The most uninspired prospect who's become a good/great player in the last 10 years

[Mr Bojanglez]

Ondrej Palat is first to mind. 7th round pick.
I thought he looked fantastic in the Q, but that was not the consensus view.

I just looked him up - he was also the 4th to last pick in that round.

 

[Bgav]

Jannick Hansen

 

[DatDude44]

Jordan Binnington

 

[SansaStark]

Blake Coleman.
Looked like a nothing in the AHL

 

[Peat]

Bryan Rust is a good one. Third round pick. Good but not wowing production with the US program. Spent his first two years of NCAA scoring under 20 points a season, broke out to start getting 30 but never hit ppg. Never hit even .66 points per game at the AHL. But gets into the NHL through a mix of being energetic, responsible, and right guys at the right time, climbs the depth chart, and hits a ppg season in 19-20.

 

[Kent Nilsson]

Tage

 

[Kshahdoo]

You're right he's not good. He's really good

Ah, sorry, my bad, he's a defenseman, lol.

 

[doublechili]

Devon Toews wasn't special when he was drafted and was still not special 4 years later.

 

[TLEH]

Devon Toews wasn't special when he was drafted and was still not special 4 years later.

He was good for Quinnipiac when I saw them lose to ND in the FF. But he wasn't NHL good. I like this answer.

 

[rumrokh]

Tage

A huge, skilled first rounder with a plus NHL-level shot at the time he was drafted. A project, but far, far, far from an "uninspired prospect."

 

[OKR]

Roope Hintz comes to mind.

An also ran behind the mega trio of Laine-Aho-Puljujarvi. Didn’t make an immediate splash in the AHL. Now a top line center.

Not that his junior stats were bad or anything (he was more productive in Liiga than Slafkovsky was as a draft eligible lmao) but definitely a good option here.

Hintz is a excellent example, lot of people thought he would have Ville Peltonen like career at best, and basically not even his biggest fans thought he would be as good in the NHL as he has been. If you were to judge him only by his AHL and Liiga stats you would never think he is a PPG top line center in the NHL few seasons later.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Jaccob Slavin might be a good answer.

Speaking of hurricanes, Sebastian Aho looked like he was going to be a solid 2 way middle 6 guy. I didn't see the sort of upside he's shown. He really improved his skating.

 

[namttebih]

Mason Marchment comes to my mind

Mason Marchment - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Mason Marchment, 1995-06-18 Uxbridge, ON, CAN Canada. Most recently in the NHL with Dallas Stars. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

While we’re talking about players the Leafs gave up on, Carter Verhaeghe. Literally given away to NYI along with 4 other prospects to clear contract space.

 

[93LEAFS]

Zach Hyman, there was a ton of talk he was only drafted because his dad bought ISS and didn't break out at Michigan until his senior year.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Carson Soucy.

4 years in college, 2 years in the AHL. First season in the NHL at 25 years old.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Branden Gallagher back in the day

 

[saintunspecified]

Devon Toews wasn't uninspired. He was an unusual combo - very late physical development while being mentally mature early. By the end of his sophomore year, he was consistently underrated. Heck I remember fighting with people on NYI's board who would rate Bellows over Toews as a prospect in 2016, and 2017 when Toews was the best defenseman in the AHL. The underrating got worse when Toews hurt his shoulder, and his NHL debut was delayed a year.

While we’re talking about players the Leafs gave up on, Carter Verhaeghe. Literally given away to NYI along with 4 other prospects to clear contract space.

This seems like a much better answer to me.

 

[hohosaregood]

You're right he's not good. He's really good

I always confuse this guy with Nicklas Jensen and get confused about how he's still around.

 

[seafoam]

Adam Pelech.

 

[nowhereman]

Andrei Kuzmenko? He wasn't drafted, toiled in Russia for years with unspectacular numbers and only broke out in his mid-20s. Then he signs with the NHL and is one goal short of 40 in his rookie season.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Jeannot was in the ECHL just a few years ago. I think he's certainly in this category.

 

[Malkinstheman]

Bryan Rust? Wasnt even PPG in college, meh numbers in the AHL and then exploded at 25 years old in the NHL

 

[Kshahdoo]

Andrei Kuzmenko? He wasn't drafted, toiled in Russia for years with unspectacular numbers and only broke out in his mid-20s. Then he signs with the NHL and is one goal short of 40 in his rookie season.

Kuzmenko wasn't unispired for sure. At least in Russia. There were a lot of hopes about him, it just took some time untill hopes became reality.

 

[Ducati Boy]

Chandler Stephenson. Was an ok junior, drafted about where one might expect, wasn’t surprised he got his NHL cup of coffee, but has since morphed into one of the most dangerous players on a championship team.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Maybe I'm interpreting the OP wrong, but Matty Beniers.

I had little doubt he'd be a decent player, but such an uninspiring prospect. He's basically just a very good skater that tries hard all over the ice and he has moderate offense. He lacks high end vision, handling, and sense. He really can't make those elite offense plays you see from the top offensive players in the NHL, and it's been as true in the NHL as it was when he played at the NTDP.

I watched a few Kraken games this season, and this dude is running their PP. Completely fuels my view that someone has to score the points on every team in the NHL, and because it's a league of parity being the first pick of an expansion team that invests so many resources into you really does tend to pay off a lot and get the absolute most out of you as possible.