Most overrated player on your favourite team - past or present

[HanSolo]

Anaheim
Cam Fowler AINEC

Come on man, who is overrating Cam Fowler aside from a few Ducks fans who still defend his poor play? Even historically he never really got praise even when he was playing relatively well.

My answer:

Ducks:

All time: tough to say because historically Ducks players were either rated fairly by neutral fans or underrated/underappreciated and many often wouldn't get their due until they left for other teams or retired (like Hampus Lindholm or Ryan Getzlaf). I guess if I had to pick one I'd say Ryan Whitney was worse than neutral fans at the time thought and being the same player when he moved to Edmonton he got talked about like he was a number one defenseman for a while. And while he never actually suited up for the Ducks, the hype around and after Justin Schultz hit free agency was insanity. He went from talked about by virtually no one but a few college hockey fans to the wider hockey community like he was the next Erik Karlsson and he never even came close.

Current: Mason McTavish. Don't get me wrong, Mac is a good young player with high potential, but after his early season run last year I think neutral fans think he's a much better player right now than he actually is and I suspect it's something of a balancing from how widely Trevor Zegras is reviled around the league. Mac is very much not consistent in his execution yet but he's still talked about like he's this golden child relative to other impressive youngsters the Ducks have.

Vegas:

Current and all time: Alex Pietrangelo. Don't get me wrong. AP was a key figure in Vegas' eventual cup win and has been a strong part of how Vegas was able to run such a good defense the past few years. The overrating came from how for like the first 2-3 years of his Vegas stint, many neutral fans would still classify him as a top ten, as high as top 7 defenseman in the league. Vegas got AP as he was leaving his prime and by the time he arrived I wouldn't have called him top ten. Overall he makes a good impact but he also had more than a fair share of critical puck mishandles and blown defensive coverages. I'm not sure he's still overrated after Vegas' first round exit last spring but I think he's the guy who has gotten the most undue praise even if the overrating wasn't what you could call severe.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Come on man, who is overrating Cam Fowler aside from a few Ducks fans who still defend his poor play? Even historically he never really got praise even when he was playing relatively well.

My answer:

Ducks:

All time: tough to say because historically Ducks players were either rated fairly by neutral fans or underrated/underappreciated and many often wouldn't get their due until they left for other teams or retired (like Hampus Lindholm or Ryan Getzlaf). I guess if I had to pick one I'd say Ryan Whitney was worse than neutral fans at the time thought and being the same player when he moved to Edmonton he got talked about like he was a number one defenseman for a while. And while he never actually suited up for the Ducks, the hype around and after Justin Schultz hit free agency was insanity. He went from talked about by virtually no one but a few college hockey fans to the wider hockey community like he was the next Erik Karlsson and he never even came close.

Current: Mason McTavish. Don't get me wrong, Mac is a good young player with high potential, but after his early season run last year I think neutral fans think he's a much better player right now than he actually is and I suspect it's something of a balancing from how widely Trevor Zegras is reviled around the league. Mac is very much not consistent in his execution yet but he's still talked about like he's this golden child relative to other impressive youngsters the Ducks have.

Vegas:

Current and all time: Alex Pietrangelo. Don't get me wrong. AP was a key figure in Vegas' eventual cup win and has been a strong part of how Vegas was able to run such a good defense the past few years. The overrating came from how for like the first 2-3 years of his Vegas stint, many neutral fans would still classify him as a top ten, as high as top 7 defenseman in the league. Vegas got AP as he was leaving his prime and by the time he arrived I wouldn't have called him top ten. Overall he makes a good impact but he also had more than a fair share of critical puck mishandles and blown defensive coverages. I'm not sure he's still overrated after Vegas' first round exit last spring but I think he's the guy who has gotten the most undue praise even if the overrating wasn't what you could call severe.

In the past he’s been severely overrated by our fan base… there are actually duck fans that think fowler was better than hampus

 

[SML2]

Rangers:
Marc Staal. Guy spent over half his career being overpaid trash of a player.

Now: K'Andre Miller. Makes lowpoint Staal look like Rod Langway in the defensive zone.

 

[wetcoast]

Mark Messier, but that one is a given.

Phil Esposito and Guy Lafleur from my childhood days and even Serge Savard (in terms of all time rankins not peak) Rod Langway as well...........but for my Canucks it's the Sedin twins, great guys scored lots of points at their peaks but their reputation far exceeds their actual on ice total impact and their playoff resumes and international ones are meh for the way some of my fellow canuck fans pump them up.

 

[JianYang]

Overrated is just a code word for I hate player x, and you should too.

 

[HanSolo]

In the past he’s been severely overrated by our fan base… there are actually duck fans that think fowler was better than hampus

I never really saw it that way but I'll give it to you

 

[chris kontos]

trevor lewis.
only nhl player ever with concrete blocks for hands. but he sure can skate.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Mika Zibanejad. Bad at 5 on 5. Almost all his value is in special teams.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

Hyman. good player but definitely not one of the top wingers in the league. Only as good as the superstar he's playing with.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Kaapo Kakko

By whom? No one thinks he's great.

 

[Eyeseeing]

For the Jets?
PLD
43.8 weeks of our lives we will never get back

 

[EdJovanovski]

By whom? No one thinks he's great.

I'd say a sizeable number of Ranger fans still think he's going to live up to his draft status, that we can't possibly move on because he's going to breakout, that he's some elite defensive stud. I think he's a legitimately shit player. He is too slow for the NHL, doesn't think fast either, and is pretty dumb. No offensive skill, etc.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

For Florida, probably Jovo. He was a promising rookie, but . .

 

[MM917]

For the Flames-

Past is easy: John Gaudreau

Present: tough call between Sharangovich, Kuzmenko or Popisil

 

[Pablo El Perro]

For the Flames-

Past is easy: John Gaudreau

Present: tough call between Sharangovich, Kuzmenko or Popisil

Hot take on Johnny

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

Chris Phillips for Ottawa.

Drafted first overall, long and effective career, but never quite lived up to the first overall billing game in game out. Media was gratuitously soft on him, though, as if his first overall billing gave him more grace than his play deserved.

Two moments stand out that media did not dare talk about because he was so respected and revered.

One, the cup clinching own goal vs Anaheim in 2007 where he infamously put the puck into Emery’s skates. Alfredsson had put the team on his back and brought the game within reach, and moments later Phillips is so cavalier with the puck that our hopes are crushed in one play. You just can’t do that in that moment. Any other defender wouldn’t have survived the criticism, but really, the response was soft on CP4.

And two, the way he set the franchise record for games played. He hung on for about two seasons too long only to eclipse Alfredsson’s franchise games played mark by one, and then was LTIR’d. He was so bad by that point, regularly doing snow angels in the slot and throwing pizzas up the middle, that subtracting him from the lineup and replacing him with anyone else literally propelled the team into the Hamburglar playoff run. Check the game-by-game report if you aren’t sure. It’s eerie that the media chose not to report on that angle, or mention it at all, and is a testament to how overrated and over-respected he was.

Caveat, still a good player, had a long and effective career with a few clutch moments including a series extending ECF OT goal.

But should not have seen his career extend to the point of becoming the franchise leader in GP, and certainly should not have his number retired.

In fairness to Phillips, that draft year sucked humungous ass. The only player that was more impactful than him in the first round was selected in the 20s (Briere).

The Sens absolutely made the right choice, there's no question about that.

 

[MM917]

Hot take on Johnny

I don’t think so it’s 100% accurate. Dude won nothing with us, never made the team better, never made a single effort to even pretend to play defense.

An overrated, lazy floater.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

I don’t think so it’s 100% accurate. Dude won nothing with us, never made the team better, never made a single effort to even pretend to play defense.

An overrated, lazy floater.

Iginla won nothing with you either. Still think he was the best winger to play in Calgary.

 

[MM917]

Iginla won nothing with you either. Still think he was the best winger to play in Calgary.

Iginla got us to Game 7 of the finals, when we actually won the series in Game 6, playing on much worse teams.

Iginla win Gold medals, won in junior. Completely different situation from Johnboy.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Patrice Bergeron. Terrible "leader", always the first to point out injuries when eliminated.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Yeah all I remember about the people discussing Phaneuf, is it was always as a punching bag lol.

There was a crossover point where he transitioned from a young physical offensive defender oozing with potential whos name could be used as trade bait for Malkin to the punching bag he became later in his career. About a year before he got traded to toronto and changed the dressing room music.

 

[Frank Drebin]

I'll still get run off the Habs board for saying Carey Price was the goalie he was hyped to be for about 40% of his career.

 

[JoVel]

I remember that season when Vladislav Namestnikov was putting up decent numbers and people were saying how well he was playing, while every Lightning fan thought he sucks, he's just playing with Stamkos and Kucherov. Then he got traded to the Rangers and everyone else realized too that he indeed sucks.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I remember that season when Vladislav Namestnikov was putting up decent numbers and people were saying how well he was playing, while every Lightning fan thought he sucks, he's just playing with Stamkos and Kucherov. Then he got traded to the Rangers and everyone else realized too that he indeed sucks.

According Jeff Gorton he is equal or better to JT Miller.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

Naslund. Jovo. Pettersson.