Ed Jovanovski

[MikeK]

In his prime he was the best canucks dman of all time. It's too bad his prime didn't last too long.

Not even close.

 

[VancouverFanInNYC]

The other reason that fueled Jovanovski with such undue promise was that he was arguably the best defenseman of his cohort (the generation of young defensemen who were a few years younger than the Prongers, Neidermayers, Lidstroms, Blakes, Zubovs, Gonchars). Although in retrospect, that cohort turned out unbelievably underwhelming and none of the guys like Jovanovski, Wade Redden, Derek Morris, Eric Brewer, Bryan Berard, Ohlund, Tomas Kaberle et al became bona fide stars (other than low-scoring 6'9'' 3rd rounder from the WHL who somehow kept on improving year after year)... It really was the best of times (Pronger, Lidstrom, MacInnis) and the worst of times for defensemen as there as a pretty steep drop-off in quality and many of the all-world prospects (like Bouwmeester and Pitkanen) never really fulfilled their early promise.

It was that promise that kept on leading Canuck fans like myself yearning for more. Seeing Jovanovski's dominance at 19 in the playoffs, shutting down Lindros, to him being chosen onto Team Canada ahead of guys like Redden and Morris. People forgot how good guys like Redden, Morris and Berard looked early on and it was everyone's expectation that when Pronger and Lidstrom's performances began to taper off, the next generation of guys would dominate the league with Jovanovski at the forefront of that. Alas, that never happened and ironically it was guys like Redden, Brewer and Jovanovski that peaked and tapered whereas Pronger and Lidstrom played at a high-level for seemingly forever (and guys like Niedermayer somehow kept on getting better into his late 30s).

 

[mathonwy]

The other reason that fueled Jovanovski with such undue promise was that he was arguably the best defenseman of his cohort (the generation of young defensemen who were a few years younger than the Prongers, Neidermayers, Lidstroms, Blakes, Zubovs, Gonchars). Although in retrospect, that cohort turned out unbelievably underwhelming and none of the guys like Jovanovski, Wade Redden, Derek Morris, Eric Brewer, Bryan Berard, Ohlund, Tomas Kaberle et al became bona fide stars (other than low-scoring 6'9'' 3rd rounder from the WHL who somehow kept on improving year after year)... It really was the best of times (Pronger, Lidstrom, MacInnis) and the worst of times for defensemen as there as a pretty steep drop-off in quality and many of the all-world prospects (like Bouwmeester and Pitkanen) never really fulfilled their early promise.

It was that promise that kept on leading Canuck fans like myself yearning for more. Seeing Jovanovski's dominance at 19 in the playoffs, shutting down Lindros, to him being chosen onto Team Canada ahead of guys like Redden and Morris. People forgot how good guys like Redden, Morris and Berard looked early on and it was everyone's expectation that when Pronger and Lidstrom's performances began to taper off, the next generation of guys would dominate the league with Jovanovski at the forefront of that. Alas, that never happened and ironically it was guys like Redden, Brewer and Jovanovski that peaked and tapered whereas Pronger and Lidstrom played at a high-level for seemingly forever (and guys like Niedermayer somehow kept on getting better into his late 30s).

Noice.