Players Whose Rookie Years Were Their Best

[SI90]

Trent Hunter 25 goals 50+pts Rookie year

13 year old me was ready for our next great power forward/sniper on Long Island

 

[Sheppy]

Andrew Raycroft

 

[wolfgaze]

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

Not at even strength as the top line was Straka, Nylander, and Jagr.

 

[L4br3cqu3]

Pat Falloon

 

[swiftwin]

Colin White is a recent example.

 

[seafoam]

Mathew Barzal. /thread

 

[1989]

List of players who played only one game in the NHL - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Kevinsane]

Peter Mueller. Solid rookie year of 56 points. Not much after that.

Vasily Podkolzin, while not lighting the world on fire, had 26 points and was a +7 his rookie year of 2021-22. Nothing since from this first round pick.

 

[Bgav]

I am too lazy to look it up, but how about Wojtek Wolski?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Jeff Skinner was a rock star his rookie year. Never really got better.

 

[NVious]

Jeff Skinner was a rock star his rookie year. Never really got better.

He got away from what was working for him (practicing figure skating) and started dabbling in the dark arts (playing Hockey), he was never the same after that.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Alexei Zhitnik

 

[1989]

Peter Mueller. Solid rookie year of 56 points. Not much after that.

Vasily Podkolzin, while not lighting the world on fire, had 26 points and was a +7 his rookie year of 2021-22. Nothing since from this first round pick.

I remember always trading for Mueller and Svatos because they were crazy speedsters and would net easy goals all the time in NHL 04 or some such.

 

[Voight]

Peter Mueller. Solid rookie year of 56 points. Not much after that.

Vasily Podkolzin, while not lighting the world on fire, had 26 points and was a +7 his rookie year of 2021-22. Nothing since from this first round pick.

He had a crazy hot streak with Colorado after they traded for him tho, I remember some people thought he was about to hit his potential.

 

[Giguere27]

Stanislav Chistov for the Ducks

He scored 12 goals and 30 points for the Ducks in 79 games an six more points on their way to the cup finals

He split the next season between the NHL and AHL and played only more season in the NHL after trying a comeback

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Brain farts. Dude has the skills to be an all-timer - skating, puck handling, physicality, covers the ice like nobody else in the league right now. But... Chaos giraffe.

I think as he filled out he got less coordinated as well, if that makes sense. Phaneuf hit a similar wall later on, Subban as well. But ya, mostly he got asked to actually play defense now, and his brain and body didn’t really align on the best course of action.

He was electric that rookie year, I thought there was no way he wouldn’t dominate for years. He had Tallinder covering for him defensively, turns out that was very important.

Ah well, him and Risto, what coulda been.

 

[GreatSaveEssensa]

Patrik Laine has entered the chat.

Except for the fact his second season was better.

 

[Thallis]

Barret Jackman. Won the Calder in his rookie year, never did it again in his career.

Jackman was a perfect clutch and grab defenseman who only got to play 1 year in the clutch and grab era. Unfortunate for him, but good for everyone else

 

[LuckyDay]

...
Blair MacDonald

Came here to say BJ.
Technically not an NHL rookie/first year though since the stupid league denied rookie status to anyone who came in from the WHA. Though he was made captain in Vancouver the myth in the city that he seemed lost/was not good enough without Gretzky as his center but the truth was he had many great years in the WHA before Wayne signed as an underager - Wayne just made him that much better. Had he stayed in Edmonton on Wayne's line no one doubts he'd have ended his career as famous as Jari Kurri.