Biggest Two Hit Wonders

c9777666

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Aug 31, 2016
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Hockey history has been laced with one-hit wonder players who had one great season and could not duplicate it (Jacques Richard, Troy Murray), but sometimes there are players that have two great seasons that were similarly hard to duplicate.

The first one that stands out for me is Jim Carey- obviously, we know about his 1995-96 Vezina season, but his 1995 rookie season (2nd in Calder, 3rd in Vezina) seems to fall through the cracks.

I'll also throw in Rob Brown- of course, there was the 49-66-115 season of 1988-89, but his next best season (33 goals, 80 points in 1989-90) was definitely better than Jacques Richard's next best season

Who else do you think falls under this criteria?
 
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Killion

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Actually quite a number of Calder Cup Winners & Runner-Up's would fit your criteria.... one in particular that Ive always found interesting being the Leafs Kent Douglas in 62/63.... Smallish for a Defenceman of even that era at 5'10" & 180lbs, Douglas plied his craft in the minors until the age of 27 when the Leafs reacquired him from Eddie Shore in Springfield in exchange for 5 players after Douglas had won the AHL Eddie Shore Award for Defencemen in 1961. Shore in fact instrumental in working with Douglas, elevating his game, Douglas able to put up with Shores particular brand of crazy & reap the rewards.

In his first year with Toronto, put up some seriously decent points for a Defenceman of that era & was also a physical & abrasive component on the Leafs Blue Line, even though he was really rather up against it what with the Leafs depth at that position. However, he shone through, Assisted on the Goal that won the Leafs the Stanley Cup in 63, awarded the Calder, the 1st Defenceman to have ever done so albeit this one 27yrs old, life was good... or so he thought.... Douglas was a happy-go-lucky type who liked to have fun while playing hockey & working, not irresponsibly so, never over the top or out of order, but he'd call Imlach "George" rather than "Punch" as he preferred & that was something "George" wasnt gunna stomach. Only jokester allowed round there was Imlach himself.

Started in on Douglas. Less ice time. Didnt like the way he was jumping into the play on offence. Anything & everything was wrong with Kent Douglas in year 2. Demoted. Called up, demoted just before the Playoffs, Leafs going on to win another Cup, Douglas's name not inscribed on it despite having played 47 games for the Leafs in 63/64... A regular thereafter, 65/66 through 66/67 & part of the Leafs last Championship.... Great player, great guy, left unprotected in the 67 Expansion Draft, grabbed by the Oakland Seals where he scored the franchises 1st goal. Very useful & astute player....

So.... people talk about how what an "Ogre" Eddie Shore was yet here you had a guy who got on with Eddie famously, no problem with hard & demanding taskmasters, yet he finds himself in George Imlachs Doghouse for no other reason than that he found it amusing to call George "George" rather than "Punch" with George "we are not amused" Imlach setting out to **** the guy up as a result? I mean... are you frickin kiddin me? Assists on your SC Goal, wins the Calder.... just, what can you say?
 

Canucks1096

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You can say Bertuzzi was a 2 hit wonder. 85 points in 72 games and then 97 points in 82 games. Hit 71 point after the lockout when they were a lot pp. Next highest was 60 points.
 

VanIslander

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This thread was made for Tim Thomas.
He averaged 30 wins over a 6-season stretch.
Yeah, he had two 1st team all-star seasons, but the year after the second one he was 5th in NHL wins and he was 4th in save percentage the season before his first all-star selection, and 7th in save % two years before that, and he went to four all-star games.
He played in 426 NHL games and has the 6th best career save percentage in NHL history!:amazed:

That is no "two-hit wonder".

He's more like Elton John than Wham.
 
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Sanf

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I would say Normie Smith. His career as top netminder was a flash in the pan.

He first spent time with Maroons in 31-32. This threw him in mental slump (which he admitted himself) and it took 4 years to get back to big league.

Had a decent regular season with Red Wings (35-36) followed by Conn Smythe worthy Stanley Cup run. Second hit was the next regular season. 1st All-Star. And that was pretty much it. One meh season with Red Wings. Then another mental slump and he was pretty much out. There was feud with Jack Adams, but I have never got a feeling that it would have been the reason he was out.
 

trentmccleary

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He averaged 30 wins over a 6-season stretch.
Yeah, he had two 1st team all-star seasons, but the year after the second one he was 5th in NHL wins and he was 4th in save percentage the season before his first all-star selection, and 7th in save % two years before that, and he went to four all-star games.
He played in 426 NHL games and has the 6th best career save percentage in NHL history!:amazed:

That is no "two-hit wonder".

He's more like Elton John than Wham.

He was a superstar for 2 years, a league average goalie for 6-8 and out of the league otherwise. He technically had 10 seasons in the league and wound up with three Vezina votes; 1st, 1st and 9th. That's it.
 
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MXD

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He averaged 30 wins over a 6-season stretch.
Yeah, he had two 1st team all-star seasons, but the year after the second one he was 5th in NHL wins and he was 4th in save percentage the season before his first all-star selection, and 7th in save % two years before that, and he went to four all-star games.
He played in 426 NHL games and has the 6th best career save percentage in NHL history!:amazed:

That is no "two-hit wonder".

He's more like Elton John than Wham.

Yeah... I'm not sure Thomas was the kind of answer the OP was looking for (and I'm not sure Thomas was a particularily enlightened answer anyways).

That's kinda like calling Bernie Nicholls a 2-hit wonder : of course, Nicholls had two clear "best" seasons, but when I think about 1-or-2 hit wonders, I think about people who completely disappears after said "hit", and Nicholls was +/- PPG for 950+ games if you take out his best two seasons (never mind it was helped by '80ies, PPG for that long is quite valuable).
 

GlitchMarner

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Barry Pederson comes to mind, although he was more of a three year wonder.

He scored 92 points and then 107 and 116.

After his 116 point season, he never scored more than 76 points in a season again.
 
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vadim sharifijanov

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He's more like Elton John than Wham.

i don't really like either of those comparisons. i mean, elton john is one of the most accomplished singer-songwriters of all time. his success was multi-generational; his longevity was brodeur-like. wham! had five enormous hits any one of us can hum the chorus of on a moment's notice, and one member of that group went on to become a huge solo star... idk, like how jean ratelle had his run with the GAG line, then had that second career where he left rod gilbert behind and didn't suck in the playoffs with boston.

if we're talking about two hit wonders, that's an artist or band who only had two memorable songs. sometimes that's a band that had a brief period of success, fell off that form and were unable to get it back, and then broke up/retired/disappeared; musical example would be arrested development.





in 1992 they put out an album with two smash hits. by '94, they were gone.

of guys previously mentioned, jim carey is a good comparison here. big rookie year, vezina sophomore year, then stumbled until he quickly gave up.

then there's the artist/band that has two big hits, and plugs away for a decent amount of time. maybe a minor hit here or there that if i played it for you you'd kind of remember it but in the end all anyone really knows are those two songs.





i don't know how you don't consider tim thomas in this category. it doesn't mean he was literally out of the league, or literally a backup when he wasn't "hitting." it just means he was average otherwise. for instance, google coolio's song "too hot," or "c u when you get there." those songs played on the radio; but no one is playing them on the old school lunch hour in 2017. bill ranford is another name for this category.

and then you have the kind of two hit wonder that has a long, respectable career. a lot of staying power, and have a good loyal following, their fans would yell at you for an hour for even suggesting that they were two hit wonders. but everything is eclipsed by two transcendent moments. there are other seal songs, and some of them are fantastic songs, but even your mom knows "crazy" and "kiss from a rose."





i mean, you could even call the sedins two hit wonders and i wouldn't argue. they had a lot of point/game seasons, all-star seasons, fringe top ten/twenty seasons, but for two years they were true MVP-level superstars.

but anyway, i think all of those "kinds" of two-hit wonders are still valid.
 
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BenchBrawl

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Stephane Richer? He scored 50 goals two times, though he had decent seasons with 30+ goals outside of that.

What about Corey Perry? Does this qualify?

Dany Heatley also comes to mind has a guy who had two really strong seasons, + a couple of strong ones but not as good.During those two seasons I remember thinking there's nothing that could stop Ottawa for a few years, then the whole thing collapsed.
 
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Sadekuuro

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Really? Neither of those two could be escaped, at least if you were my age (and I suspect vadim and I are quite close there).
 

MXD

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Really? Neither of those two could be escaped, at least if you were my age (and I suspect vadim and I are quite close there).

And I suspect I'm not that far from you both. I mean... I was in High School when Gangstas' was released.

Radio could be a little different here though.
 

Leafsdude7

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I don't know whether to put him in the two-hit wonder category, but Gary Leeman deserves at least to be considered.

1988-89: 61 games, 32 goals, 75 points
1989-90: 80 games, 50 goals, 95 points.

He only cracked 60 points one other time, getting 61 in 1987-88, which, considering we're talking the 80s here, is not impressive, and he never managed 30 points the rest of his career.

One factor to consider is that he did play defense for good portion of his career, but he was converted to wing for a while before those two seasons, and his numbers before, even as a defenseman, were by no means impressive.
 

MS

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I don't know whether to put him in the two-hit wonder category, but Gary Leeman deserves at least to be considered.

1988-89: 61 games, 32 goals, 75 points
1989-90: 80 games, 50 goals, 95 points.

He only cracked 60 points one other time, getting 61 in 1987-88, which, considering we're talking the 80s here, is not impressive, and he never managed 30 points the rest of his career.

One factor to consider is that he did play defense for good portion of his career, but he was converted to wing for a while before those two seasons, and his numbers before, even as a defenseman, were by no means impressive.

His former linemate Daniel Marois would also fit here - two seasons over 30 goals, no other NHL seasons over 30 points.
 

Dissonance

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Brian Elliott has had two seasons in which he led the NHL in save percentage (including briefly setting a regular season record in 2011-'12, although he wasn't the clear starter that year) and hasn't had a single year in the top-10 otherwise.
 

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