Speculation: Tom McCollum - What went wrong?

[Peter Tosh]

Remberering him as a bust and dissapointing first rounder, but looking at the actual numbers raises a question; why did he get so few chances in n Detroit? Decent AHL stats, Calder Cup champ. Got horribly lit up once, and after that barely got any more starts. Was it a Babcock thing?

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[RabidBadger]

I wish I had time to respond, but I'm busy in the "Jakub Kindl...what could have been" thread.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

He was a Ken Holland, post 2005 draft pick. That's what went wrong lol.

 

[Steve Yzerlland]

At the time I thought he was a solid pick. With the draft you never know though. I'm wish we drafted Quinn Hughes but I was very happy with Zadina at the time. I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't want him. I believed in the hype. But back to Thomas he just didn't pan out.

 

[DanielMarois]

Don't worry, the very next pick was only Jacob Markstrom.

 

[cjm502]

He had some good numbers in the AHL for a few years, but looking a little deeper, he never once had a season where he lead the Griffins goalies in save percentage. I think the Griffins in the mid 2010s were a very goalie friendly team and Tom never took that next step. If you look at his career trajectory he peaked out in 15-16 and 16-17 and went straight downhill from there. At 34, which usually isn't too bad for a goalie, he's getting lit up in weaker European leagues. One good season in DEL2 is a pretty low standard.

 

[Voodoo Glow Skulls]

I wish I had time to respond, but I'm busy in the "Jakub Kindl...what could have been" thread.

You're busy?

I'm in the "Jesse Wallin" thread. And nobody is responding.

 

[Henkka]

He was a Ken Holland, post 2005 draft pick. That's what went wrong lol.

Pretty much Jim Nill's pick.

 

[connellc]

Saw him get torn apart by Windsor while he was in Brampton in the OHL finals. Also had a terrible world junior. I think a lot of it was mental .I wasn't crazy with the pick at the time, and my homer pick was Adam Henrique, another Spitfire.

 

[Oddbob]

 

[dalem177]

You're busy?

I'm in the "Jesse Wallin" thread. And nobody is responding.

I'm trying to get the guys to calm down in the "Jordin Tootoo is PooPoo" sub-forum.

 

[Go Wings]

They drafted a guy who couldn't stop a beach ball. His performance at the WJC was one of the worst I've ever seen.

They should have drafted Markstrom like most of the fans including myself were calling for.

 

[PelagicJoe]

The same thing that happened with most of our picks from that era. He sucked. See also: Kindl, Smith, Sheahan, Pulkkinen, Jurco, Mursak, Sproul, Oullette, Marchenko, etc.

 

[Konnan511]

He imploded at the WJC and never got his confidence back. Super nice guy, though.

 

[Retire91]

He was also coming up during a time where Howard was the teams clear undisputed number 1 not that I think that would have made a difference but he wasn't going to get those "chances because there is no one else kind of chances".

He was a first round pick but he was also 30 overall one away from being a second rounder. I still have no idea why they didn't take Markstrom though. In my lifetime we have only ever had 2 homegrown goalies, Osgood and Howard. I consider Osgood a product of the HOF roster in front of him and Howard was never really a world beater. It would be nice to actually see a franchise goalie develop from the ground up. Looking at you Cossa

 

[1878rgw]

We didn't draft Josi, that went wrong longterm.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

At pick 30 he was barely a 1st rounder. It's hard enough to evaluate the future potential of teenagers, but then on top of that, goalies be crazy.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

The same thing that happened with most of our picks from that era. He sucked. See also: Kindl, Smith, Sheahan, Pulkkinen, Jurco, Mursak, Sproul, Oullette, Marchenko, etc.

Don’t you dare exclude future star power forward, Marek Tvrdon!

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Purely looking at his numbers, he didn't adjust well to pro, put up below average numbers in the A until 2013. And what happened around then? Petr Mrazek, years younger than McCollum, entered pro from the O and was damn good off the bat and essentially took McCollum's spot and any chance at a fulltime 1B or 2 spot in net in Detroit

 

[heyfolks]

He was horrible at WJ but I think he made a critical error...... he had the option to go to college and develop there, then hit the A. He turned it down.

 

[Frk It]

Some combination of he wasn't as good as we thought he was and it's hard to project goalies.

 

[Avery Rule]

I remember when Igor Grigorenko was the next sure thing

Edit- And Daniel Larssson

 

[ShelbyZ]

From what I recall (though I had to do some digging for names/years/etc. and some of this has already been mentioned):

-Wings signed him to his ELC after his first camp, but then his stock dropped a bit from his OHL playoffs and WJC play the season after he was drafted
-He struggled his first year in GR
-Had a pretty good opportunity to establish himself early the 2nd year when MacDonald was recalled to cover for an early weeks long Osgood injury, but was outplayed by #5/6 guy Jordan Pearce. IIRC, McCollum would then get demoted to Toledo until Osgood was basically done for the season.
-For the rest of that year, GR basically rode Pearce into the ground to try to make the playoffs, which is why McCollum got recalled to sit on the bench before he had his memorable NHL debut.
-It kind of seemed like the Wings gave up on him after that, but kept him around as organization depth since his ELC slid a couple years
-Had another less than good year shuttling between GR and Toledo
-Started to improve during the lockout year, though the be fair, those Griffins teams were also a lot better
-Despite his improvement, he was usually still behind another prospect goalie that was playing even better (namely Mrazek and Coreau)

I did think maybe he'd get a start after he had that solid period against the Lightning in 2015, but that was it for the NHL for him other than dressing as a back up here and there.

 

[norrisnick]

Some combination of he wasn't as good as we thought he was and it's hard to project goalies.

It's not that hard to project goalies when everyone that wasn't the Wings scouting staff knew Markstrom was the correct pick at the time.