Steve Reinprecht

[Jim MacDonald]

Hey everyone,

I was watching Avalanche-Wings last night on YouTube, Game 5 of the 02 conference finals. Reinprecht has the opening goal of the game. Wanted to learn from Avs, Yotes and other fans about him:

1. Was his rookie year 01-02?

2. What was his toolbox? Did Avs brass feel he lived up to expectations?

3. Literally 5 minutes or so before making this post, it hit me that Derek Morris and he might have been involved in a big trade (as I'm remembering Morris in a Yotes uniform too)

4. How were his Coyotes years?

Anything else you'd like to add one way or another please do so. Look forward to the feedback/knowledge!-Jim

 

[Big Phil]

@Jim MacDonald If I could ever find it, I can remember him with this big end to end goal around 2001 or 2002. It was spectacular. If he was your 2nd liner, then you are doing okay. If he was your 3rd liner then you really are doing well.

He was part of that fortunate Blake trade to Colorado. And upon looking at his career he was traded quite a bit.

I noticed he was on the 2004 Flames. Does anyone remember why he was injured (I assume) and missed the whole postseason? Because that seems very untimely considering how well Calgary did.

 

[hypereconomist]

I noticed he was on the 2004 Flames. Does anyone remember why he was injured (I assume) and missed the whole postseason? Because that seems very untimely considering how well Calgary did.

Shoulder surgery kept him out of the lineup.

 

[hypereconomist]

Echoing Big Phil, he was a good player to have for secondary scoring and the PP.

...but he was also oft-injured, very soft, poor defensively, and streaky.

Good career considering that went undrafted. He profiles closely to the prototypical bad team scorer though and probably could have had an even better career if he didn't spend his prime years as depth on the Avs and Flames

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i kind of think of him as a slightly less talented tim connolly. definitely less flashy, his injuries were less catastrophic but he was injured just as frequently if not more (because he lasted longer), with good health he probably topped out as a B scorer, maybe B+ if he found himself in a perfect brendan morrison situation.

but at the time, i fully expected him to have a career like derek roy ended up having, maybe even a little better. it's just that the young guys that came up on those late 90s/early 2000s avs teams just were really good players that surprised you. hejduk, drury, tanguay, liles, they just felt like they came out of nowhere, and later svatos and in the end vrbata too. but then i also thought skoula was going to be a stud.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

@Jim MacDonald If I could ever find it, I can remember him with this big end to end goal around 2001 or 2002. It was spectacular. If he was your 2nd liner, then you are doing okay. If he was your 3rd liner then you really are doing well.

He was part of that fortunate Blake trade to Colorado. And upon looking at his career he was traded quite a bit.

I noticed he was on the 2004 Flames. Does anyone remember why he was injured (I assume) and missed the whole postseason? Because that seems very untimely considering how well Calgary did.

I always wonder about if Reinprecht was healthy, do the Flames win the 2004 Cup? Although with the butterfly effect, he could have slightly altered the Canucks, Red Wings, and/or Sharks series negatively so that the Flames lose those.

 

[MS]

He was a guy who had a really nice career for an undrafted UFA but weirdly I have very few memories of him and he's a very vague sort of player to me now - which is doubly strange because he played for Canuck divisional rivals for most of his career and I probably watched him play 100+ NHL games. Just a very average-at-everything sort of 2nd line scorer.

My most prominent memory of him is actually of being at his first NHL game in Vancouver in April 2000 and having literally no idea who this guy was on LA, which was something that never happened to me. Reinprecht was one of the first undrafted NCAA UFA signings to be brought straight to the NHL on signing which seemed very unusual at the time but has become pretty standard now. Jason Blake was another one around the same time, also with LA.

 

[GlitchMarner]

I don't remember him well, but I remember I had him and Weiss on a team I put together in NHL 2004. I had Rusty Klesla on the blue line.