Players Whose Rookie Years Were Their Best

[TRG]

Kjell Dahlin

Still the best rookie season by a Montreal Canadien.

 

[amnesiac]

Tyler Myers
Nail Yakupov

Kjell Dahlin

Still the best rookie season by a Montreal Canadien.

Chelios

 

[TRG]

Tyler Myers
Nail Yakupov


Chelios

Yeah, you're correct. I meant in terms of points.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Came into the league as an 18-year old and produced at a pace that was only eclipsed once in the 13 subsequent seasons when he leeched off the McDrai on the best PP in league history.

His offensive creativity and sheer talent peaked that first season.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Petr Prucha put up 30 goals in 68 games during his rookie season:

Petr Prucha Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Petr Prucha, a hockey player from Chrudim, Czech Rep. born Sep 14 1982 who was active from 2001 to 2013.

www.hockeydb.com

I wonder who else has been around long enough to remember the Prucha > Crosby thread?

 

[SillyRabbit]

Joe Juneau
Dion Phaneuf
Marek Svatos

 

[ijuka]

Selanne is probably the most obvious.

Best season isn't the same thing as season played during the era with the highest league-wide scoring.

 

[HabsQC]

Cory Conacher

 

[carjackmalone]

Dino Cicarelli
Steve Penny
Doug Wickenheiser
Wendel Clark
Jimmy Carson
Anton and Marian Stastny
Blair MacDonald

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

podkolzin’s rookie season

2021-22	20	VAN	NHL	RW	79	14	12	26	+7

every game he’s played since

2023-2025	21-23	EDM,VAN	RW	79	4	10	14	-11

 

[Bizz]

Jeff Jillson

 

[Paul4587]

Selanne is probably the most obvious.

Selanne had much better years than his rookie year which looks a lot more dominant than it is due to insane scoring levels that year. He finished 1st in goals and 2nd in points only behind a dominant Jagr in 1998-99.

 

[Albatros]

Yeah, Selänne had at least three seasons in Anaheim better than his rookie season in Winnipeg.

 

[Rorschach]

Selanne is the answer. He had an insane first season and then a skate through his Achilles tendon and he was never, ever the same. He had top five GOAT potential.

 

[maroon 6]

Andrei Kuzmenko is only 3 years in but I don’t think he’ll ever top his first season

 

[FiveTacos]

Selanne is the answer. He had an insane first season and then a skate through his Achilles tendon and he was never, ever the same. He had top five GOAT potential.

He lost his warp speed but thankfully was still pretty fast. And of course, it turned out he was not a one trick pony breakaway artist.

A HoF career despite losing what looked like his best asset early on is pretty amazing. I dunno about top 5 GOAT, but he'd almost certainly have finished top 5 all time in goals, which would have been incredible considering his prime was in the dead puck era.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Tom Tresh

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

Matthews first game will probably go down as the best of his career. Hard to top that, though damn I wish he had of managed to score in OT, that would have taken it to another level.

It all went downhill after that.

 

[MoneyManny]

Jonathan Drouin
Jesperi Kotkaniemi

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Petr Prucha put up 30 goals in 68 games during his rookie season:

Petr Prucha Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Petr Prucha, a hockey player from Chrudim, Czech Rep. born Sep 14 1982 who was active from 2001 to 2013.

www.hockeydb.com

Wow thats a good one , was he playing with Jagr?

 

[Ignatius]

Olli Maatta, he looked like he could be Finland's version of Lidstrom and afterwards he had thyroid issues that took him down a few notches.

John Marino, much like Maatta this guy looked like he could end up being a very solid top pairing defenseman based on how he played when he was a rookie. The new car smell wore off after that but he's still a very serviceable top four D.

Non- hockey: RG3

 

[tmg]

Sergei makarov, won the Calder with 86 pts and a +33, never topped those stats again

I mean, he was 31. He’s the reason they added an age limit to the Calder.

This isn’t a case of “Young player showed promise but didn’t develop as hoped as he approached his prime age” (which is really what this thread is trying to find). This was “player was already past his prime age before he even came to the NHL, so he unsurprisingly declined as he aged further into his 30s”.

 

[Kcb12345]

Nvm