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Who had all the tools but just couldn’t make it?

Stanislav Chistov was so promising and was such a flop that Anaheim had an unspoken policy of do not draft Russians for years.
 
awegrzyn said:
Gusev
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Gusev didn't have the skating to play the type of game he wanted to play at the NHL level. Also I don't recall seeing a forward more lost in the defensive zone than Gusev. Maybe he could have churned out a better career as a PP specialist akin to Sam Gagner, but Gusev was just a liability at even strength. In his defense, he came over speaking limited English and the Devils should have had another Russian vet on the roster to help with the transition.

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One name who came to mind was Christian Berglund albeit I don't think he was going to be a star or anything. But I thought he was going to be safe bet to be a middle six winger who could put up 20-25 goals.

He was ranked #20 in the 2001 THN Future Watch and #26 in 2002. Berglund and Brian Gionta turned pro at the same time and Berglund was more highly regarded; Berglund outproduced Gionta in the AHL and NHL in 2001-02.



Berglund got a cup of coffee on the top line with Arnott/Sykora when Elias was injured.

In the summer of 2002, Lou traded Petr Sykora for Jeff Friesen. This opened up a right wing spot (for Gionta) while putting another veteran ahead of Berglund. Gionta mostly played bottom six that year while Berglund shuffled between the NHL and AHL. Berglund suffered a season ending injury in the AHL which prevented him from getting his name on the Cup since he just missed the GP cutoff.

Opening night 2003-04, Berglund and Gionta were on the fourth line together. But Berglund had a couple more injuries and missed time. Meanwhile Gionta eventually worked his way up to the top line with Elias-Gomez.

Berglund would get traded to Florida at the trade deadline and Panthers GM Rick Dudley seemed optimistic. Berglund scored three goals in ten games after the deadline and it seemed like he'd get a decent amount of ice time in 2004-05.

But then Dudley got fired and replaced with Mike Keenan. Then the lockout happened. Keenan wanted to turn things around instantly and brought in Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, Jozef Stumpel, Chris Gratton, and Martin Gelinas. They retained Berglund's rights but he chose to stay in Europe since they wouldn't guarantee him a roster spot.

Keenan got fired after that season and was replaced by Jacques Martin. Martin offered Berglund a two way deal and he declined. In the blink of an eye, it seemed like Berglund went from promising 21 year old to 26 year old afterthought.

Berglund went through a few coaches/GMs in his brief time in North America:

2001-02: Larry Robinson / Kevin Constantine
2002-03: Pat Burns
2003-04: Pat Burns / John Torchetti [GM Rick Dudley]
2004-05: Jacques Martin [GM Mike Keenan]
2006-07: Jacques Martin [GM Jacques Martin]
 
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Patrick Sieloff seems like he'd be a decent 3rd pairing guy. 2 NHL games and 2 goals as a defensive dman and he had physicality to his game. For the Sens, I think him injuring MacArthur in scrimmage contributed to that ending somewhat.

He made NHL history by scoring in his first game debut for two organizations. You'd think that would be enough to give him a chance for around a 20-30 sample size at least before writing him off.
 
Fig said:
Patrick Sieloff seems like he'd be a decent 3rd pairing guy. 2 NHL games and 2 goals as a defensive dman and he had physicality to his game. For the Sens, I think him injuring MacArthur in scrimmage contributed to that ending somewhat.

He made NHL history by scoring in his first game debut for two organizations. You'd think that would be enough to give him a chance for around a 20-30 sample size at least before writing him off.
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He was way undersized for a no skill defenseman. Typically those guys are now over 6'4".
 
Rumours say that Daniel Ryder was three times the player that Michael was had he not got into his off ice troubles.

What could have been. In an alternate timeline we’re looking at Ryder, Hiller and a 1st trades proposals on HF
 
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Bank Shot said:
He was way undersized for a no skill defenseman. Typically those guys are now over 6'4".
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He could skate relatively quick and had some sandpaper. Wasn't he 6'1? Not horribly undersized.

You're probably right, but it still seemed like he deserved a dozen games look vs the two he got.
 
Grigorenko for being more allergic to contact than any pro I have ever seen. But he was drafted high for a reason and is much better on the larger ice.
 
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Fig said:
He could skate relatively quick and had some sandpaper. Wasn't he 6'1? Not horribly undersized.

You're probably right, but it still seemed like he deserved a dozen games look vs the two he got.
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He was competing for an NHL job against guys like Oleksiak, Mcllrath, Forbort, McQuaid, etc who were all 6'4"+ and provided the same grit but bigger and the same inability to handle the puck.

The guy would 10 points and be a minus player in the AHL over a season. I think NHL coaches recognized his two goals in two NHL games as a complete fluke and acted accordingly.
 
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Brendl wasn't a great skater to be sure, but his main problem was his abysmal work rate. Just didn't bother to play any defense, and elite goal scoring skills with nothing else to his game just wasn't enough in the NHL. Playing to his strengths he could have scored 50 goals, but he would also have been -30 while doing that.
 
Albatros said:
Brendl wasn't a great skater to be sure, but his main problem was his abysmal work rate. Just didn't bother to play any defense, and elite goal scoring skills with nothing else to his game just wasn't enough in the NHL. Playing to his strengths he could have scored 50 goals, but he would also have been -30 while doing that.
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He didn't have an elite goal scoring skill, he had an excellent shot. Other players needed to pretty much force him into position.

Playing to his strengths would have worked on an expansion team that just needed to get butts in the seats. Good teams would have benched him as the team effort needed to get him to score would have had the team losing.
 
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Jesper Mattsson could do it all but did not make it to NHL. Drafted 18th in 1993 by Flames. He played three seasons in St John. Returned to Sweden and had a decent career.
 
mattihp said:
He didn't have an elite goal scoring skill, he had an excellent shot. Other players needed to pretty much force him into position.

Playing to his strengths would have worked on an expansion team that just needed to get butts in the seats. Good teams would have benched him as the team effort needed to get him to score would have had the team losing.
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He was pretty good at finding space and hit the net from every position, instinctively like a shark in the offensive zone. Fairly big and strong too, could deal with traffic, not that far off from what Ovechkin is today. Or an old-fashioned striker in soccer who does his thing in the box and little else. In juniors he had Brad Moran feeding him the pucks and Brent Dodginghorse taking care of the play off the puck, that way they easily won the WHL championship and only lost the Memorial Cup in OT. But the Rangers just expected him to work his way up from the bottom through adversity like everyone else and that just didn't compute with him.
 
I remember being super excited about Nikolai Zherdev when he got drafted by Columbus. That guy had all the tools and talent in the world: speed, skill, offensive IQ - and he actually put up a couple of pretty good seasons. But the potential was so much higher than what he eventually achieved. It was reported later that his bolting from NHL and not putting it together all the way was mostly due to attitude problems. Classic case of an enigmatic Russian, sadly it was actually accurate in this case.
 
Albatros said:
He was pretty good at finding space and hit the net from every position, instinctively like a shark in the offensive zone. Fairly big and strong too, could deal with traffic, not that far off from what Ovechkin is today. Or an old-fashioned striker in soccer who does his thing in the box and little else. In juniors he had Brad Moran feeding him the pucks and Brent Dodginghorse taking care of the play off the puck, that way they easily won the WHL championship and only lost the Memorial Cup in OT. But the Rangers just expected him to work his way up from the bottom through adversity like everyone else and that just didn't compute with him.
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He could move kids, sure. But men blocked his shots easily and he wouldn't have been able to handle Gerbe or Brule physically.
 
EverTheCynic said:
Virtanen for sure. Poor kid has every tool except a brain. Big, fast, strong, hard shot. Scored 45 his draft year.

Flunked out of the NHL. Flunked out of the KHL. Now he's playing low minutes in the DEL and stinking up the joint.
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Funny thing is that he was still a decent NHL player despite not having a brain, when he chose to apply himself. That's how good the tools were. Clearly the commitment was not there consistently - lacked real life IQ as well as hockey IQ.
 
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