Young Guns - You Went with the Wrong Prospect

[BarnabyJones PI]

I'm sure we all had players that we liked early on that we invested in the notion, that they'd have a greater career over another celebrated prospect within the same organization. We picked the wrong horse. Who was that guy for you (or guys)?

Maybe you were a Rangers' fan in the early '90s, and like me, you thought that Steven Rice was going to turn out to be the best pro over guys like Tony Amonte or Doug Weight. I had imaginary stock in that Steven Rice would eventually be the best player of the three. He was a year younger than Amonte, an inch taller than Weight, and in 1991, he captained Canada to a gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship. I was also impressed with his production with Kitchener in the OHL (60 points in 29 games in 1990-91), even still holding out a bit later with the Cape Breton Oilers in the AHL (66 goals in 96 games over two seasons).

Well that never happened.

I also would have gone with Dmitri Khristich over Peter Bondra early on. He was a year younger, two inches taller, produced at a better clip early on, and was seemingly more defensively responsible.

Who was the player, who was their direct competition, and what was your reasoning then?

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[Bear of Bad News]

Oh, I loved Dmitri Kristich.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Thought Derrick Pouliot would be Brian Campbell Jr. and Brian Dumoulin would be a third pairing d-man at best.

 

[JackSlater]

Igor Grigorenko > Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk. I know about the injury but still, doubt he could reach top ten player in the world heights.

 

[BerthMania]

I was young, but I remember realllly liking Rob Schremp and thinking he would be the next best offensive player in the league. Boy was I wrong.

 

[Dingo]

Martin St. Pierre for me.

Not like I thought he was gonna be a 100pt player. But i thought he was being massively underrated by all the scouts....

 

[Crosby2010]

I am not a Columbus fan, but I'd have taken Gilbert Brule #2 in the 2005 draft. To me he was the best player in that draft not named Crosby.

Also, Strome is a lot bigger than that flashy Marner kid, no? Probably has a better upside in a pro game doesn't he? I'll keep my day job.

 

[JackSlater]

I am not a Columbus fan, but I'd have taken Gilbert Brule #2 in the 2005 draft. To me he was the best player in that draft not named Crosby.

Also, Strome is a lot bigger than that flashy Marner kid, no? Probably has a better upside in a pro game doesn't he? I'll keep my day job.

I believe that things could have turned out differently for Brule with some luck and a better development plan. Never should have been in the NHL as an 18 year old. Not second best in the draft over Kopitar or Price, but at least a top ten player in that draft.

 

[BarnabyJones PI]

A couple of Jets/Coyotes prospects in and around 1996 through to the late '90s, Chad Kilger vs Shane Doan. I had Kilger ahead of Doan starting when they were both on the same roster in and around 1996, he was drafted a few spots higher in 1995, he's 3 inches taller, they put up similar stats in juniors (Kilger more goals), but I had a bias towards players coming out of the OHL over the WHL (not my much mind you).

I also thought that the Jets made a pretty good trade at the time, getting Kilger and the Russian Bobby Orr in Oleg Tverdovsky for Teemu Selanne. Who wouldn't want to add the next Primeau <-> Eric Lindros, with Bobby Orr in tow? Whoops...

 

[Crosby2010]

I believe that things could have turned out differently for Brule with some luck and a better development plan. Never should have been in the NHL as an 18 year old. Not second best in the draft over Kopitar or Price, but at least a top ten player in that draft.

I couldn't understand why Price was being picked by the Habs either. Obviously Bob Gainey saw something I didn't. I mean they had Theodore. Why do they need a goalie. Theodore, they are set with him.

 

[JackSlater]

I couldn't understand why Price was being picked by the Habs either. Obviously Bob Gainey saw something I didn't. I mean they had Theodore. Why do they need a goalie. Theodore, they are set with him.

I remember Price having hype as the best goaltending prospect, at least to come out of Canada, since Luongo. As for Montreal, I wouldn't be surprised if the organization was aware about certain things with Theodore (or those around them) and wanted an insurance policy in the event his career was not going to last as long as they might hope.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I loved Jamie Storr and I loved Pavel Brendl.

I also thought Cody Rudkowsky was going to be a hidden gem.

 

[buffalowing88]

I believe that things could have turned out differently for Brule with some luck and a better development plan. Never should have been in the NHL as an 18 year old. Not second best in the draft over Kopitar or Price, but at least a top ten player in that draft.

I believe he was also dealing with some mental health issues, probably a handful of years before that would become easier to just publicly admit to.

I was a big fan of his coming out of the draft. He had a great skillset for that era and size wasn't the end-all-be-all coming out of the lockout. He was just developed awfully, like you said.

Also, sorta unrelated but I always remember Brule as the guy who picked up Bono from U2 after their tour bus broke down somewhere in Edmonton.

 

[Brodeur]

Probably not exactly what the OP wanted, but I was going to get a Jason Arnott Devils jersey in 2002 as a graduation present to myself. Then he got traded, I then decided it was going to be a Sykora jersey. He'd get traded a few months later. I got defaulted into getting Patrik Elias. Although maybe it just came down to me not liking the number 26?

Younger me posted a bunch of Elias trade proposals in the late 90's thinking the Devils needed a brand name forward. Between Elias-Sykora-Morrison, Elias was my least favorite prospect for questionable reasons.

I was definitely higher on Christian Berglund than Brian Gionta when they both turned pro in 2001. I probably valued Denis Pederson over John Madden in 2000.

 

[rnhaas]

I was a huge fan of Alex Steen and thought he was the future of the Leafs.

Also, I Ioved Anton Stralman.

 

[NyQuil]

Taking a page from the OP, I always thought the Ferraro brothers drafted by them would make it.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I was a huge fan of Alex Steen and thought he was the future of the Leafs.

Also, I Ioved Anton Stralman.

Steen went onto a good career with the Blues

 

[Jumptheshark]

With me--The oilers had 5 players on the 09/10 team that I thought would have great NHL careers

Gilbert Brule
Andrew Cogliano
Robert Nilson
Sam gagner
Patrick O'Sullivan

Both Gagner and Colgs went on to play over 1000 games in the NHL--most of the time they were on the 3rd line. Brule had mental health issues, Nilson had all the tools just not the tool case. O'Sullivan is an interesting case and he tends to blame every team he played on for why he did not have a career in the NHL. He played 92 games with the oilers and did not like the fact the oilers were not going to foot the bill for one of his personal doctors and went on several rants in Twitter saying the oilers ruined his career by not doing it.

Article on O'Sullivan and the oilers

Edmonton Oilers respond to comments from former player Patrick O’Sullivan - Edmonton | Globalnews.ca

The Edmonton Oilers responded on Friday to comments made about the team by a former forward who has gone public about his mental health problems.

globalnews.ca

Him going after the team and the fans

Patrick O'Sullivan vs Edmonton

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid led the way as Edmonton beat the Arizona Coyotes in overtime. The Cult’s David Staples and Bruce McCurdy dig into what is going ri…

edmontonjournal.com

 

[The Panther]

I basically distrust all scouting reports and I don't see any difference between #1 overall and #30 overall, so I bring no expectations to players until I can evaluate them vs. NHL competition.

That said, the one time I slightly went overboard in my expectations was for... Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (sigh...) in the autumn of 2011. After 29 games on a woeful team --- i.e., by December 9th, 2011, for the Oilers --- Nuge had put up 32 points in 29 games, placing him 5th in NHL scoring. I thought maybe he'd be the new Adam Oates....

Nuge has had a great career and did have a 104-point season, but overall he's been kind of a good 2nd-line winger/center.

 

[frisco]

Dave Chyzowski at 2nd overall will make a great replacement for Mike Bossy on the Islanders.

My Best-Carey

 

[Crosby2010]

I'll go the opposite. I couldn't stand the fact that the Leafs gave every opportunity to Nik Antropov to succeed even when you realized he was never going to be a star. He was slow out there, but hey, he was 6'6" right? We could make him a star and how hard can it be to teach him to skate and play? Besides, he's already 6'6". That's all we need right? Ugh! They kept him around for a decade! I was waiting for them to trade him at a time he had a good year just to get him out while the iron was hot but he never had that good year!

Power play, regular shift, stubbornly played regardless by Pat Quinn who was known to treat smaller and much more skilled players like alley cats. It drove me nuts. I never warmed up to Antropov. Alex Tanguay was picked after him in the draft, Scott Gomez, Simon Gagne, Robyn Regehr, all same draft in the 1st round but after Antropov. It drove me nuts. All won a Cup and a couple won an Olympic gold. Antropov won neither.

 

[MeHateHe]

Just way off topic here, but any thread that references both Gilbert Brule and Carey Price brings to mind the fact that they played together on a simply mediocre Quesnel Millionaires club in 2002-03. Brule was placed there by the Vancouver Giants, who had drafted him and wanted him to get first-line minutes in the BCHL. Price was relatively unknown - his rights were owned by the Tri-City Americans, and he was from the Cariboo, played his minor hockey in nearby Williams Lake, but the the Williams Lake team had its three goaltenders (one from out east in the US, one from Quebec) so there was no roster space for this big kid from Anahim Lake.

A third member of the Millionaires team was Jamie Molendyk, dad to likely Canadian WJC entry player Tanner Molendyk.

Hockey's a small little world in a lot of ways.

 

[JianYang]

I couldn't understand why Price was being picked by the Habs either. Obviously Bob Gainey saw something I didn't. I mean they had Theodore. Why do they need a goalie. Theodore, they are set with him.

Halak was also in the system at the time.

I'm not sure they really forcasted anything on Theodore. I mean, they signed Theodore to a new deal in the same year, and theodore was just coming off an all star selection from the prior season.

I think their western scout just really vouched hard for price to the point that it trumped the perceived strength at the position.

 

[DitchMarner]

I'll go the opposite. I couldn't stand the fact that the Leafs gave every opportunity to Nik Antropov to succeed even when you realized he was never going to be a star. He was slow out there, but hey, he was 6'6" right? We could make him a star and how hard can it be to teach him to skate and play? Besides, he's already 6'6". That's all we need right? Ugh! They kept him around for a decade! I was waiting for them to trade him at a time he had a good year just to get him out while the iron was hot but he never had that good year!

Power play, regular shift, stubbornly played regardless by Pat Quinn who was known to treat smaller and much more skilled players like alley cats. It drove me nuts. I never warmed up to Antropov. Alex Tanguay was picked after him in the draft, Scott Gomez, Simon Gagne, Robyn Regehr, all same draft in the 1st round but after Antropov. It drove me nuts. All won a Cup and a couple won an Olympic gold. Antropov won neither.

I think he finally put it together toward the end of his time with TOR.

From what I remember, he looked good in '07-'08 and he and Sundin were really the only consistent forwards TOR had that year. Then in '08-'09, he scored about 30 goals split between TOR and NY. He followed that up with a productive first year with ATL (67) points before falling off and becoming more of a middle six type again. IIRC, he got hurt before falling off.

You're right that he was never going to be a star, but the team may have thought he'd become that ~25 goal/~60 point guy he took a long time to become sooner. With his size and defensive awareness, he could have been a big asset during the Dead Puck Era.

He wasn't anything spectacular, but TOR has had far worse top ten whiffs (Convery, Ware, Scott Pearson etc).