The Decline of Alexandre Daigle

[Fantomas]

He spoke like a French Nuke Laloosh, although something like that doesn't necessarily foreshadow failure.

 

[Troubadour]

Playing the NHL means you have no life for up to 8 months a year. You're a robot, expected to give your best despite nagging injuries and perpetual lack of quality sleep. Media and fans complain. Your coach complains and screams, your wife complains and screams and spends. Your kids scream. All you want is some peace, but don't tell anyone. There are dozens of guys lined up behind your back, waiting for your failure to take your job. Also, they can always calculate how much money you make and throw it back at you. You're in a golden cage with a bunch of tigers, lions and other beasts.

Not making (or keeping up with) the NHL is one of the least surprising things you can experience I guess, no matter how high talent scouts rate you when it comes to playing ability.

 

[Killion]

Playing the NHL means you have no life for up to 8 months a year. You're a robot, expected to give your best despite nagging injuries and perpetual lack of quality sleep. Media and fans complain. Your coach complains and screams, your wife complains and screams and spends. Your kids scream. All you want is some peace, but don't tell anyone. There are dozens of guys lined up behind your back, waiting for your failure to take your job. Also, they can always calculate how much money you make and throw it back at you. You're in a golden cage with a bunch of tigers, lions and other beasts.

Not making (or keeping up with) the NHL is one of the least surprising things you can experience I guess, no matter how high talent scouts rate you when it comes to playing ability.

Indeed. Good post. What happens when the dream youve chased since childhood turns into a drudge, that you feel "obligated"? There not because you want to be but because its whats expected, signed a contract that you should never have signed. While its hard to feel sympathy given his talent & gifts, the $ involved... not as uncommon as some might think, that some players, some people grow beyond the game, heart just no longer in it by the age of 14, 15, 16 (highest drop-out ages).

Daigle from what Ive read, seen & heard, just one of those people who having climbed the mountain at the Major Jr level satisfied, but as he was so far down the path to a professional career and a Wunderkind at that, there was no turning back or opting out, he felt trapped. His heart wasnt in it but his head was, being pragmatic, practical, however the head & heart have to be working in unison, they werent, he was only firing on one piston & thats just not a recipe' for success nor for personal happiness. Hockey for many stops being "fun" once you hit Junior. For others when their Drafted at 18, 19. Becomes very serious indeed. Draft age IMO should be at minimum 20 if not 21. 18/19, thats just too young.

It happens. Before big money hit the game, it was not entirely uncommon for players more than NHL capable of instead to be getting on with their lives before, during or immediately after Junior, going to University, learning a trade, family business or whatever. Time to put away the toys of childhood, and hockey is at heart kids game. And sure enough, see it in sports, music, the arts, academics etc. The once child prodigy moving on. I'm not about to judge. I think personal happiness all and if not happy, if you think youve accomplished what you can, heart just not in it, well, lots of other mountains to climb. Lifes too short to go through it being unhappy.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

total speculation, but i can imagine a guy with that much god-given talent and success saying to himself at 16 or 17, "well i can't throw away the money. so i'll just play a few years then walk away still a very young guy to go start my life."

but when you're that young you maybe don't realize how hard it is to walk away with everyone calling you a bust, a failure, a loser, a spoiled brat, a baby. and then just for pride you hang around but are mentally checked out, and it snowballs. lose the respect of your teammates, lose your self-esteem, nobody there to help you, your so-called friends walk away because they were really just vultures and hangers-on, fall into depression, etc.

 

[Killion]

total speculation, but i can imagine a guy with that much god-given talent and success saying to himself at 16 or 17, "well i can't throw away the money. so i'll just play a few years then walk away still a very young guy to go start my life."

but when you're that young you maybe don't realize how hard it is to walk away with everyone calling you a bust, a failure, a loser, a spoiled brat, a baby. and then just for pride you hang around but are mentally checked out, and it snowballs. lose the respect of your teammates, lose your self-esteem, nobody there to help you, your so-called friends walk away because they were really just vultures and hangers-on, fall into depression, etc.

... entirely possible vs, sure, solid, entertaining theory... hubris of youth... thinking he had the world by the tail at 15, 17 or whatever. had it all figured out, game the system, cash in but.... I have my doubts. I dont believe he was that insincere, duplicitous an individual.... team sport, that kind of selfishness is generally weaned out of players, the best ones included... he clearly loved the game which is why he excelled at it in the first place & if you love something that much to betray that love, that character would be to betray every Coach you ever had, your current & former teammates, the organizations who nurtured you, your family & ultimately yourself.... kind of a heavy crime to be accusing someone of no?

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

Loved the Brendl thread and now this one. There's something about disasters that we just can't help but be drawn to and I'm no exception.

Whether it's movie disasters, disastrous pro careers that were once promising, video game disasters it's just cool to me to see what went wrong and whether it's similar to other disasters like it. Not so much a fan of car crashes though.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

... entirely possible vs, sure, solid, entertaining theory... hubris of youth... thinking he had the world by the tail at 15, 17 or whatever. had it all figured out, game the system, cash in but.... I have my doubts. I dont believe he was that insincere, duplicitous an individual.... team sport, that kind of selfishness is generally weaned out of players, the best ones included... he clearly loved the game which is why he excelled at it in the first place & if you love something that much to betray that love, that character would be to betray every Coach you ever had, your current & former teammates, the organizations who nurtured you, your family & ultimately yourself.... kind of a heavy crime to be accusing someone of no?

well i for one don't think that the early daigle was duplicitous, as others have suggested. i also don't doubt that the daigle who scored 26 goals as a rookie was trying, or enjoying himself, but i just don't think he expected to be a hockey lifer the way todd harvey must have. there's a lot of grey area between cash in cash out, and being todd harvey.

but as someone else suggested upthread, i also don't know that daigle necessarily had it in him to eat nails like todd harvey. given what i saw of him on the ice, i don't know that he necessarily even understood what that was.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Something good if not all bad, he did swallow his pride and gave his all (during summer & season)
back in 2003-2004, during his comeback as a 28 year old.

At that season for Wild, he was their best player, 20 goals, 51 points in 70+ games.
- i think it was his best season of his career.

He outscored (in both goals+points) likes of Gaborik,Brunette,Dupuis,Laaksonen,Walz...

 

[Killion]

well i for one don't think that the early daigle was duplicitous, as others have suggested. i also don't doubt that the daigle who scored 26 goals as a rookie was trying, or enjoying himself, but i just don't think he expected to be a hockey lifer the way todd harvey must have. there's a lot of grey area between cash in cash out, and being todd harvey.

but as someone else suggested upthread, i also don't know that daigle necessarily had it in him to eat nails like todd harvey. given what i saw of him on the ice, i don't know that he necessarily even understood what that was.

.... yeah, there is all that... he seemed "disinterested" right out of the box.... no way of knowing for sure, money does strange things to people.... dunno vs but I'm generally one to give people the benefit of the doubt, particularly at that age.... he couldve just been on a train he didnt think he could get off, just went through the motions.... sleepwalker, somnambulist, living someone elses dream (maybe his parents?)... not "there there".... almost like an out of body experience and desperately unhappy despite the wealth & fame.... I can certainly understand why people far less blessed & lucky would judge that harshly. Absolutely.

 

[Troubadour]

Indeed. Good post. What happens when the dream youve chased since childhood turns into a drudge, that you feel "obligated"? There not because you want to be but because its whats expected, signed a contract that you should never have signed. While its hard to feel sympathy given his talent & gifts, the $ involved... not as uncommon as some might think, that some players, some people grow beyond the game, heart just no longer in it by the age of 14, 15, 16 (highest drop-out ages).

Daigle from what Ive read, seen & heard, just one of those people who having climbed the mountain at the Major Jr level satisfied, but as he was so far down the path to a professional career and a Wunderkind at that, there was no turning back or opting out, he felt trapped. His heart wasnt in it but his head was, being pragmatic, practical, however the head & heart have to be working in unison, they werent, he was only firing on one piston & thats just not a recipe' for success nor for personal happiness. Hockey for many stops being "fun" once you hit Junior. For others when their Drafted at 18, 19. Becomes very serious indeed. Draft age IMO should be at minimum 20 if not 21. 18/19, thats just too young.

It happens. Before big money hit the game, it was not entirely uncommon for players more than NHL capable of instead to be getting on with their lives before, during or immediately after Junior, going to University, learning a trade, family business or whatever. Time to put away the toys of childhood, and hockey is at heart kids game. And sure enough, see it in sports, music, the arts, academics etc. The once child prodigy moving on. I'm not about to judge. I think personal happiness all and if not happy, if you think youve accomplished what you can, heart just not in it, well, lots of other mountains to climb. Lifes too short to go through it being unhappy.

There's also the schism of playing for a team (with all those team sport and team spirit romanticized ideas) on the one hand and competing against your own teammates on the other. This is going on since the very first time you lace them up, but among pros, playing / non-playing is what decides and impacts lifestyles and lives of entire families.

You may be very talented, but you also need to deal with so much competition it must be very demanding and challenging mentally. The more sensitive guys could totally experience serious mental issues, and while those are the furthest extremes of how far anxiety and depression could go, for every dream-come-true parade of someone who enjoyed a smooth ride, there are always Fogarty's and Svatos' ghosts jumping out of the woodwork.

Got it from the books of course, but when guys deal with this in their biographies, they usually point out there are about five men on every team who have their position more or less secured, ten tops. The rest? A jungle-like fight to move up the pecking order. Unless you're a starlet, there is not much romance in being a pro. It's in fact ugly and cruel and absolutely not for everyone.

 

[Killion]

There's also the schism of playing for a team (with all those team sport and team spirit romanticized ideas) on the one hand and competing against your own teammates on the other. This is going on since the very first time you lace them up, but among pros, playing / non-playing is what decides and impacts lifestyles and lives of entire families.

You may be very talented, but you also need to deal with so much competition it must be very demanding and challenging mentally. The more sensitive guys could totally experience serious mental issues, and while those are the furthest extremes of how far anxiety and depression could go, for every dream-come-true parade of someone who enjoyed a smooth ride, there are always Fogarty's and Svatos' ghosts jumping out of the woodwork.

Got it from the books of course, but when guys deal with this in their biographies, they usually point out there are about five men on every team who have their position more or less secured, ten tops. The rest? A jungle-like fight to move up the pecking order. Unless you're a starlet, there is not much romance in being a pro. It's in fact ugly and cruel and absolutely not for everyone.

Oh you bet.... big wide world out there & these are still very much adolescents in so many cases, lots of distractions, music, girls, drink.... takes some serious discipline, more so since the 80's & 90's, like hockey 12mnths a year, spring leagues, summer camps, specialized training, dryland, weight lifting, diet etc etc etc. Mind blowing. On top of that theyve got school. Far different culture from the bad old good old days, HS dropout rates high, took it just as seriously sure but not to the extent thats required of these kids over the last 30yrs. So if your a free-spirit, rail at the micro-management & control exercised over your life then ya, that can be a real problem... I suspect this was the case with Daigle.