Players you thought were superstars as a kid

[crobro]

Bozak.. Have you seen his first goal??

I thought Steve Bozek was a star as well

 

[Alwalys]

Not a marginal talent by any means but my best friend absolutely destroyed me in NHL 93 with Alex Mogilny every time.

 

[_Del_]

He was elite

Had 100+ points as a rookie (managed to lose the Calder to some kid who scored 76 goals). A lot of people thought he was going to be a superstar at that point.

 

[OilCanada92]

Leafs fans 10 years from now: William Nylander

 

[OilCanada92]

Eric Daze, thanks to NHL Hitz 20-02

The EA games made Liles look like a superstar.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Antropov

 

[toasterjam]

Randy Robitaille, Landon Wilson, Shawn Bates and Antti Laaksonen

got to see the p-bruins win the calder cup as a kid, thought they were gonna be real stars!

 

[Win Jiggys Loft]

I remember my Dad mentioning Aki Berg a lot as a young child. Figured he was a big deal but I think he just liked saying the name. Lol

 

[Battle Hymns]

craig janney

 

[Jinsell]

It's been said a few times already but a lot of the guys being listed here were good to very good NHL players.

I'll go the easier route and choose some goaltenders who (as a kid) I thought were way better than they actually were.

Kari Takko I think the name is what got me as a kid, but honestly I do remember a game or two where this guy made like 40-plus saves while getting little to any defensive support from the Minnesota North Stars. The team just seemed to play better when Jon Casey was between the pipes. I actually recently watched a classic game where Minnesota was at Buffalo (March 29, 1990) and Takko was the only reason the game wasn't a blowout.

Darren Pang His name and his mask always stood out. Being quite young when he was playing, I never noticed that Panger was very short. I also didn't notice his mediocre NHL numbers.

Jacques Cloutier He was on the same Chicago Blackhawks powerhouses as Eddie Belfour, so I may have had the two goalies confused. Forgive me I was very young.

Brian Hayward Had a fair bit of success with Montreal as the 1b/backup to 1a/Patrick Roy, but back in 1991 I used to think this guy was one of the best NHL netminders in the league. Thought he played a bigger part on the Minnesota North Stars postseason run than he actually did. I also thought he was the bonafide #1 in San Jose simply on account of his highly publicized and iconic mask.

Frank Pietrangelo "The save" for Pittsburgh in the 1991 playoffs followed by a successful 1992 playoff performance with the Hartford Whalers made me believe this guy was stepping up as an NHL number one goalie.

Kay Whitmore Thought he was the Whalers goalie of the future after a good start in 1991-92. The following year, he was dealt to the Canucks where he would spend the next three seasons as Kirk McLean's back up. The only thing is I thought he was just as good as McLean.

Robb Stauber I really thought he was going to be the real deal for the Los Angeles Kings.

 

[AssaultPK]

Cory Stillman when he played for Calgary. Take me back..

Great thread idea!

Oh ya, also, Dean McAmmond

 

[Calirose]

glen metropolit and sandis ozolinsh

 

[firstemperor]

Didn't think he was a superstar but I thought was a real good player- Derek King when he played for the Leafs. I thought Gary Roberts was incredible for the longest time.

I thought Antropov was going to be a star because I remember hearing on the Fan590 around the time of the Lindros-Clarke dispute and how Quinn wouldn't move Antropov for him.

Aside from that, everyone who I thought was a star was indeed a star..like Pavel Bure, Jagr, etc.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

I'm seeing a lot of solid players mentioned in this thread, I think the point is more so guys that had average careers that we thought were superstars. I mean guys like Tanguay and Hejduk etc. had really good careers maybe not superstars but high end players.

For me the guy was Mike Ricci. I thought he was awesome, then as I got a bit older I realized he was your standard 1990s 3rd line 40ish pts guy.

Exactly. I would even call Tanguay star. He was very good player, same with Potvin, Belfour, Kamensky etc. Not exactly mediocre players.

I would have to say,

Myllys: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=3882

He was the first goaltender to win the world championship for Finland, so he was huge name back in 1995 and I thought he was amazing, but he only played 39 games in NHL.

As a kid any player from Finland who played in NHL was superstar to me, because it was still quite rare to have Finnish NHL player.

I would also say Marek Svatos. He was so good in his first season, I was sure he was going to become Star. He had amazing set of hands and good snipe. RIP Marek. He was star to me.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

bates battaglia

We traded him for Vrbata.

At the end we were lucky to have Konowalchuk for Battaglia, though.

 

[_Del_]

*I thought Gary Roberts was incredible for the longest time.*

Well, he was?
If you only remember his 30yoa and over seasons after he came out of retirement, I guess he doesn't seem as amazing. But seeing as how he was a 40-50 goal scorer who hit everything that moved and came back after potentially career ending neck/nerve damage, and two shoulder surgeries (when shoulder injuries were common career killers as well), and still played hard and scored at a 30 or so goal pace, I found/find him to be pretty amazing myself.

Alot of these guys ended their careers underwhelmingly, but were pretty darn good players at one point. I'm wondering if short memories are why so many names of good players are coming up (Belfour? Tocchet? Kovalev? Etc)

Some of the other guys that had mediocre careers as complimentary pieces also had some really good seasons.

 

[Prins Filip]

I was quite a hipster kid around the age of 6. When I got the chance to play goalie I imagined myself as... Garth Snow. So I probably thought he was a incredible player - atleast his hockey card was that impressive.

 

[Luigi Habs]

Having fun reading those names.

After his 80 pts season in 93 I thought Stephan Lebeau was an offensive powerhouse. Also thought Marty McSorley and Tony Granato were star players.

Also, although he doesn't really qualify here because Brett Hull was one of the best scorers, but I thought he was the 3rd best player of all time after Gretzky and Lemieux.

 

[Cleatus]

When I first started watching the Leafs, Jason Smith was my favourite because I thought he had a really cool name... Superstar name if you will.

Sundin overtook him not long after he was traded.

 

[Black Label]

Ziggy Palffy. His name just sounded elite.

 

[Jethlan]

Jaroslav Halak

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

Ziggy Palffy. His name just sounded elite.

Sergei Zubov for me in the late 90's. Specifically his last name, must've been something about those Z's.

 

[SatanwasaSlovak]

Brad Ibister and Alexander Selivanov.

Ibister because i had got a hockey card that was signed by him (stamped onto it or whatever).

and Alexander Selivanov because it said on the hockey card that he was a flashy player and he had a russian name which mean't he must be a great player. Same goes with Vyacheslav Kozlov who was a good player but not a star in the league really.

 

[Jinsell]

Exactly. I would even call Tanguay star. He was very good player, same with Potvin, Belfour, Kamensky etc. Not exactly mediocre players.

I would have to say,

Myllys: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=3882

He was the first goaltender to win the world championship for Finland, so he was huge name back in 1995 and I thought he was amazing, but he only played 39 games in NHL.

As a kid any player from Finland who played in NHL was superstar to me, because it was still quite rare to have Finnish NHL player.

I would also say Marek Svatos. He was so good in his first season, I was sure he was going to become Star. He had amazing set of hands and good snipe. RIP Marek. He was star to me.

I almost added Jarmo Myllys to the list of goalies I had posted above, but truth be told I don't think I knew who he was as a kid.

I've always felt Myllys should have had a better NHL career. A large part of his lack of success came from the fact that he played for NHL teams that ranged from mediocre (Minnesota) to dismal (San Jose), but I don't know if his game was for North America. He had much more success back in Finland after his NHL career was done.

 

[Fantomas]

Ziggy Palffy. His name just sounded elite.

Palffy was elite.