Boychuk, Dalpe, Bowman, and other prospects that didn't pan out

[HisIceness]

http://cardiaccane.com/2017/04/05/carolina-hurricanes-wheres-zach-boychuk/

Saw this article and it got me thinking back to about 2010, when these 3 prospects were supposed to be future top 9 forwards, and how none of them really came close to achieving that, and how it left huge holes in our lineup that left JR and co. having to sign guys like Anthony Stewart and Alexi Ponikravosky, among others that didn't last long here.

I was so excited for that 2010ish crop of prospects, which also included Jamie McBain (another bust), they seemed to show a lot of promise during their time in the minors/juniors/NCAA (didn't this group win the Traverse City tournament that year?) and when they got their first call-ups. The shine wore off on me. Unfortunately it seemed like that was the highlight of their NHL careers, because none of them had the skills to stick full-time.

Did anyone else think highly of these guys at the time? Any other prospect before or since you were excited about that ended up being a disappointment?

Whats Jeremy Welsh up to these days, remember him?

Click to read more...

 

[DaveG]

Yep, that group won Traverse City and was responsible for the outstanding Charlotte team that made it all the way to the Conference Finals in their first year in the AHL.

Boychuk - 65 in 60
Dalpe 57 in 61
Bowman 30 in 51

Michal Jordan, Chris Terry, Reily Nash, Jerome Samson, and Oskar Osala were all part of that group that seemed poised to have some guys with significant future NHL careers as well. Crazy that the only one that turned out as expected was Nash, when the expectation for him was "maybe #3 but probably a good #4C in the NHL".

I thought for sure at least both Boychuk and Dalpe were going to be future NHL top 9 players, top 6 in Boychuk's case. I liked Osala the most from that other group, others had different ones they preferred.

Some other guys that I had a ton of hope for that didn't pan out:

Danny Biega - I figured his defensive game would allow him to stick in the league even if his offense never showed at the NHL level. Nope. Hell I remember having some Biega vs Slavin debates with Vagrant back in the day over him... or was it Biega vs Dumoulin? Never expected that he would basically only get a cup of coffee in the league.

Collin Olson - I thought we got an absolute steal when we got him in the 6th. #1 goalie for the NTDP and he just had put up stats that just obliterated everything at the U-18s, what could go wrong? Well... apparently everything.

Bobby Hughes - guy was a hell of an offensive talent in the OHL... he was also a hell of a POS as a person so when everything came to light I wasn't too disappointed that he was sent to the Isles.

Nate Hagemo - injuries and drugs suck

Joe Barnes - injuries

Jesse Lane - dating myself with this reference. But man, the guy had it all and then he went completely off the damn reservation when we didn't offer him a contract to his liking. 6'2, 205lb dman, plays 3 games at Harvard then (what should have been a red flag, after being benched for taking too many PIMs in the prior game) goes to the QMJHL and rips it up posting near PPG numbers as a younger draft eligible. We somehow snag him in the 3rd and he proceeds to put up better numbers the next year while being named first-team QMJHL, and then it ALLLLLLLLL goes downhill. We don't sign him to a contract following that season, he claimed it was because we couldn't afford to sign him, and he just frigin loses it. Doesn't go back to the QMJHL, months later he shows up in the USHL and proceeds to put up pedestrian numbers and then nothing. Like, literally never plays another game at a notable level.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

hindsight being 20/20 i would have darfted erik karlsson over boychuk

 

[SaskCanesFan]

hindsight being 20/20 i would have darfted erik karlsson over boychuk

It's tough to commit to, but you might be onto something there

 

[DaveG]

hindsight being 20/20 i would have darfted erik karlsson over boychuk

That pick is the #1 reason that people should absolutely go after the fast risers in the draft. Dude went from absolutely nowhere to people talking about him as a mid-first. Scheifele and Skinner are two more reasons people should like the fast risers (Glass).

 

[Roboturner913]

I remember thinking Joe Barnes was going to be our next big fast power forward ala Erik Cole.

Jeff Heerema is probably the one that is weirdest to me. That guy was a legit offensive player. We drafted him high in the first round, he tore it up in the AHL, then we gave him a total of 10 NHL games and waived him in training camp the next year. We gave slugs like Bayda and Zigomanis more chance than that. Hell we gave Harold Druken more chances than that.

 

[DaveG]

I remember thinking Joe Barnes was going to be our next big fast power forward ala Erik Cole.

Jeff Heerema is probably the one that is weirdest to me. That guy was a legit offensive player. We drafted him high in the first round, he tore it up in the AHL, then we gave him a total of 10 NHL games and waived him in training camp the next year. We gave slugs like Bayda and Zigomanis more chance than that. Hell we gave Harold Druken more chances than that.

Yep. I don't remember what happened to him but I thought for sure he was going to be a force in the league.

 

[Vagrant]

Yep. I don't remember what happened to him but I thought for sure he was going to be a force in the league.

Barnes was a pretty weird case. I think his skills were more suited for the time he was drafted than what the league eventually became, but his major downfall was concussions. It's weird in retrospect how little we collectively, sports fans in general, acknowledged concussions as being the danger they actually are. The rhetoric around concussions was that you'd rather have a player suffer a concussion than tear up his knee or shoulder, which were considered the bigger career killers at the time. Patrik Stefan suffered three pretty brutal concussions prior to being drafted and that's a huge part of what reduced him to a role player, but that's not what's remembered about him. Can you imagine a potential 1st overall pick coming over to play in the AHL from Europe at 16 into 17 and getting concussed 2 or 3 times playing against men? It literally ruined his career, but it's like a subtext to him being a bust instead of being viewed as a significant contributor among casual NHL fans. David Tanabe was another example of a player that quietly had his career diminished by concussions. I remember thinking he swindled JR out of another year of NHL salary by effectively signing a contract and then almost immediately going on IR and then showing up to the rink as little as was required of him. I made him a villain for that when in truth I had and still do have no idea the extent of his condition. It just goes to show you what ignorance does. The culture of predatory hits back then cut down so many potential impact players that it's no wonder the league went through a significant period of time where it seemed like there were no star offensive players that belonged specifically to the era. "Welcome to the NHL" wasn't just an expression. Players targeted hot shot rookies, which is why nobody played physically immature rookies in their lineup. Now, if a player has the skill, they don't have to worry as much about the goonery that followed their predecessors. Huge tangent here, but it's certainly something that contributed a lot to the dead puck era. We get a pregame reminder with Shane Willis before every game.

I remember Danny Biega as well. He had a weird distinction of testing the best at the NHL combine for grip strength in both hands. He straight up dominated the combine. In retrospect, all of the Biega brothers essentially busted. Alex is still kicking around and playing limited minutes for the Canucks, but it's not where many projected he'd be at this point. I was super high on Dumoulin because of the fact that he played for BC essentially a season early and had a lot of success there, but even now his offense never really made the transition. Still a good player, but certainly not one that we miss all things considered.

I don't think a prospect ever got me as much as Magnus Kahnberg got me. I was dead set that he was going to score 30 goals a season for us. I didn't really have the same feeling about Niklas Nordgren, who actually ended up playing a limited role for us. Back in the early internet days, everybody claimed to have seen all these guys play with the vague "I saw a stream", when nobody back then was streaming SEL games. What a time to be alive. Even as far as NHL front offices went, there was so much mystery around European leagues that you really had to blow the doors off to even get a sniff without taking the conventional draft and develop approach. Undrafted European players may as well have been playing in a black hole. Guys with talent were usually discovered accidentally because a Red Wings scout went to watch a draft eligible and noticed someone standing out for the right reasons. Since nobody else knew, they'd just take them in the 6th or 7th. The Wings were so far ahead of the curve in funding European scouting that it probably yielded them a few extra cups. Everyone was so competitively scouting North America that it was like fishing shoulder to shoulder in a puddle. How it took so long for people to notice what they were doing and replicate it was astounding in retrospect. The fact that there are still teams out there that aren't doing it is equally as baffling. We put dick-all into European scouting until Marshall Johnston to a lesser degree and Francis to a greater degree. The uptick in our returns from Euro picks has been .....uh.... noticeable.

Nate Hagemo was one that really broke my heart. He was such a fantastic skater and his skills would have so easily translated, but the injuries just totally derailed him and the drug problems that manifested did the rest. He was seen as the heir apparent to Bret Hedican from a stylistic standpoint. I think of all our prospects during that time, he was probably the one that had the most legitimate claim if not for all the subsequent issues after being drafted.

Jesse Lane. Ha. What a weird situation that was. He's a principal consultant for an advising firm or something now. I think he was probably too soft to play professional hockey and it's good that he recognized that before he took it on.

I was flat out bullish on Jerome Samson. His shot creation would have made him a Corsi darling if they kept those stats back in the AHL days. I really do think he came along at the wrong time. There was really no reason why he couldn't have been a contributor in some capacity. He had 1635 shots in 450 career games in the A. He was a hustler for sure.

I was a card carrying Zac Dalpe supporter. Didn't think much of Boychuk. Really liked Bowman too. I have a fridge magnet that a kind poster from his Junior team fanclub sent me back when people used to do random nice things like that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Member when Samson vs Hoffman turned into a heated argument?

 

[CandyCanes]

And all these stories go to show that all these prospects that are really growing on us, a lot of them are likely to bust.

 

[Guy]

I enjoyed the 3-4 year run of Nick Dodge being penciled into everyone's 4th line for the next season.

 

[geehaad]

And all these stories go to show that all these prospects that are really growing on us, a lot of them are likely to bust.

That's a fair opinion/outlook to have, but there is something distinctly different about this group. The sheer number of them, for one thing...

 

[The Jerk Store]

Casey Borer had potential. Then there was the bus crash.

 

[cptjeff]

That's a fair opinion/outlook to have, but there is something distinctly different about this group. The sheer number of them, for one thing...

Some will pan out, for sure. Having a larger number means that more will pan out given similar rates of failure.

But you have everyone talking about Roy, as an example, as a guy who'll step in and become an NHL top 6 scorer, while he still can't skate at anything near an NHL level. Better than he used to skate, sure, but he used to skate just about as well as your average beer leaguer. He's got a good shot, good hands, and seems to have a good head for the game, but players move much, much faster in the NHL than they do in juniors, and if you can't keep up, none of the rest matters.

We do seem to be in a better position than we used to be. But even with a good pool of prospects, most won't pan out.

 

[Ole Gil]

I really thought Boychuk was going to amount to something. I'm still surprised he didn't. He had some shiftiness with the puck, he played physical, he had a hard shot, decent hands. But he just never converted that into NHL goals. Still not sure why.

Overall, I don't think I've been too surprised anyone didn't make, as much as I'm surprised how often none of them have made it. They go into the season with Bayda/Aucoin/Other Guy, or Dalpe/Boychuk/Bowman, and you think they all probably won't be good, but at least one of them will. But nope, all garbage.

 

[geehaad]

I really look forward to the day when, instead of talking about players who looked good that never panned out, these retrospectives are us talking about players we didn't think would amount to as much, yet they turned out well. Like Smallman, Lorentz, Foegele, Zykov, Carrick, Elyniuk...

Wouldn't that be great?

 

[cptjeff]

I really look forward to the day when, instead of talking about players who looked good that never panned out, these retrospectives are us talking about players we didn't think would amount to as much, yet they turned out well. Like Smallman, Lorentz, Foegele, Zykov, Carrick, Elyniuk...

Wouldn't that be great?

We already talk about Slavin and Pesce all the time, don't we?

 

[geehaad]

We already talk about Slavin and Pesce all the time, don't we?

Speak for yourself. I always figured them for perennial Norris candidates.

 

[Unsustainable]

I really thought Boychuk was going to amount to something. I'm still surprised he didn't. He had some shiftiness with the puck, he played physical, he had a hard shot, decent hands. But he just never converted that into NHL goals. Still not sure why.

Overall, I don't think I've been too surprised anyone didn't make, as much as I'm surprised how often none of them have made it. They go into the season with Bayda/Aucoin/Other Guy, or Dalpe/Boychuk/Bowman, and you think they all probably won't be good, but at least one of them will. But nope, all garbage.

What?

 

[A Star is Burns]

I brought up Kahnberg and Nordgren a little while back. Those are the big ones for me. Obviously I'd never seen them, but looking at their stats made you think they were really going to be good if they ever came over.

I seem to remember a lot of people, probably myself included, being way too excited for Jaroslav Svoboda after he played a decent role on the third line in the 02 Finals fun.

I also remember being high on DeFauw and Bayda from watching them on tv a time or two. I believe they won the National Championship. I always thought Brett Lysak around that time would pan out, but I can't really remember why.

 

[geehaad]

I always thought Brett Lysak around that time would pan out, but I can't really remember why.

Because he was a monster in Eastside Hockey Manager v1.6.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Because he was a monster in Eastside Hockey Manager v1.6.

Not sure. I started playing whichever version was out right after we won the Cup.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I seem to remember a lot of people, probably myself included, being way too excited for Jaroslav Svoboda after he played a decent role on the third line in the 02 Finals fun.

I thought Josef and Jaro would be our Czech mates for a decade. Alas.

 

[geehaad]

I started playing whichever version was out right after we won the Cup.

Ah. No, this would have been the circa-2001 version. By the Cup year Lysak was a known sad sack.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

I really thought Boychuk was going to amount to something. I'm still surprised he didn't. He had some shiftiness with the puck, he played physical, he had a hard shot, decent hands. But he just never converted that into NHL goals. Still not sure why.

zero hockey sense. always looked completely lost in the offensive zone. unfortunately people here decided he was "lazy" because he didn't show up early to the garbage facility that is RCI/rec zone and that became the narrative.

borer was trending down before the bus crash. he had torn his ACL and MCL the season before and was having a terrible year in the AHL before the crash. It didn't help but i don't think he'd be an an NHLer even without it. he made some really terrible defensive reads, had little offense to speak of, to go along with a very slight frame. he was an okay prospect at best who got hyped up because of a stretch of about 3 NHL games where he was useful.

samson sucked. he shot a lot and was good along the boards but did everything else average to below average. his NHL call-ups made it pretty clear that he would be nothing more than a plug at the NHL level. guys like that can pile up points playing against bad goalies and smaller players in the AHL but can't do anything in the NHL with better competition.

aucoin was a 27 year old career ahler before he even got here....not really a prospect.