fortunes of the franchise. No Rangers draft pick since Leetch has really had that kind of expectations placed on him.

 

[ItsthatSimple]

but the 1999 draft sucked. I mean the sedins went before the pick of brendl and then after that, the only guys who really stand out are zetterberg and ryan miller. Those were the only four guys who really stood out, if i remember correctly.

are you kidding me...

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Grachev is a good example.

People were mesmerized by his gaudy junior #'s, and ignored the fact he was physically mature compared to much of his competition, and also played on a line with 2 future top 10 NHL picks. It was easy street for him. Things changed for him almost immediately as soon as the competition got better.

 

[McRanger]

Brendl wasn't hyped because it was a weak draft. People were literally saying that Brendl was going to change the fortunes of the franchise. No Rangers draft pick since Leetch has really had that kind of expectations placed on him.

He had significantly less talent but in terms of hype Manny is up there with Brendl. The very public Smith/Muckler feud didn't help. I think Manny was the first Rangers prospect ever to be discussed ad nauseum on the internet.

He was suppose to be the face of the post Messier Rangers.

 

[Chief]

Kovalev was hyped early on. Neil Smith thought he had the potential to be an elite sniper.

Niklas Sundstrom was another player who people had lofty expectations for but he never had the offense the Rangers hoped.

Brendl and Lundmark were good choices as well as their ceilings were thought to be high.

Go back to the '97 draft and you'll find Burke Henry and Wes Jarvis. I believe both were top 5 on the Rangers Top 10 prospects in a few Hockey's Future issues. Jarvis was huge and was going to be a monster on the blueline and Henry was going to be a point-producing Dman. Didn't work out that way.

I also remember there being hype about Martin Richter, a Swedish Dman who the Rangers were trying to convince to come back to NA. He did...and he wasn't all he was cracked up to be.

That said, I think the most hyped prospect could easily be Dan Blackburn. He beat out the incumbent in training camp while with the Kootenay Ice - I think he was only 16 - and wound up WHL Rook of the Year and Playoff MVP. There was some factoid Sather kept throwing around in interviews - something to the effect that the only player to have accomplished what Blackburn did in the WHL, at his early age, was one of the all-time great goalies - I want to say it was Grant Fuhr but I can't be sure. Anyway, someone on here must remember what I'm talking about. If so, please refresh my memory.

 

[AlternateSideParking]

Kloucek was supposed to save the franchise.

 

[I Eat Crow]

Blackburn was pretty hyped, but he was a ray of hope during the dark days. Henrik Lundqvist wouldn't have even had an NHL career with the Rangers if he stayed healthy. Blackburn would've been very good.

 

[Crease]

Was anyone around when the Rangers were involved in the bidding war for Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson? How amped was the fan base when the swedes were signed?

 

[bmoak]

Korpi was one of the safest bets to be an NHL player out of that draft, but his ceiling to me was limited. At least amongst my circle of hockey friends, he was being pimped as a future top 6 forward. I figured him as a solid bottom six forward that can PK. He turned out to be pretty much that.

I don't recall being Korpikoski being hyped on these boards. Quite the opposite. There was a lot of screaming that the Rangers were drafting "safe" by wasting a first round pick on another bottom-six grinder. Drafting Korpi over Wolski was viewed by a lot of posters then as an organizational disaster a la McIlrath over Tarasenko.

There was a lot of sneering that the Rangers drafted him because he could do a lot of sit-ups and people thought Maloney was blowing smoke when he said that Korpi would be the best of the three Super-Finns drafted in the 1st round, although he turned out to be right.

 

[Brunomics]

Blackburn was pretty hyped, but he was a ray of hope during the dark days. Henrik Lundqvist wouldn't have even had an NHL career with the Rangers if he stayed healthy. Blackburn would've been very good.

I remember Blackburn, he got rushed into the NHL but man he was just oozing talent. He was definitely going to be a good one if he never got hurt.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Blackburn was pretty hyped, but he was a ray of hope during the dark days. Henrik Lundqvist wouldn't have even had an NHL career with the Rangers if he stayed healthy. Blackburn would've been very good.

That situation bothers me. Ray of hope? More like a carrot at the end of a stick for the fanbase.

Blackburn got lit up in the 60 or so games he played as a Ranger. He never should've been anywhere near the big club as a teenager.

 

[Beacon]

That situation bothers me. Ray of hope? More like a carrot at the end of a stick for the fanbase.

Blackburn got lit up in the 60 or so games he played as a Ranger. He never should've been anywhere near the big club as a teenager.

He made the team as an 18 year old, which is unheard of for a goalie. He was better off spending one more season in the WHL, then one in the AHL and only then making the NHL. Probably would've avoided the injury this way too. He would've been a great goalie.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

He made the team as an 18 year old, which is unheard of for a goalie. He was better off spending one more season in the WHL, then one in the AHL and only then making the NHL. Probably would've avoided the injury this way too. He would've been a great goalie.

Making the NHL as an 18 year old goaltender is unheard of because its a stupid thing to do, and Rangers were stupid for doing it.

 

[Tawnos]

That situation bothers me. Ray of hope? More like a carrot at the end of a stick for the fanbase.

Blackburn got lit up in the 60 or so games he played as a Ranger. He never should've been anywhere near the big club as a teenager.

Agreed on Blackburn's development, but saying he got lit up for all 60 games is revising history a bit. He was great for 10-15 games after Richter got hurt in 2002. His play suffered a pretty dramatic downturn though, and the team traded for Dunham. Then he got hurt. He definitely showed the potential to be as good as he was hyped to be. We'll never know though.

He should've been sent back to juniors, if only because it would have been the smarter thing to do. The entire team's player development was complete crap at the time, though. That the organization made a stupid decision isn't really surprising.

 

[vipernsx]

Brendl. AINEC IMO

In Hype v Fail, then yeah absolutely. Since the entry draft began, 99 was probably the only draft worse than 03.

 

[vipernsx]

Making the NHL as an 18 year old goaltender is unheard of because its a stupid thing to do, and Rangers were stupid for doing it.

That's what happens when you fail to have adequate goalie prospects in your system and the horse you planned on riding came up lame. I really hope nothing happens to Henke in the next 5 years.

 

[Mr Atoz*]

Was anyone around when the Rangers were involved in the bidding war for Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson? How amped was the fan base when the swedes were signed?

I sure was. They were oversold too.