About Volchhov, as written on the Press Box, we have to remember he played with two other very good hockey players, a situation who have often created confusion for the scouts in the past: *'' Did the Washington scouts misavaluated the role of Jan Bulis ( which they indeed also selected in third round of 1996), a team-mate of Volchkov with Barrie Colts? And what about Daniel Tkaczuk, an other Barrie Colts team-mate, who was the 6th choice overall in 1997 but just played 19 games in NHL until now? ''
Bonsignore has also to be remembered as a bust.
But IMO if we consider the player with the best potential who did not reach what was expected from his potential, Daigle must be the first one on the bust list from the last 10 years.
Aged 16 YO, Daigle had 110 points with Victoriaville. He was the best scorer of his team. His 1.67 points per game at 16 YO is the best ever in CHL history... after Gretzky. These stats are more significant if we consider Daigle did not play with great hockey player with Victoriaville.
After a very good second year with Victo, Daigle scored 20 goals with Ottawa, which was a very good record for a 18 YO kid. He then scored 16 goals the following year in just 47 games, which was still very good for a 19 YO player. At 21 YO, he had 26 goals which was still not bad. Then, he collapsed.
Yes he made a return in NHL. But looking to the history of the NHL first overall choices since 1980, we can just agree that most of them became either NHL franchise player, superstars or excellent player with very few exceptions, like Wick, Lawton or Stefan. Daigle should have been a sure bet. He wasn't. Sadly.
rum roll please::
