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

[Johnny Engine]

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.

I actually think it's very much in the spirit of the thread, given that I started it with a guy who was statistically the number one defenseman for an original six team for two years. In both cases it's a pretty vanilla player and a big market team that was way down in the dumps when they played a big role there.

 

[The Panther]

I actually think it's very much in the spirit of the thread, given that I started it with a guy who was statistically the number one defenseman for an original six team for two years. In both cases it's a pretty vanilla player and a big market team that was way down in the dumps when they played a big role there.

Okay!

 

[VanIslander]

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

Lol. I loathed the hapless over-subscribed Leafs of the 1980s, and ONLY watched them when they met the Habs on Saturday's HNIC.

That decade had so many better and more interesting teams i followed (it being preInternet, limited channels, with a lot of info about non-fav teams coming from newspapers and magazines.

I was dialed into Edmonton (hence ugh Calgary by necessity), hometown Vancouver, first love Habs, the Caps cuz Habs Langway went there... knew a lot about Philly and Chicago - neither of which i cared to see/hear about - simply because they were constantly so good, so you pay attention. I probably saw and mentioned Fergus during a few telecasts, but it didn't leave an impression as i never willing talked about the Leafs before the Sundin era.

Ironically, Fergus did finish his NHL career in Vancouver in 1991 and 1992, the two years i was finishing up my undergrad years in Alberta, the eye of the hurricane of my hockey fandom - as studying, part-time jobs to pay for it, and a girlfriend absorbed most of the waking hours.

This thread is about one's blindspot. We all have one.

 

[Crosby2010]

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.

Wood once put himself offside on a breakaway when he was with the Leafs. It wasn't even that he got ahead of the pass, it was just that the puck got into his feet and he stepped over before the puck. It annoyed me. Honestly, that's all I remember about him

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.

Daoust killed a lot of penalties and for whatever reason he got a noticeable enough amount of shorthanded goals in certain seasons despite not being a sniper.

 

[DitchMarner]

Wood once put himself offside on a breakaway when he was with the Leafs. It wasn't even that he got ahead of the pass, it was just that the puck got into his feet and he stepped over before the puck. It annoyed me. Honestly, that's all I remember about him

I remember he scored a playoff OT winner against the Hawks.

Granted, Sundin did all the work and Wood basically just shot the puck into the net with Belfour out of position.

 

[Crosby2010]

I remember he scored a playoff OT winner against the Hawks.

Granted, Sundin did all the work and Wood basically just shot the puck into the net with Belfour out of position.

That's true, I remember that. I thought the Leafs were totally outclassed that series even though the Leafs jumped out to a 2-0 series lead. But that goal by Wood forced a 7th game. Why Randy Wood was on with Sundin who knows, but either way he scored!

 

[The Panther]

I remember nothing about this player... and it looks like the broadcasting network (this is a still from 1989-90) didn't exactly try to make him look good:

 

[Johnny Engine]

I remember nothing about this player... and it looks like the broadcasting network (this is a still from 1989-90) didn't exactly try to make him look good:

Sort of reminds me when the Colorado Avalanche official Twitter account tweeted a series of increasingly depressing facts about each player on their roster after the disastrous 2017 season. (like, centre Carl Soderberg had 14 points last season, and he'll be back...)

As for Martin, I know and remember the bus story, but never think about who the trade was actually for, and if you were lying about Tom Martin being the name, I'd go right along with you. Fitting I suppose.

 

[reckoning]

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.

Dan Daoust played on Montreal's AHL team in Nova Scotia in the early-80s at the same time as Guy Carbonneau, and he overachieved to the point that some observers thought he, and not Carbonneau, would be the centre promoted to the Habs main roster. Ultimately his smallish stature was too much of a factor, and Montreal traded him to Toronto. He spent time on the top line with Rick Vaive and put up decent numbers, but John Brophy became coach he decided to employ Daoust with the task of shutting down the opponents top centres. He did such a good job against Doug Gilmour in their '87 series that Gilmour tried fighting him in the dying minutes.

Daoust was always a fan favourite because he looked so tenacious and hard-working.

 

[VanIslander]

I remember Daoust because I went to school with a Chris Daoust, the only two Daousts i've ever heard of.

(I bet you dunno how to pronounce it!
Hint: google is full of **** on this; you have to dig to discover what we knew way back when.)

You know when a media guy is posing when he constantly mispronounces a prospect's name (in a non-Don Cherry "Roy" way - it took a couple of years before Don would say it right - and had to, as his own fan base was saying cut it out).

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

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 Andreas Johansson. I always like left handed skilled euro forwards and he was one of them.

He had a season with the Senators (98-99?) where he started the year with like 16 goals in 30 games or something and everyone was raving that they had unearthed a gem. Think he may have been playing with Yashin.

That was the era of scoring being down and occasionally a euro with superficial skills would go on a 20 game tear and the media would report it breathlessly. Think Alex Selivanov had a stretch like this in Edmonton. Andrei Kovalenko (higher class of player than the two aforementioned) had a great start on Doug Weight's wing one year as well.

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.

Big, right handed. The Devils saw him as this big, skilled prospect until he just sort of wasn't. As you said, slow and not really strong either.

Was sort of the throw-in in the Mogilny/Morrison deal.

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.

Lol I remember Zdenek Nedved well. I watched a Leafs game against the Rangers in 95-96 (might have been the one where Domi punched out Samuelsson?) and he scored a goal or two and looked skilled. I was disappointed when he didn't amount to much in the NHL

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.

Kevin was right handed, fast, and could shoot, but didn't do much else. Like a low rent Scott Young.

Kip bounced around the minors and scored a lot down there, I had cards of him from the early 90's where he was seen as a prospect. Was cool and surprising when he had his renaissance on the 99 Penguins, but was sort of a run of the mill Dan Quinn type with hands but not much two way utility and not good enough to just be a hands guy.

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.

I remember Murray. Wore 17, and was sort of a porridge kind of guy. Not exciting or flashy but solid defensively. Put in his time and you didn't have to worry about him bleeding goals against.

One guy I feel like I know very little about, and he is about 4 years before my time, is Rick Meagher. He played for the Blues and there was an upperdeck card I had that touted him as being a serious candidate for the selke trophy in like 89-90 but it felt like I heard nothing about him other than that one card ever.

Maybe he's like a Rob Zamuner who had like a single prominent 10 month stretch and was otherwise just sort of a JAG?

 

[Michael Farkas]

I recall Rem Murray, I just don't really recall what he did. I knew his number off hand, and I can envision him skating without the puck. Was he like a much less version of Radek Dvorak maybe...? I'm not sure what that leaves you with though.

 

[The Panther]

Now that he's been discussed, I do remember Rem Murray for one thing -- his wearing the sanctified #17. I remember seeing that and thinking, "Really, Oilers...??"

Can't remember a thing about "Sean Brown", though.

 

[Michael Farkas]

You remembered his name, that's plenty.

He's not the guy that got suspended for steroid use, right? That's Sean Hill...? And those are different people, right?

 

[Frank Drebin]

I remember Daoust because I went to school with a Chris Daoust, the only two Daousts i've ever heard of.

(I bet you dunno how to pronounce it!
Hint: google is full of **** on this; you have to dig to discover what we knew way back when.)

You know when a media guy is posing when he constantly mispronounces a prospect's name (in a non-Don Cherry "Roy" way - it took a couple of years before Don would say it right - and had to, as his own fan base was saying cut it out).

I remember dan daoust because of the daoust 901 skates which were customary at the time

 

[Johnny Engine]

I remember Daoust because I went to school with a Chris Daoust, the only two Daousts i've ever heard of.

(I bet you dunno how to pronounce it!
Hint: google is full of **** on this; you have to dig to discover what we knew way back when.)

Does Melodie Daoust ring a bell for you?

 

[Johnny Engine]

Now that he's been discussed, I do remember Rem Murray for one thing -- his wearing the sanctified #17. I remember seeing that and thinking, "Really, Oilers...??"

Can't remember a thing about "Sean Brown", though.

I remember using the Oilers a bunch in NHL01 because hometown boy Dan Cleary had finally broken out into a somewhat useful player. I remember Sean Brown's headshot and if I remember correctly he was kind of a funny looking guy with a big head. I'm going to look at this after hitting post to see if I remember that right.

 

[Staniowski]

I remember dan daoust because of the daoust 901 skates which were customary at the time

Yeah, when Dan Daoust came along in the '80s, I think everybody associated his name with the very well-known Daoust skates.

 

[The Panther]

You remembered his name, that's plenty.

I actually didn't remember his name. I looked at the list of most games played by any Oiler, saw him, and had no idea who he was. Still don't.

 

[Staniowski]

I remember Daoust because I went to school with a Chris Daoust, the only two Daousts i've ever heard of.

(I bet you dunno how to pronounce it!
Hint: google is full of **** on this; you have to dig to discover what we knew way back when.)

You know when a media guy is posing when he constantly mispronounces a prospect's name (in a non-Don Cherry "Roy" way - it took a couple of years before Don would say it right - and had to, as his own fan base was saying cut it out).

Don Cherry never looked as ridiculous as when he intentionally mispronounced Roy's name. You could plainly see how fake Cherry was from that and other similar cases.

 

[Johnny Engine]

After looking, it's not that Brown's head was big, it's that his neck was the same width as his head, so his front end headshot looked like a thumb, or a Domi.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I actually didn't remember his name. I looked at the list of most games played by any Oiler, saw him, and had no idea who he was. Still don't.

So, I looked this guy up...you might be interested to recall how you got this player in Edmonton.

Sean Brown was a 1st round pick of Boston in 1995. It was him, a 1996 1st, and second season emerging talent Mariusz Czerkawski for William Edward Ranford...

Pretty healthy price. A young potential 25+ goal scorer and two first round picks.

 

[seventieslord]

I remember Andreas Johansson. I always like left handed skilled euro forwards and he was one of them.

He had a season with the Senators (98-99?) where he started the year with like 16 goals in 30 games or something and everyone was raving that they had unearthed a gem. Think he may have been playing with Yashin.

That was the era of scoring being down and occasionally a euro with superficial skills would go on a 20 game tear and the media would report it breathlessly. Think Alex Selivanov had a stretch like this in Edmonton. Andrei Kovalenko (higher class of player than the two aforementioned) had a great start on Doug Weight's wing one year as well.

Big, right handed. The Devils saw him as this big, skilled prospect until he just sort of wasn't. As you said, slow and not really strong either.

Was sort of the throw-in in the Mogilny/Morrison deal.

Lol I remember Zdenek Nedved well. I watched a Leafs game against the Rangers in 95-96 (might have been the one where Domi punched out Samuelsson?) and he scored a goal or two and looked skilled. I was disappointed when he didn't amount to much in the NHL

Kevin was right handed, fast, and could shoot, but didn't do much else. Like a low rent Scott Young.

Kip bounced around the minors and scored a lot down there, I had cards of him from the early 90's where he was seen as a prospect. Was cool and surprising when he had his renaissance on the 99 Penguins, but was sort of a run of the mill Dan Quinn type with hands but not much two way utility and not good enough to just be a hands guy.

I remember Murray. Wore 17, and was sort of a porridge kind of guy. Not exciting or flashy but solid defensively. Put in his time and you didn't have to worry about him bleeding goals against.

One guy I feel like I know very little about, and he is about 4 years before my time, is Rick Meagher. He played for the Blues and there was an upperdeck card I had that touted him as being a serious candidate for the selke trophy in like 89-90 but it felt like I heard nothing about him other than that one card ever.

Maybe he's like a Rob Zamuner who had like a single prominent 10 month stretch and was otherwise just sort of a JAG?

He wasn't just a serious selke candidate.... He won it!

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

He wasn't just a serious selke candidate.... He won it!

So what happened to him after that?

 

[seventieslord]

So what happened to him after that?

Was the NHL's 3rd oldest player the next season and therefore aged out rather quickly.