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

[Crosby2010]

I cannot remember Luke Schenn in a Tampa Bay uniform for the life of me. Which is strange because he won two Cups in 2020 and 2021. Okay look, in 2020 I'd have rather watched paint dry than watch the 2020 playoffs because it was horrible with no fans and felt like a bad dream. So there's that. But 2021 especially in the U.S. games the seats were filled in the playoffs so how the heck can I not remember him on the team? He didn't play a plethora of games for them both years (25 and 38) and only 11 and 8 in the playoffs respectively, but oh well, I can't recall him on the team. Obviously I know Luke Schenn in general but I can remember him on the Leafs in 2023 and there was talk about him being the only player to win a Cup and I had to look it up to see who he won with and was astounded it was two years earlier only.

Zdenek Nedved is a name that comes up only because he was a Leaf and shares a last name with Petr, who we all know. Can't recall him at all though, just remember the novelty of the name being the same.

I can recall Barrasso and Housley being traded late in the season to the Leafs but have zero memory of any of them putting the uniform on. And looking it up, they barely did.

 

[Ceremony]

Mikhail Maltsev played 18 games in the Avalanche cup year and I have no idea who he is. I couldn't even tell you what number he wore.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Mikhail Maltsev played 18 games in the Avalanche cup year and I have no idea who he is. I couldn't even tell you what number he wore.

This is actually an open and shut case. Maltsev was actually Mikhail Grigorenko with yet another birth certificate...possibly a fake mustache, I don't recall the details. But, no one has ever seen them in the same room, I'll tell you that much...

 

[Ace36758]

For some reason I really don’t know much at all about both Kip and Kevin miller. They both just kind of existed, bounced from team to team and had reasonably long careers if I recall. Kevin might have had a couple of okay seasons in the mid 90s. But I have no specific memories of either player doing anything.

 

[The Panther]

I find there are certain players we all remember but they had brief stints that are almost completely forgotten. A good example is Geoff Courtnall winning a Stanley Cup with the Gretzky-Oilers in 1988. Almost nobody remembers him being part of that team (possibly because he crapped out in the playoffs with 3 assists in 19 games, and zero points in his final 15 games!).

Speaking of forgettable players who dressed for the Oilers that same season, I have no memory of Jim Ennis or Tom McMurchy or John Miner. Of course, these are minor-pro league players with short careers who just had their cups of coffee with one or NHL clubs, so that's no surprise.

Trying to find an Oiler who actually played a significant amount of games for them but who is otherwise forgotten, I come up with Rem Murray. I actually cannot recall a single thing about him -- his number, his style, whether he shot left or right, any important plays / goals. Now, admittedly, I wasn't following the team as much in that c.1997 to 2002 era, but Murray is in the top-40 most games played in Oilers' history and I cannot recall a single thing about his existence. (However, I'm sure there are many who can.)

But at least I can remember Murray's name. However, from roughly the same Oilers-era, I have absolutely no memory of the existence of a player named Sean Brown, who evidently played 269 games for the Oil. Almost everybody else in the top-100 games played list I remember fairly well, but I have zero memory of him.

 

[The Pale King]

"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"...

...Is hopefully what R.E.M. Murray yelled at Ken "Kenneth" Sutton before getting involved in his one and only NHL fight in 516 games.*

Off the top of my head, all I can tell you about Rem Murray is that he wore number 17, and I only know that cause it was Kurri's number. I have a mega-cigarette smoke-yellowed Oilers jersey from the 80s with no name plate. I inherited it as a kid and I looked up which other Oilers had worn that number. Rem was one them. I'm assuming it's since been retired by the club.

*This part I had to look up, I obviously did not have that wishful factoid sitting at the front of my cranium. A guy named REM fights one person over his decade long career, and he's named Kenneth? Come on...

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Jim McKenzie.

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

Jim McKenzie got frequently mentioned on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast. He’s apparently revered in hockey circles for the same reasons Milton Berle and John Holmes are in show biz.

 

[Michael Farkas]

For some reason I really don’t know much at all about both Kip and Kevin miller. They both just kind of existed, bounced from team to team and had reasonably long careers if I recall. Kevin might have had a couple of okay seasons in the mid 90s. But I have no specific memories of either player doing anything.

Another Penguin mentioned...

Kip Miller isn't really worth remembering. He was more or less a minor leaguer that got to play with Jagr in 1999. He basically spent all of his time just throwing pucks at Jagr to see what he could do with them. He didn't wow me...he didn't usually even make me nod in agreement with virtually anything he did. He obviously wasn't close to as good as Jagr offensively, and he wasn't as good defensively as Jan Hrdina (also on that line). He was basically just an in-game Jugs machine for Jagr...not overly fast, not very effective defensively, not an expert forechecker, not a great shooter or passer...just a guy...

 

[Ace36758]

Another Penguin mentioned...

Kip Miller isn't really worth remembering. He was more or less a minor leaguer that got to play with Jagr in 1999. He basically spent all of his time just throwing pucks at Jagr to see what he could do with them. He didn't wow me...he didn't usually even make me nod in agreement with virtually anything he did. He obviously wasn't close to as good as Jagr offensively, and he wasn't as good defensively as Jan Hrdina (also on that line). He was basically just an in-game Jugs machine for Jagr...not overly fast, not very effective defensively, not an expert forechecker, not a great shooter or passer...just a guy...

Thanks for your memories of Kip.

Interestingly, Kevin also played for the pens for a few games in 1996 with other such gems as Joe Dziedzic, Greg Andrusak and Dave Roche.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I don't have as good of a memory of Kevin Miller playing for the team to be honest. Unfortunately, I do recall those other clowns. As I've said here a number of times...the 1996 Penguins were basically the 2024 Oilers. Two superstars, another support forward or two, one d-man, and nothing else.

The Pens bottom six and the majority of their defense was pretty awful when things started to fall apart after 1993/1994 or so. The goaltending wasn't very reliable either - as is the style of this franchise.

Though, I recently saw an article where the Penguins coach compared Les Binkley favorably to Johnny Bower. Maybe. But probably not...

 

[Johnny Engine]

This is every post in the Blackhawks forum that makes any reference to the on-ice abilities of the Poapstman. You all gotta promise not to tell @ResilientBeast when I sneak a link to this post into the Master Bio Thread in the ATD forum.

I liked Demps during dark age

I never cared for Poapst and a few others

I thought Burke Henry would become a capable #6/7 but it never happened

I liked Demp too. Best suited as a 3rd pairing or maybe #4 guy at his peak, but asked to do too much.

Poapst was the Roszival of that era. Everyone hated him, but he wasn't terrible. Just asked to play minutes way above what he should have.

I liked Poapst.
He was like a slightly worse Sopel.
Not the most talented player but he'd block shots and do whatever dirty work was necessary.
We need players like that sometimes.

Steve Poapst, best D the team had for a short while.

Those were the days, I was upset Poapst was getting playing time ahead of Nolan Baumgartner who turned out to be his generation's Ian Mitchell, lol.

I still have nightmares of the coach giving Steve Poapst top 4 ice minutes. It was like Verne Gagne putting Greg Gagne in the main event.

Hang in there long enough and you never know when you will get your opportunity on a depleted roster. Steve Poapst was actually getting top 4 NHL ice time for awhile.

I was so excited when the Hawks got Nolan Baumgartner based on some pre draft material I had read on him. He showed some flashes and I thought he should have been playing over Steve Poapst, who got regular top 4 ice team and was not an NHL talent. Oh well, some turn out some dont. Had high hopes for Nolan.

At least the ABC line offered hope at time (False hope it turned out)

Look back on the defense back then. Dempsey , Poapst , Berard , Quint , Strudwick and then youth that never were all that good in Burke Henry , Jim Vandermeer and Lasse!

Even back then, it felt like a bit of a fluke (think last year's Senators). Daze was obviously great and that was pretty much his career year. Zhamnov was the most frusterating player. He was an elite playmaker, but he also had a great shot. You wouldn't know, though, becuase he absolutely refused to use it. He always, always, always looked to move the puck to someone else, even if it killed a scoring chance. You'll still see old timers make Zhamnov references when a player makes a bad pass when he should have shot. Nylander and Sullivan were both well-liked and were great competitors on the ice. Probert played 61 games and was considered the worst player in the league (only thing worse than a 36

Defense was horrible, though. Housely did what he could, but he was on his last legs. He was the only defenseman with a shot, and that was a big deal in dead-puck. Klemm had been considered one of the better stay-at-homes coming into the year, but clearly lost a step. BoBo was as much of a joke as he was every year since the trade. I don't think I need to explain Karpovtsev to you; Foley did a good enough job of that. Poapst was Oesterle 2001. Thibault carried the the group kicking and screaming into the playoffs.

Brian Sutter was a lousy coach that absolutely detested youth. The story of that year was basically that the Hawks brought in a bunch of players who were on their last legs and they playe *just* good enough to sneak into the playoffs. The next year they descended back into medicority because they were, well, old.

And lastly, this one is by @WarriorofTime who's a good contributor to this side of HF Town.

#1 Defenseman are incredibly difficult to find. The Hawks post-Chelios are a great example of this. Anyone remember Jon Klemm and Steve Poapst? Or if you want teams that weren't run by a cheap A Hole the Wings now without Lidstrom or the Flyers without Pronger. No matter how good the rest of your roster is, a lack of a #1 DMan can be really detrimental. Hawks are incredibly lucky to have not two #1 Defensemen right now.

 

[vandymeer13]

I hated Steve poapst, in a era where toughness was still a big necessity the guy just sucked and was old so he was stopping others who could of developed. Jamie Allison was better Marty Wilford, Jonathan AItken, Burke Hendry traded for someone cant believe the year we made the playoffs and were swept our d was Housley-Klemm, Spacek-Mirinov, Poapst-Karpotsev then we traded spacek for odelin. wow
After that playoff Dempsey wasn't bad and strudwick was a decent bottom pair. Before the lockout we got Bedard who was our best offensive d and a great trade to get a underrated Vandermeer and Stephane Robidas who they should of kept.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I remember nothing about Trent Klatt except liking his name and scoring a hat trick once

 

[VanIslander]

As a longtime all-time drafter (including drpth drafts where we look at the next best (the MLD) and the next best after that (AAA), ...

I AM SHOCKED to had discovered a few years ago a 500+ point player during my era who i saw the name and thought wtf? What position? What team?

... i today can't recall his name (something Irish? Scottish? he a forward i recall googling back in '18 or '19, but center or which wing? *shrug*

... i post this just before a 10-hour workday (in S.Korea, where this Canuck shucks), so... i'll be back in the morrow to look and find his name (i seriously STILL dunno, having researched his stats; no brain cells firing on this guy).

 

[Soundgarden]

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 remember Johansson, he was acquired right when I was getting into hockey, I thought he'd be a star after scoring 20! Goals for a bad Nashville team. Woof.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Not a ton to say about Poapst particularly. Minor League guy that got an opportunity when some injuries hit. Stay at Home Defenseman that didn't excel but played mostly mistake-free enough to get some opportunity on bad teams.

 

[seventieslord]

As a longtime all-time drafter (including drpth drafts where we look at the next best (the MLD) and the next best after that (AAA), ...

I AM SHOCKED to had discovered a few years ago a 500+ point player during my era who i saw the name and thought wtf? What position? What team?

... i today can't recall his name (something Irish? Scottish? he a forward i recall googling back in '18 or '19, but center or which wing? *shrug*

... i post this just before a 10-hour workday (in S.Korea, where this Canuck shucks), so... i'll be back in the morrow to look and find his name (i seriously STILL dunno, having researched his stats; no brain cells firing on this guy).

Shouldn't be too hard to find. There are only 418 forwards who scored more than 500 points post-expansion.

Eliminate guys who played in the last 10 years because we couldn't have forgotten any of them, and guys with over 700 because it's much harder to break even that threshold...

and here are some guys who meet those criteria and didn't have an exceptional feature:

Aaron Broten
J.P. Dumont
Lucien DeBlois
Guy Charron
Tom Fergus
Walt McKechnie
Derek King
Brian Mullen
Brent Ashton
Don Lever
Dan Quinn

I think you and I know all these guys, but they do stand out as being pretty anonymous relative to their career point totals.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

I remember nothing about Trent Klatt except liking his name and scoring a hat trick once

Klatt, Propp, Bonk, are in a category of particular hockey card names of my childhood. Onomatopoeia or something. Aforementioned Klemm perhaps as well, I just liked them.

 

[VanIslander]

Tom Fergus.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

I cannot remember Luke Schenn in a Tampa Bay uniform for the life of me. Which is strange because he won two Cups in 2020 and 2021. Okay look, in 2020 I'd have rather watched paint dry than watch the 2020 playoffs because it was horrible with no fans and felt like a bad dream. So there's that. But 2021 especially in the U.S. games the seats were filled in the playoffs so how the heck can I not remember him on the team? He didn't play a plethora of games for them both years (25 and 38) and only 11 and 8 in the playoffs respectively, but oh well, I can't recall him on the team. Obviously I know Luke Schenn in general but I can remember him on the Leafs in 2023 and there was talk about him being the only player to win a Cup and I had to look it up to see who he won with and was astounded it was two years earlier only.

Zdenek Nedved is a name that comes up only because he was a Leaf and shares a last name with Petr, who we all know. Can't recall him at all though, just remember the novelty of the name being the same.

I can recall Barrasso and Housley being traded late in the season to the Leafs but have zero memory of any of them putting the uniform on. And looking it up, they barely did.

I remember Nedved because he played for the Sudbury Wolves, and it seemed like he put up two points every single time he played the Greyhounds.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I'll offer up Wayne Presley and Randy Wood, both of whom played a lot and chipped in some offense while being responsible defensively.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Randy Wood was a good player. Smart, effective down low, near the boards, played an "honest" game...that's Miles Wood's pop, as people may well know.

 

[The Panther]

Tom Fergus.

I remember him really well because he played for the Leafs around the mid/late-80s when I first started watching hockey, and the Leafs (sad as they were) were my 2nd team. A very inconsistent player who never quite got 'there', but he had a wicked wrister. He was sort of a poor man's Steve Thomas (who was a poor man's All Star).

 

[DitchMarner]

Tom Fergus.

Really? He played for TOR. He played before I stared watching, but I know of him.

Do you remember Dan Daoust? I associate Fergus with him.

I believe both had some top six time for bad Leafs teams (who were surprisingly scrappy in the playoffs when they qualified) and had some decent to solid offensive seasons. I think Fergus may have been more of a two-way guy than Daoust.

 

[The Panther]

Yeah, Fergus had five (I just checked) 60-point seasons (would be six but for injury), and all for very high-profile clubs. So, an odd mention for this thread, perhaps.