Bad Team Scorers.

[JianYang]

Dale Hawerchuk comes to mind. Led his teams in scoring most years, but the teams he played with almost always got knocked out in the first round. It was not until his final season, when he played for the Flyers in 97' did he have a long playoff run.

For the first four years of his NHL career (before the Lindros trade), Joe Sakic carried the last place Quebec Nordiques on his back

While I'm no an expert on the Smythe division in the 80s, maybe this was more a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wonder how many of those playoff seasons did hawerchuk play those oiler teams. The Flames had their issues, but they were still a stacked team with finals appearances in 86 and 89 too.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Cory Stillman was a guy who scored a lot of points in the late 90's and 00's and even has 2 Stanley cups (back to back with 2 different teams), but made the playoffs only 7 times in his career, 5 of those postseasons were in a row.

Steve Sullivan is a little guy that was really fun to watch during his time in the league in the late 90's and early 00's but was on some pretty bad Nashville and Chicago teams during his career. Only 7 playoff appearances for 50 games total in a 1011 game career.

 

[Soundgarden]

Cory Stillman was a guy who scored a lot of points in the late 90's and 00's and even has 2 Stanley cups (back to back with 2 different teams), but made the playoffs only 7 times in his career, 5 of those postseasons were in a row.

Steve Sullivan is a little guy that was really fun to watch during his time in the league in the late 90's and early 00's but was on some pretty bad Nashville and Chicago teams during his career. Only 7 playoff appearances for 50 games total in a 1011 game career.

Part of why Sullivan missed out on more playoff games is that devastating back injury that kept him out for over a year, missed the playoffs when the Preds had 110 and 91 points, otherwise he would have made the playoffs every year but one for us. He'd eventually win the Masterton trophy when he came back.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Cassels is funny because most of his career I agree he fits the profile ... but I have absolutely nothing bad to say about his time in Vancouver. He was an excellent two way player, killed penalties, produced, was great on the PP, seemed like a quality citizen off the ice. The player I saw in Vancouver could have been an excellent #2 center for any team in the league.

i’m not quite as high on cassels as you but i mostly agree. he wasn’t sam gagner or anything.

but then sillinger could do a lot of little things well too but never seemed to make sense as a third liner on a contender, even though he had 20 goal hands, was a killer on the faceoff dot, killed penalties, etc.

but maybe in a quickly expanded league there always is just a better opportunity (and more money) for a guy like that to be a bad team scorer than to be what nick bonino was for pittsburgh.

 

[The Panther]

This thread made me think of Brent Ashton. Not a great scorer by any means, but the guy ended up with 629 NHL points, including six or seven 25+ goal seasons. In the 80s/early-90s, he played for Vancouver, Colorado/New Jersey, Minnesota, Quebec, Detroit, Winnipeg. (In his final two seasons, he played for Boston and Calgary, two good teams in a row.) 40 goals in 1986-87, between Quebec and Detroit.

 

[c9777666]

While I'm no an expert on the Smythe division in the 80s, maybe this was more a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wonder how many of those playoff seasons did hawerchuk play those oiler teams. The Flames had their issues, but they were still a stacked team with finals appearances in 86 and 89 too.

Hawerchuk's Jets played the Oilers 6 times in the playoffs.

Dale racked up a lot of big points playing in the Smythe division as the big two from Alberta (with an occasional playoff season from LA/Vancouver mixed in).

God knows how many more points he might have racked up if Winnipeg never left the Norris Division. You think he would have liked playing Detroit/Toronto 8 times a year and Edmonton less?

 

[Kshahdoo]

Wasn't Marcel Dionne the greatest "bad team scorer" ever?

 

[begbeee]

Does Bob Kudelski count?

Went from 20 goal scorer on Gretzky´s LA to hit the pace of 50 goals season in Ottawa along with magificent -25 +/- points. He is a totaly obscure name of 90s hockey in my memory.

 

[FerrisRox]

In the early days of the Ottawa Senators - when they were really really bad - there were a few guys who made the most of the opportunities playing on a bad team can give you, much like the aforementioned Bob Kudelski.

Norm MacIver had played for the Rangers, Whalers and Oilers and couldn't really nail down full time job but blossomed in 1991-92 with the Oilers putting up 40 points in just 57 games. Despite that, he was left unprotected in the Waiver Draft and the lowly Senators plucked him and he became the first leading scorer in team history with 17-goals and 63 points that year.

He never scored more than 7 goals in a season again after that but he did have a 53 point season split between the Penguins and Jets due in large part to catching fire after the trade and scoring 30 points in 39 games in Winnipeg.

Dan Quinn, who had off ice issues we need to get into, was free falling through the NHL in the early 90's. Between 1991 and 1993 he suited up for Vancouver, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Minnesota and then was out of the NHL altogether and playing in Switzerland. Then the bottom dwelling Senators brought him in to finish the 1993-94 season and he scored 7-goals in 13 games.

The next year her joined the LA Kings, but wasn't nearly as successful, then was back in Switzerland and later in the IHL before the Senators came calling again, and once again, Quinn excelled on a lousy team scoring 24 points in 28 games. Despite his production, he was traded to Philadelphia for cash and was out of the NHL a year later.

 

[GammaAway]

I would offer Tony Hrkac. Not that he was a good scorer per say, but his highs and lows do kind of inversely match up with team quality.

Gets 48 and 45 points on his first two seasons with middling St. Louis Blues in 1987-88 and 88-89, then traded midway through the season to Quebec City in 1989-1990 (total 39 in 50), where he will also get 48 points on a dismal team the following year.

Moves to a terrible Sharks team in 1991-1992, scores a bit above 0.5 PPG, then moves to a playoff-bound Blackhawks team (it's not great but it's an improvement) where he only manages 3 points in 18 games. Two dominating IHL seasons, then a half season at .30 PPG back with a better Blues team than he had before. 97-98 split between a very good Stars team (8 in 13) and an average Oilers team (19 in 36), then back to the strong Stars (27 in 69).

Fails with the Islanders in 1999-2000 and with an average Ducks team (11 in 60) at age 33. You figure he might be past his prime, but then the Ducks get a bunch of injuries, they aren't as high in the standings and Hrkac gets 38 points. He moves to bad Atlanta and gets 44 points, including a personal high of 18 goals. In his final NHL season, he only gets 26 points as Patrik Stefan improves and the Trashers got this new young center, Marc Savard.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

so many guys who would have been AHL superstars their whole careers if not for expansion. i'm trying to think the archetypal bad team scorer, but can't think of anyone off the top of my head. i think he'd probably have to

move around a lot

get picked up by a lot of expansion teams or expansion-equivalent bottom feeders (hartford in the 90s, post-arbour islanders other than that blip around the lockout, phoenix after they cut bait on tkachuk and roenick, etc)

get picked up multiple times as a rental or extra piece by contenders but always end up immediately back on a garbage team

always traded away or get pushed back into the free agent pile when their garbage team had a push of good young players from below or started improving and becoming competitive

i know this player exists, or that there are lots of him. but off the top of my head i can't really think of one. sillinger isn't perfect but is as good as any of the names kicking around my head... reinprecht, steve sullivan, ribeiro, none of those guys really fits that well.

He became a better player, but perhaps Michael Nylander's first 6 or 7 years belong in this category?