Players you remember absolutely nothing about (or, who was Steve Poapst)

[Johnny Engine]

OK, yes. There are lots of players I don't know anything at all about.

But I'm not talking about 5 game cup of coffee in 1968 guys, I'm talking about players whose primes overlapped with times you followed the whole NHL closely, and either put up solid ice time or production. Guys who must have been in their teams' starting lineup for a bit, but don't even ring a bell for you. You didn't have their card. You don't remember what their video game rating was. Nothing.

Between 2002-03 and 2003-04 the Chicago Blackhawks put up a 50-76-24-14 record and missed the playoffs both years. Alexei Zhamnov was their captain (check). Jocelyn Thibault was their starting goalie (check), but when he suffered through injuries they turned to Michael Leighton and Craig Anderson (check, check). Steve Sullivan was their most productive forward (check), but with his trade to Nashville, a generation of young guns headlined by Tyler Arnason, Mark Bell, Kyle Calder and Tuomo Ruutu took the reins (check, check, check check). Their most-played defenseman, by fair margin was Steve Poapst (record scratch).

This guy, if he is a real guy, was 34 years old when the Hawks put him on their top pair, and he was a veteran of 117 NHL games up to that point. He was undrafted, small for a D-man (6'0", 199), and not a impressively high scorer at any level of organized hockey (he did get over half a point per game in the ECHL one time, so there's that). He'd been a farmhand for the Caps in his late 20s, and then a depth option for the Hawks for a couple of years before they made him their number one defenseman. Post lockout, he split the season playing depth minutes for losing Pittsburgh and St. Louis teams, and was soon elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

So, who? Anyone got anything about this guy? And by the way, yes, I know Nathan Dempsey was also somehow a top--4 defenseman for those same Hawks team, but I'm from St. John's Newfoundland. Of course I know who Nathan Dempsey is.

And finally, since I don't imagine we'll get a ton of mileage from Steve Poapst stories, who's that guy for you? Guys whose hockey-reference page suggests you should remember him, but you just don't? Let's hear em.

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[Bear of Bad News]

Strat-o-Matic hockey draft leagues are perfect for this (especially in games where the number of Strat teams is close to the number of NHL teams and injuries are normal). I have some weird dudes that filled in games for me over the last 25 years.

A few have been Quintin Laing, Yves Racine, and Jim McKenzie.

Looked it up and damn, Jim McKenzie played a lot of (NHL) games.

 

[DitchMarner]

I followed the Sens quite closely for a while. Before TOR moved to the East and developed a real rivalry with OTT, I found OTT's '97 and '98 teams kind of likeable and cheered for them in the playoffs. I was glad when the Sens upset the Devils in the 1998 playoffs. Later on, naturally, I developed a severe hatred of the Senators, which peaked during the Heatley era and gradually gave way to indifference after he was traded.

I know the Sens had a lot of Euros in the late 90s to early 00s.

Of course I remember Alfie, Hossa and Bonk...

There was Dackell...

There was Magnus Arvedsson...

Then there was some guy named Andreas Johansson.

Who the hell was this guy? When I came across his name a few years ago, I remembered nothing about him, including his name. Now the name kind of feels familiar, but I have zero recollection of this guy as a player. I don't remember watching him or anything he did. I don't know what type of player he was. I don't remember seeing him or knowing about him when he played for NSH later on, either...

Andreas Johansson Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Salary, Title | Hockey-Reference.com

Checkout the latest stats of Andreas Johansson. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, trade, draft, salary and more on Hockey-Reference.com

www.hockey-reference.com

 

[Johnny Engine]

I followed the Sens quite closely for a while. Before TOR moved to the East and developed a real rivalry with OTT, I found OTT's '97 and '98 teams kind of likeable and cheered for them in the playoffs. I was glad when the Sens upset the Devils in the 1998 playoffs. Later on, naturally, I developed a severe hatred of the Senators, which peaked during the Heatley era and gradually gave way to indifference after he was traded.

I know the Sens had a lot of Euros in the late 90s to early 00s.

Of course I remember Alfie, Hossa and Bonk...

There was Dackell...

There was Magnus Arvedsson...

Then there was some guy named Andreas Johansson.

Who the hell was this guy? When I came across his name a few years ago, I remembered nothing about him, including his name. Now the name kind of feels familiar, but I have zero recollection of this guy as a player. I don't remember watching him or anything he did. I don't know what type of player he was. I don't remember seeing him or knowing about him when he played for NSH later on, either...

Andreas Johansson Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Salary, Title | Hockey-Reference.com

Checkout the latest stats of Andreas Johansson. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, trade, draft, salary and more on Hockey-Reference.com

www.hockey-reference.com

I think I do remember Johansson (and he's also got one of those Bob Smith Swedish names like Anders Eriksson, Niklas Andersson, etc, so I could be fooling myself here), and if you had to ask me who he played for, I might have hit on the Preds.

Like you (are we friends?), I liked the Sens in the late 90s and then cast them aside once the great Lalime wars of the 21st century got underway, but it does sorta make sense that a player who only played for them in 1998-99 would escape my notice. Before that, I'm half disregarding the Leafs because Gilmour's not there anymore and Potvin is crap now, and I'm calling my uncle in Nepean every few weeks to chat about how the Sens are doing, and then starting in 2000 it's rivalry time, but for one year, I have a fun Leafs team to watch, and don't have anything against the Sens yet. That's probably the one year of my first decade and a half of hockey fandom that I thought about Ottawa the least.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Strat-o-Matic hockey draft leagues are perfect for this (especially in games where the number of Strat teams is close to the number of NHL teams and injuries are normal). I have some weird dudes that filled in games for me over the last 25 years.

A few have been Quintin Laing, Yves Racine, and Jim McKenzie.

Looked it up and damn, Jim McKenzie played a lot of (NHL) games.

Jim McKenzie is such an impressively boring Canadian hockey name for an enforcer who played 880 NHL games, it's really quite something.

There's no way Quintin Laing is a real person.

I do remember who Yves Racine was, but if you read me a list of J.J. Daigneault's career accomplishments and tried to pass them off as Racine's, I'd agree with you enthusiastically.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

There's no way Quintin Laing is a real person.

I see @Dr John Carlson in the thread, and I'm hoping that they can confirm that Laing is or is not a real person.

Ryan Bayda is another player who suited up for my Strat team. Jussi Rynnas probably the least notable goaltender.

 

[Johnny Engine]

I see @Dr John Carlson in the thread, and I'm hoping that they can confirm that Laing is or is not a real person.

Ryan Bayda is another player who suited up for my Strat team. Jussi Rynnas probably the least notable goaltender.

Playing for the Hurricanes from 2003-2009, but somehow being on the Manitoba Moose for the cup year is a neat trick. Looks like he's now in the tattoo removal business. If I ever need to go into witness protection, this guy seems like he could offer a lot of advice.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

I see @Dr John Carlson in the thread, and I'm hoping that they can confirm that Laing is or is not a real person.

I'm pretty confident I remember using Quintin Laing a few times with the Capitals in NHL 07, which I bought purely because it had Ovechkin on the cover.

Unfortunately, this only confirms that he existed in digital form. His human form is limited to a vague recollection of a 4th line plug...

 

[The Pale King]

How do you say Poapst? Does it rhyme with 'prolapse'?.

Most interesting thing I can give you about him is that he scored a lone goal against Eastern Conference teams in his NHL career. But he scored it in his first game, on his first career shot against Mike Richter.

The rest of his career, in the following 94 games against Eastern Conference teams, spread out over the course of a decade... zero goals.

 

[Johnny Engine]

How do you say Poapst? Does it rhyme with 'prolapse'?.

Most interesting thing I can give you about him is that he scored a lone goal against Eastern Conference in his NHL career. But he scored it in his first game, on his first career shot against Mike Richter.

The rest of his career, in the following 94 games against Eastern Conference teams, spread out over the course of a decade... zero goals.

I was sort of thinking about how you'd change "Pope" to a verb in past tense.
As in, we Poapst the cardinal who deserved the promoation the moast.

But I don't know that.

 

[BadgerBruce]

I’ve got one, though he might be a bit before most folks’ time, but for the life of me I have no recollection of Pierre Plante.

I see his name and think, Pierre Pilote? Derek Plante? Jacques Plante? Pierre Jarry? Pontius Pilate?

I followed the Blues reasonably closely in the early-and-mid-70s. Name 50 guys who played at least 50 games for the team and I can visually see 48 or 49 of them. But Pierre F-ing Plante is a total blank for me.

He played 599 NHL games, 357 of them for St.Louis. Had two seasons where he finished second in points behind Gary Ungar. Scored 26 goals in 73-74 and 34 in 74-75. He was part of trades for Andre “Moose” Dupont and Dick Redmond. Clearly, he could play.

I should remember him.

But I don’t. At all.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Steve Poapst (it's pronounced like there's no 'a' in there basically. Popst) didn't do anything well. He just sort of existed but had no real calling card as a player. I have no idea how he worked his way into the NHL for a bit so late in his career...

 

[Michael Farkas]

Another Penguin (he came over with Kasparaitis)...Andreas Johansson was actually pretty talented and he had a shot. But was a rather individualistic player and I don't think he had a great hockey sense - both are very unusual things for Swedes.

 

[MXD]

I don't know either THAT well, but I always mix up Stacy Roast and Steve Poapst. One is a C, the other is a D.

Brad Bombardir played over 350 games during my time and I can't say anything about him, other than it looks like Bombardier with a typo.

 

[hypereconomist]

I don't know either THAT well, but I always mix up Stacy Roast and Steve Poapst. One is a C, the other is a D.

Brad Bombardir played over 350 games during my time and I can't say anything about him, other than it looks like Bombardier with a typo.

Speaking of Bombardir, his Devil's teammate, Denis Pederson, is a name that I recognize (mostly because he used to run hockey camps in western Canada), but recall nothing about despite being a 1st round pick with 400+ NHL games.

 

[GMR]

Strat-o-Matic hockey draft leagues are perfect for this (especially in games where the number of Strat teams is close to the number of NHL teams and injuries are normal). I have some weird dudes that filled in games for me over the last 25 years.

A few have been Quintin Laing, Yves Racine, and Jim McKenzie.

Looked it up and damn, Jim McKenzie played a lot of (NHL) games.

McKenzie is one of the best fighters in league history. Good, long career as an enforcer.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I always wanted Bombardir to be a great shooter because that would be fun...but he wasn't very good with the puck in general. Not a very good skater either. Fit in nicely with the expansion Wild as he was capable of their game plan - dumping bags of sand on the ice.

 

[MadArcand]

I remember Poapst from one of the EA NHLs (06?). I always used to make a team out of the worst players in the game, and thus Poapst has his place firmly etched in my memory, right next to such legends as Mike Eagles and Jonathan Gruden.

I've recently been utterly shocked when I found a card of Jarmo Kekalainen. Never knew he actually played in the NHL. Always assumed he was just some random Finnish skinhead the Hawks plucked off the street...

 

[Staniowski]

I remember Steve Poapst from his pre-NHL days, either college or AHL. I couldn't tell you a whole lot about him but I remember his name.

I think I remember every player who played at least one NHL game in the 1980s and probably into the '90s.

 

[JMCx4]

Former Chicago Blackhawks, etc. goaltender Denis DeJordy leaps to my mind. As a tweener in the late 1960s, I saw an intriguing photo of him in some hockey publication at the time. It was a shot from the end zone glass with DeJordy on the front tips of his blades & stretching his glove hand above his head to snag a puck. I immediately sketched that scene & had it tacked to my bedroom wall for many years. I had no idea he had won the Vezina Trophy in 1966-67 with the Hawks, nor did I know where he went in hockey after that or that he logged 300+ NHL appearances over his career (with a couple more stints in minor pro hockey before retiring from play at the end of the 1973-74 season in Baltimore). Now I wish I still had that sketch.

 

[DitchMarner]

If I remember correctly, Bombardir was known for being a big hitter. Other than that, he was basically a below average DPE defenseman.

@hypereconomist, I also don't really remember anything about Denis Pederson. I think I knew he existed when he played, but I don't remember ever mentioning him in a discussion, looking up his stats, being impressed by any plays he made or paying any sort of real attention to him.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

In whatever the first version of I believe Eastside Hockey Manager or whatever, Bombardir had surprisingly good potential, and so I always hoped the Avalanche would get him in real life.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Denis Pederson wasn't a great skater and, worse, struggled to really work through contact and still be able to do useful things despite his size...wasn't untalented though.

 

[kaiser matias]

Speaking of Bombardir, his Devil's teammate, Denis Pederson, is a name that I recognize (mostly because he used to run hockey camps in western Canada), but recall nothing about despite being a 1st round pick with 400+ NHL games.

I only know of Bombardir because he's from Powell River, as is my mother, and when he won the Cup it was a big deal in town.

 

[kaiser matias]

Speaking of Bombardir, his Devil's teammate, Denis Pederson, is a name that I recognize (mostly because he used to run hockey camps in western Canada), but recall nothing about despite being a 1st round pick with 400+ NHL games.

I'm most familiar with Pederson from a hockey card of his from his junior days. It has the old Prince Albert Raiders logo prominently displayed, and it's clear why they don't use that logo anymore. Even as a kid I found it wildly offensive.