Players Whose Rookie Years Were Their Best

[DimitriL07]

Boeser has developed into a great 2 way player now and scored 40, but rookie Boeser before his back injury was different.

 

[Rorschach]

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.

If you saw him, you would see he was like David Robinson for the Spurs. The Jets went from a bubble, no-man’s land team into a huge threat. I watched the 92-93 season closely as it was the best Kings team I had ever seen until 2011 and they destroyed everyone in the first half of the season without Gretzky. The Kings were running just a bit faster than the Penguins. However, the Selannne Jets could keep up, and at times were better than the Kings.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Andrew Hammond fits the bill here.

Insane 20-1-2 record his first real stint in the NHL, .941 SV% 1.69 GAA and dragged the Senators to the playoffs, then went back to the AHL most of his career.

 

[LuckyDay]

Fabian Brunnström. Matter of fact it was kind of downhill after his first game where scored a hattrick.

Recall that Vancouver had him everything but signed as a last ditch effort for Dave Nonis to try to save his job. "The best unsigned/undrafted player in Europe" was going to be guaranteed ice team on the Sedin line. This may have sealed the deal for Nonis's end for ownership to make sure this never happened. There was a lot of hype about Brunstrum and Canucks fans were shocked they let him walk.
But then, Gillis...

 

[StLewis11]

For Jordan Binnington, his year as a rookie has been his best so far.

 

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

Joe Juneau
Dion Phaneuf
Marek Svatos

Nah Phaneuf was better in his second season than he was his rookie season. Runner up for the Norris if I remember correctly

 

[Albatros]

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.

Kurri had a record-breaking rookie year as a 20-year-old playing with Matti Hagman initially, MacDonald was an above average WHA player that went on to have one very good NHL season at 26. He fell off and lost to a 20-year-old because the substance wasn't there, he was the proverbial fire hydrant. Kurri was a Selke-level two-way forward that could outproduce him from early on and that's how he made his name.