4 of the more infamous 1st round busts.

Toene

Y'en aura pas de facile
Nov 17, 2014
4,907
4,842
Less major miss but recently, Juulsen over Aho, yikes. I know Juulsen got injuries, but even then, did he project as a first pairing D? Because Aho is a first liner.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HabsQC

LaP

Registered User
Jun 27, 2012
24,298
17,411
Quebec City, Canada
You simply can't forget Doug Wickenheiser. Yes he had a somewhat decent career ... had he been a 2nd or 3rd round pick. Problem is he was a 1st overall pick drafted before guys like of Denis Savard and Paul Coffey.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HabsQC

LaP

Registered User
Jun 27, 2012
24,298
17,411
Quebec City, Canada
Just my 2 cents, but I have long felt that we (and several NHL teams) chronically over-rate the WHL. Certainly a disproportionate number of busts seem to come from there, which is why I'm very lukewarm on this coming draft.

A lot of big surprises come from the WHL too. Guys like Getzlaf, Mark Stone or Gallagher. Maybe it's just a badly scouted league? How the hell did one of the best playmaker (with size) of the current era like Getzlaf felt to 19th? How can a guy like Stone fall in the 6th round only? You can argue Gallagher was too small but Stone has a good frame.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim Wallach

Kimota

ROY DU NORD!!!
Nov 4, 2005
39,195
14,070
Les Plaines D'Abraham
A lot of big surprises come from the WHL too. Guys like Getzlaf, Mark Stone or Gallagher. Maybe it's just a badly scouted league? How the hell did one of the best playmaker (with size) of the current era like Getzlaf felt to 19th? How can a guy like Stone fall in the 6th round only? You can argue Gallagher was too small but Stone has a good frame.

The only argument I can think of as far as Getzlav is that this was a deep deep draft.
 

Tyson

Registered User
Mar 1, 2007
44,642
60,547
Texas
Dave Chyzowski always sticks out to me.

Jose Charbonneau was another patented Habs bust.
 

LaP

Registered User
Jun 27, 2012
24,298
17,411
Quebec City, Canada
I wouldn't say "excellent". "Bretty gud" is closer to his real talent.

He's "just" 24 though. He's also a relatively big dman which historically tend to take more time to develop.

You know that's the funny thing. According to lot of habs fan there's still untapped potential in Domi and Drouin yet they are almost one year older than Ekblad and are the type of players who outside of a few exceptions like St Louis tend to develop at a younger age than big dmen but yet Ekland is a flop? Go figure ;)
 

Toene

Y'en aura pas de facile
Nov 17, 2014
4,907
4,842
He's "just" 24 though. He's also a relatively big dman which historically tend to take more time to develop.

You know that's the funny thing. According to lot of habs fan there's still untapped potential in Domi and Drouin yet they are almost one year older than Ekblad and are the type of players who outside of a few exceptions like St Louis tend to develop at a younger age than big dmen but yet Ekland is a flop? Go figure ;)

Saying he was pretty good wasnt a diss at all

I would say excellent. I think he took an impressive step forward with his game this year and played like a true #1.
Maybe. I didnt watch the Panthers this year. He's got a lot of tools to be excellent but until recently he was hovering between okay and very good.
But to be fair, he's the top dog on a putrid defense and is getting bad goaltending since he entered the league so maybe you're right. He doesnt have much support.
 

Malmo

Registered User
Apr 6, 2008
897
103
A lot of big surprises come from the WHL too. Guys like Getzlaf, Mark Stone or Gallagher. Maybe it's just a badly scouted league? How the hell did one of the best playmaker (with size) of the current era like Getzlaf felt to 19th? How can a guy like Stone fall in the 6th round only? You can argue Gallagher was too small but Stone has a good frame.

Stone improved his skating a lot. It was terrible in his draft year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vachon23

Ghost of Ethan Hunt

The Official Ghost of Space Ghosts Monkey
Jun 23, 2018
8,733
5,092
Top Secret Moon Base
Wings fan sharing.

upload_2020-3-27_18-1-40.png
 

BargainBinSpecial

Registered User
Jul 2, 2018
2,484
1,279
To me, a first round bust would be a player who never played in the NHL or never really had an impact in the few games they played.

The name of Kostitsyn was thrown around here but he doesn't fit my description of bust. Patrick Stefan and Daigle just never really lived up to their supposed superstar potential. They just were average players. They were not busts.

Now, guys like Leblanc, Fischer, Scherbak, Chouinard, Brad Brown, Terry Ryan, Matt Higgins, McCaron, Tinordi, Marcel Hossa, Beaulieu, Brent Bilodeau, Perezoghin, Lindsay Valis, David Wilkie and Kyle Chipchura are first round Habs' picks in the last 30 years. Not an amazing track record to say the least.

Either player development staff really blows or scouts have no clue what they are doing on this team. Drafting is not always a recipe for success and all other teams have busts.

You also have, many good players that are drafted in the later rounds. It's a game of chance.
 

montreal

Go Habs Go
Mar 21, 2002
57,340
39,859
www.youtube.com
To me, a first round bust would be a player who never played in the NHL or never really had an impact in the few games they played.

The name of Kostitsyn was thrown around here but he doesn't fit my description of bust. Patrick Stefan and Daigle just never really lived up to their supposed superstar potential. They just were average players. They were not busts.

Now, guys like Leblanc, Fischer, Scherbak, Chouinard, Brad Brown, Terry Ryan, Matt Higgins, McCaron, Tinordi, Marcel Hossa, Beaulieu, Brent Bilodeau, Perezoghin, Lindsay Valis, David Wilkie and Kyle Chipchura are first round Habs' picks in the last 30 years. Not an amazing track record to say the least.

Either player development staff really blows or scouts have no clue what they are doing on this team. Drafting is not always a recipe for success and all other teams have busts.

You also have, many good players that are drafted in the later rounds. It's a game of chance.

for me it has to be looked at with a weighted average. If you pick 1st OA, you have to land a star player, if not it's a bust or close enough. I look at Yakupov, yes he played 350 games but had just 136 pts. If he was a 5th round pick it would be a nice win for the scouts, a 7th round pick a steal, a 2nd round pick it doesn't look so good but not terrible depending on how the draft class that year stacks up. But 1st OA? that's just not good enough.

To me if you are picking top 2 you must have a legit start, top 5 you must hit on a very good NHLer, top 10 must be a top 6/top 4/top 10ish stater, and top 15 you need to find good NHLers. Once you start getting to the 20's, you should be finding NHLers but the stats show it becomes harder. Early 2nd round you need to find NHLers, later 2nd round it clearly shouldn't be as expected to land as good of a player. Of course you have to look at the strength of that years draft overall and put it all into the proper context imo.
 

beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
59,361
8,958
Ottawa
There is one name at the top of this list and it's Doug Wickenheiser. Yes he played over 500 games in the NHL but when you consider the Habs took his 1st overall ahead of DEnis Savard, Larry Murphy, Paul Coffey, etc. He is the biggest bust.
 

bsl

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
10,069
3,272
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Toene

bsl

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
10,069
3,272
Easy to look back and say that, however David Pastrnak would have been long gone before the 25th pick had anyone expected to him become this good.
The old Hindsight argument. Can you guess how much Timmins is paid so that he cannot use the Hindsight argument?
 
Last edited:

bsl

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
10,069
3,272
We are a bit of the same though, look at all the Finns with Swedish names like Rask of the Bruins for example, we were one country for approx 800 years. That is why I am Swedish but my DNA is 49% Swedish, 40% Finnish and the rest neanderthal. :)
Then there is my grandma Hilda from Stavanger Norway. Came to Canada on a boat with one other girlfriend in about 1930. She could have taken all you Finns and Swedes to the wood shed and given you a good spanking. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Per Sjoblom

bsl

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
10,069
3,272
Just my 2 cents, but I have long felt that we (and several NHL teams) chronically over-rate the WHL. Certainly a disproportionate number of busts seem to come from there, which is why I'm very lukewarm on this coming draft.
Interesting...will keep an eye on that. Though it is more our Montreal poster territory. Montreal what do you think?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim Wallach

Per Sjoblom

Registered User
Jan 3, 2018
7,134
12,735
Then there is my grandma Hilda from Stavanger Norway. Came to Canada on a boat with one other girlfriend in about 1930. She could have taken all you Finns and Swedes to the wood shed and given you a good spanking. :)


Our Polish style jokes are about Norwegians. When Monty Python's Life of Brian was shown in Sweden (it was banned in Norway for a short time) the ads for it went something like:
"So funny, it is banned in Norway".

I like Norway and Norwegians, worked with some when I worked as a train traffic controller and they rented 4-6 electrical train engines from Sweden and I called Oslo daily and asked what trains they were using them for (to get the kilometers). It is also one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Driving from Sweden to the west coast of Norway is just amazing, all those deep fjords and rivers.

They are also the best winter sport nation by far, about 5.2 million people and they have won the most medals in the Winter Olympics of all countries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lo striver

bsl

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
10,069
3,272
You simply can't forget Doug Wickenheiser. Yes he had a somewhat decent career ... had he been a 2nd or 3rd round pick. Problem is he was a 1st overall pick drafted before guys like of Denis Savard and Paul Coffey.
My uncle and my dad were hall of fame players at Loyola in the 50's. My uncle was a really good player. Like close to NHL good. I remember going to a game with him in Edmonton in the early 80's. The Oilers were insanely good of course. But he insisted on calling Coffey 'Coughup.' Out loud. When the crowd was quiet. My uncle was an old fashioned player. Big tough guy. Montreal guy. Had watched Doug Harvey and all that I guess. Great fun.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->