First round supposed "busts" that actually had good NHL careers

[Gorskyontario]

I have a soft spot for Daigle, mostly since his interviews are very interesting. He is also aware of the weaknesses in his game, which stopped him from succeeding at the NHL level.
If you look at his career in the grand scheme of things, he is a success. 616 games, probably would be around 800 if not for 2 years off. Couple 50 point years. Even as a first rounder, not a terrible career.

That being said he isn't a 26th overall pick. He was 1st overall. Would he have had a better career being a 2nd or 3rd liner on a better team? Maybe. As his career ended up, the biggest thing he can say is he was not the worst 1st overall. Not even the worst in the 90s.

Just off the top of my head. Yakupov, Stefan, Lawton, DiPietro, Joly, Wickenheiser, were all worse players. Obviously not a high bar.

 

[Gorskyontario]

Rick Green - 1st overall, Washington Capitals (Also a cousin of mine)

Rick Green was a legitimately great and very underrated defender. Looking at his draft class, the only players I would take above him are Federko(7oa), Maybe Sutter(20oa), MAYBE Carlyle(30oa), although Green was way better than Carlyle in his own end. Kent Nilsson was the best talent in that draft but was kind of a loser floater. Europeans were also drafted way lower back then, hard to argue with 131 points though.

Green wasn't much worse than Langway, who he was traded for. If he was worse at all.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Raffi Torres- 5th overall Islanders

Tuomo Ruutu- 9th overall Blackhawks

JP Dumont- 3rd overall Islanders

Derek Morris- 13th overall Flames

Olli Jokinen- 3rd overall Kings

Manny Malhotra- 7th overall Rangers

Nik Antropov- 10th overall Maple Leafs

Tim Connolly- 5th overall Islanders

Taylor Pyatt- 8th overall Islanders

Wade Redden- 2nd overall Islanders

Chad Kilger- 4th overall Ducks

Jeff Wiemer- 8th overall Lightning

Wayne Primeau- 17th overall Sabres

Brendan Witt- 11th overall Capitals

Redden sucked ass

 

[Golden_Jet]

Now I'm re-defining "bust" here to "players who had quality NHL careers that were simply taken far too early".

I'll use the example: Alexander Daigle. He was a "bust" in that was taken rather too high, and had the media frenzy on him. He played 616 games, 129 G, 198 assists. Not exactly Crosby. But having a 600 game career would suggest to me a quality career. If Daigle is taken 3rd round and was a third liner the consensus would be "had a good career".

Just wondering if any other nominees to just say in a friendly bar debate "you know what, we need to cut X some slack for his career, it was pretty good for a "bust".

I think Daigle was the consensus #1 at the time.

 

[VanIslander]

JP Dumont- 3rd overall Islanders

Derek Morris- 13th overall Flames

Manny Malhotra- 7th overall Rangers

Brendan Witt- 11th overall Capitals

On these edited down ones, agreed

 

[Primary Assist]

Schenn and JvR were both considered busts, or at least under achievers, early on, to the extent both teams cut bait with their high draft picks and swapped them for one another. They have both had long, steady careers in the NHL where they've alternated as top line/top pairing guys to role players. And in the case of JvR he made a pretty penny in the process

 

[JackSlater]

Manny Malhotra for sure!

7th overall by NYR. Traded to Dallas for golf balls. Then waived at age 23. Went on to play another 10 seasons, notching 9 shy of 1000 games.

Drafted for his leadership. He always brought that. But he was a bottom-6 forward, a 4th line pivot ideally, a solid 5th round pick overdrafted 7th overall.

I always really liked Malhotra as a player. He was set back by making the NHL as an 18 year old though. New York sort of tried to remedy the mistake the next year but that wasn't ideal either.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

He's actually.good, scoring an important goal ladt playoff game. He has nearly 700 points. Huh.

He was a 1st overall "offensive" weapon who couldn't reach 60 points his first 7 NHL seasons. "Bust" and "trade him" were on the lips of Oiler fans for years. But not now.

That 1st overall pick would have been a solid early 2nd round pick.

Nugent-Hopkins was never seriously considered a bust and would be picked easily before the second round in a 2011 re-draft.

Rob Niedermayer comes to mind, I'd think he was expected to be a scorer being picked at #5. He did show some offensive promise early on but mostly was a good third liner during his career.

Hate him with a passion since the hit against Peter Forsberg in the 2004 WHC.

The over the top reactions multiple Swedes have to this hit always crack me up.

 

[FissionFire]

Dan Cleary was the first name that came to mind. 13th overall in 1997 and looked to be busting out of the NHL before carving out a role in Detroit. Wound up playing close to 1000 games believe it or not.

 

[Staniowski]

I thought of Rick Green (who's been mentioned) and Ryan Walter, both very high picks, and acquired by the Habs in the Langway trade.

They both were important players on the Habs during their strong defensive (and deep) teams of the '80s.

Green, at his best, was a world-class defenseman who could've played for Team Canada in a Canada Cup or two. It wasn't hard to see why he was drafted 1st overall. Of course he was overshadowed by Robinson, then Chelios, in Montreal.

Ryan Waiter fit very well with Montreal's other defensively-aware forwards like Carbonneau, McPhee, and Skrudland. They could put out 3 lines with at least one great defensive forward.

 

[Gorskyontario]

Ryan Waiter fit very well with Montreal's other defensively-aware forwards like Carbonneau, McPhee, and Skrudland. They could put out 3 lines with at least one great defensive forward.

Again, I don't agree with this assessment. Walter obviously wasn't a superstar, but he was at worst the third worst player in his draft class.

1978 NHL Amateur Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

A sortable list of players drafted in the 1978 NHL Amateur draft, including their career scoring after being drafted

www.hockeydb.com

Bobby Smith was the best, and he went first. Then I would say it's a toss up between Linseman(7oa), and Walter for the 2nd most valuable player.
There is also Anton Stastny, but I'm not sure if he brought the full defensive value of the above. Not to mention there was the iron curtain thing. Unless there is a good injury prone player I'm missing. I don't really see how you can call a 2oa, who was a top 3 performer in his draft class a 'supposed bust'.

I liked Paul Maclean but he was a pure net front guy who lived off Hawerchuk. Smyl and Marsh were ok players but nothing special. Maybe some Oilers homers would try to argue Mactavish over Walter but I don't see it.

 

[iamjs]

Can we add Marty Straka to this list? Drafted 19th in the 1992 draft, he had one ok season in his first five seasons, but was passed around from the Penguins to the Sens to the Panthers and eventually returned to the Penguins on a PTO.

Once he returned to the Pens, he put up decent numbers, including a career high 95 points in 2000-01 and eventually retired from the NHL with 717 points in 954 games.

 

[Soundgarden]

On these edited down ones, agreed

Dumont definitely had some sneaky good seasons with the defense first second and third Predators.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Dumont definitely had some sneaky good seasons with the defense first second and third Predators.

he was good on briere’s wing on the 2006 sabres too

 

[Cup or Bust]

Every time I watched JP Dumont I always wondered why he wasn't scoring 80 points a season. Really talented player.

 

[archangel2]

Daigle did not have a good career. He was gifted a lot of ice time and had some moderate production as a bad team scoring, 1-way, major liability elsewhere forward. It shows a bit of laziness to go "oh 616 games, a couple 51 point seasons, not bad". He only got so much opportunities as such a highly regarded prospect. His best season was the one with Lemaire on the Wild. The Senators tenure was a complete and abject failure.

Daigle was his own worse enemy and hired the wrong advisors. Once he went first overall he went off the rails and zoned out on the fact he need to spend more time in the gym and practicing and not just on the rubber chicken circuit

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Next to Dale Hawerchuk and Joe Cirella, Garth Butcher was the most hyped prospect in the 1981 draft, and IIRC both Central Scouting and THN had him at #3, but he ended up dropping and the Canucks grabbed him at 10. He definitely was the talk of the WHL that year. He put up big offensive numbers in junior and was expected to make the leap to the NHL right away and be a future Randy Carlyle-type blueline QB, but he fell way short of the hype. He didn't crack the Canucks lineup full-time until the 84-85 season, and it took him a couple of seasons to get his sea legs and settle in as a reliable stay-at-home tough as nails replacement for Harold Snepsts. JJ Daigneault, Rick Lanz and Michel Petit were also Canucks D drafted in the first round in the 80s who were all expected to be first pairing guys; Daigneault and Petit ended up having respectable careers as bottom-pairing guys after the hye died down and they accepted their roles, while Lanz had a shot on the first pair for a few seasons but really couldn't carry it well. The Canucks also picked up a similar first round overhyped bust in Jim Benning from the Leafs; he started out with a clear shot on top like Lanz and had similarly petered out by the time the Canucks picked him up.

 

[MadLuke]

Goaltender can be so dark magic that it be hard to talk about them

What about say Thibault, when Montreal let him go, how many people had him a bit of a bust.

From 99-03 (easier on a bad team but still) 4th in game played amon goaltender, made at least an all-star weekend I think, end up with a nice career, almost 600 games.

Marc denis had his moment just before the lock-out, not sure if 03 and 04 made him unbust.

 

[whatname]

Philippe Boucher.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Next to Dale Hawerchuk and Joe Cirella, Garth Butcher was the most hyped prospect in the 1981 draft, and IIRC both Central Scouting and THN had him at #3, but he ended up dropping and the Canucks grabbed him at 10. He definitely was the talk of the WHL that year. He put up big offensive numbers in junior and was expected to make the leap to the NHL right away and be a future Randy Carlyle-type blueline QB, but he fell way short of the hype. He didn't crack the Canucks lineup full-time until the 84-85 season, and it took him a couple of seasons to get his sea legs and settle in as a reliable stay-at-home tough as nails replacement for Harold Snepsts. JJ Daigneault, Rick Lanz and Michel Petit were also Canucks D drafted in the first round in the 80s who were all expected to be first pairing guys; Daigneault and Petit ended up having respectable careers as bottom-pairing guys after the hye died down and they accepted their roles, while Lanz had a shot on the first pair for a few seasons but really couldn't carry it well. The Canucks also picked up a similar first round overhyped bust in Jim Benning from the Leafs; he started out with a clear shot on top like Lanz and had similarly petered out by the time the Canucks picked him up.

could you tell me more about lanz?

he was before my time, but my sense is he was an ok pmd who probably wasn’t a true #1, although that was his role on bad 80s canucks teams?

up to 1990, through the first 20 years of our franchise, lanz was our second highest scoring dman.

daigneault had a legit decent career but imo petit was the chris gratton of dmen. yeah he played a long time and for a lot of teams but just kept getting opportunities for his tools and never wasn’t a disappointment and sent on his way before too long.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

could you tell me more about lanz?

he was before my time, but my sense is he was an ok pmd who probably wasn’t a true #1, although that was his role on bad 80s canucks teams?

up to 1990, through the first 20 years of our franchise, lanz was our second highest scoring dman.

daigneault had a legit decent career but imo petit was the chris gratton of dmen. yeah he played a long time and for a lot of teams but just kept getting opportunities for his tools and never wasn’t a disappointment and sent on his way before too long.

In my (admittedly) limited knowledge of Lanz, he was like a pre-Andy Delmore. Or for a more well-known name: Marc-Andre Bergeron. So a fine 5/6/7, but nothing special.

A surprising thing is he was cut from the expansion Lightning during training camp, and they probably could have used someone like him. Even though he had been out of hockey for a couple of years by that point.

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

could you tell me more about lanz?

he was before my time, but my sense is he was an ok pmd who probably wasn’t a true #1, although that was his role on bad 80s canucks teams?

up to 1990, through the first 20 years of our franchise, lanz was our second highest scoring dman.

daigneault had a legit decent career but imo petit was the chris gratton of dmen. yeah he played a long time and for a lot of teams but just kept getting opportunities for his tools and never wasn’t a disappointment and sent on his way before too long.

Stylistically, a cross between Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, maybe, with the added advantage of having decent size. When he first joined the Canucks as an 18-year old, he was super exciting to watch because, like Hughes, he was an excellent puck carrier, and we really hadn't seen anybody on the blueline quite like him on the Canucks before. While I don't recall him having huge draft hype, I think some of the media and fanbase were hoping he would become a Paul Coffey type after he arrived and showed his flash, so he started to get hyped more after his arrival, with Tony Gallagher being an early booster. He had a great point shot and racked up most of his goals on the PP. In his sophomore season he had a major knee injury that required surgery so he wasn't part of the legendary 82 Finals run. The knee injury seemed to take away some of that dynamism in his rushing skill. Where the Hronek comparison comes in is that it seemed like he was one of these guys who had all of these great skills but struggled to put together a complete game, particularly in his own zone, and you were sometimes left scratching your head with all of his brain farts. He sort of just became a PP specialist and always struggled at ES. Even at his peak, I couldn't say he was a top 20 defender in a 21-team league; top 50, at best, but really no better in the end than Doug Halward or Kevin McCarthy, both of whom held the #1 spot at times when Lanz was there, and definitely not as effective defensively as guys like Jiri Bubla, Harold Snepsts and Lars Lindgren.

In general, the Canucks seemed to have trouble developing guys in the 80s, particularly defensemen and goalies, and usually chucked them right in before they were ready, expecting big things and losing patience early when there was no immediate payoff.

 

[Albatros]

Goaltender can be so dark magic that it be hard to talk about them

What about say Thibault, when Montreal let him go, how many people had him a bit of a bust.

From 99-03 (easier on a bad team but still) 4th in game played amon goaltender, made at least an all-star weekend I think, end up with a nice career, almost 600 games.

Marc denis had his moment just before the lock-out, not sure if 03 and 04 made him unbust.

Thibault was fed to the wolves when at 20 he had to replace Patrick Roy in his prime. And he was actually pretty good in Montréal, just nothing short of miracles was going to be enough in that situation.

 

[Stephen]

Sam Bennett.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Bryan Allen comes to mind