"Bust" tag way overused

[alasania94]

I like to spend time during the day and read through these forums, specifically prospects and their development. I'm realizing now that you have 90% of prospects, especially first rounders, that are being titled "busts" before they even play 3 full seasons in the league. What is up with that? Take for example Kakko and Lafreniere, two recent top prospects that have been getting a lot of heat for starting off slowly. Both thrown into the NHL before any seasoning time versus adults. (College or AHL time)

Kakko: 24g, 30a, 54 points - 151 games
Lafreniere: 20g, 12a, 32 points - 96 games

At first the stats don't seem great but i think we often forget that players reach their peak in the NHL at ages 23-24 so how are we to call recently turned 20 year olds "busts" playing in the best league in the world when they're not fully matured or acclimated to the new level of competition? We've had plenty of top 1o picks in recent years that have had slow starts and great careers after 4-5 seasons in the NHL and this not including season 2017 and up as those players have yet to play 4-5 seasons: Nash, Bouwmeester, Suter, Van Riemsdyk, Brassard, E. Kane, Hedman, Schenn, Brodin, Seguin, Dumba, Johansen, Nurse, Huberdeau, Scheifele, Couturier, Barkov, Lindholm, Ekblad, Bennett, Meier, Puljujarvi to name a few all started relatively slowly and picked up their play after 3-4 seasons in the NHL.

The worst part of it all is that most of these home posters ask for these players to be traded for lesser value parts. These guys are 20 years old. haven't even played 2 full season in the NHL. We'll see how things play out for the above mentioned duo but this seems to be the case all around when it comes to prospects and it doesn't make any sense.

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[StreetHawk]

There’s bust and the. There is disappointment.

people like to just use the word bust.

so far both kids are having disappointing starts to their nhl careers.

 

[GOilers88]

The mains are just hot take central. Wouldn't put much stock into a lot of the player evaluations. There's more trolling of teams and fanbases than there is general unbiased discussion.

Go to the team boards for that. Much more level headed assessments to be found amongst the rabble.

 

[FrozenJagrt]

Slight nitpick: you mentioned Rick Nash as a slow starter. He won the Rocket in his second season.

 

[lwvs84]

There’s bust and the. There is disappointment.

people like to just use the word bust.

so far both kids are having disappointing starts to their nhl careers.

I was going to say the same thing. I'd consider a bust a high pick that can't stick in the NHL. Most of the guys labeled busts are disappointments... NHL players but don't live up the hype/draft position

 

[WarriorofTime]

This post was a bust

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

There’s bust and the. There is disappointment.

people like to just use the word bust.

so far both kids are having disappointing starts to their nhl careers.

It's all so subjective that disappointment is a better/clearer word choice, IMO. I've seen bust and disappointment used interchangeably. There are people who argue whether guys like Daigle or Yakupov should be considered busts or just disappointments because they maintained a career for a decent amount of years.

Wikipedia says "a draft bust is a highly touted or highly selected draftee who does not meet expectations. This can be due to a variety of reasons, but the most often noted are injury and/or inability to perform at a professional level. A player is also regarded as a larger bust if more successful players are drafted after them."

 

[LionsHeart]

We had a couple of years of young players exploding in the league. The idea that some may take a little more time is unfathomable.

 

[JohanFranzenstein]

Personally I wait 5 years before I consider a prospect a "bust" (in relation to draft position of course) but that's just me.

 

[Dr Beinfest]

Slight nitpick: you mentioned Rick Nash as a slow starter. He won the Rocket in his second season.

One of my favorite Richard years ever with the absurd stats of only 41 goals to win it, somehow only getting 16 assists for a whopping low 57 points total, an incredibly-hard-to-achieve-even-on-bad-team -35, and a career’s-worth-of-PIM-by-Aleksander-Barkov of 87.
He wasn’t a slow starter though I agree, that was just a weird season.

 

[rangersfansince08]

@Edge who I believe has connection with people around the league said most people are not worried about them.

 

[alasania94]

There’s bust and the. There is disappointment.

people like to just use the word bust.

so far both kids are having disappointing starts to their nhl careers.

yeah i get how you can that but its mostly what comes after calling them busts. example trading them to another team for fringe 3rd/2nd line players. both are less than 2 seasons into their NHL careers. lets see where they’re at when they’re 23-24 you know?

 

[alasania94]

This post was a bust

you really burned me with this one man…

 

[Ducks in a row]

It's not the only tag overused.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I remember everyone calling Jesse Puljujaarvi a bust.

I mean he's huge, fast, strong as an ox, with a heavy shot, but most people considered him a bust at 19 including most Oiler fans.

 

[MoneyManny]

90% of prospects will indeed end up as busts. How many drafted players do you think will ever have any kind of impact in the league every year?

I think the term "bust" is underused if anything. The NHL is not doing itself any favors by setting the eligibility age to 18, the draft is way too much of a crapshoot.

 

[NightMist]

I think we must take into account a young players vaccination status and views on inclusivity and equity before naming anyone a "bust". It's obvious that those things are more important than goals, assists, +-, Calder trophies, and cups. It's all about diversity. We are all in this together. Lets not shame players just because they fail to play hockey well. No judgement zone in our new hockey culture utopia that we all want. Peace my comrades.

 

[UED]

it's not their stats that's the problem; they're young and have time to improve. it's the fact that they aren't improving that's alarming. Kakko has had the same production every year of his career and Lafreniere's is lower this year than last year.

 

[MoneyManny]

I think we must take into account a young players vaccination status and views on inclusivity and equity before naming anyone a "bust". It's obvious that those things are more important than goals, assists, +-, Calder trophies, and cups. It's all about diversity. We are all in this together. Lets not shame players just because they fail to play hockey well. No judgement zone in our new hockey culture utopia that we all want. Peace my comrades.

 

[Mattb124]

Bust = I finally watched them play a game and they didn't get a point.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

It's all relative to expectations. You can bust as a #1 overall pick and still be a fine NHLer.

 

[Garbageyuk]

Kakko: 24g, 30a, 54 points - 151 games
Lafreniere: 20g, 12a, 32 points - 96 games

Let's compare them with two of the most notorious busts of all time then:
Nail Yakupov: 55 points in his first 111 games
Alexander Daigle: 88 points in his first 131 games

Laf and Kakko are doing worse than those two did by quite a margin. The term "bust" might be overused on HF, but I'd say that It's looking pretty apt in the case of the guys in your OP.

 

[alasania94]

Let's compare them with two of the most notorious busts of all time then:
Nail Yakupov: 55 points in his first 111 games
Alexander Daigle: 88 points in his first 131 games

Laf and Kakko are doing worse than those two did by quite a margin. The term "bust" might be overused on HF, but I'd say that It's looking pretty apt in the case of the guys in your OP.

my point is first 100-150 games of a young players career isn’t indicative of how they will play 2-3 years down the line….

 

[Garbageyuk]

my point is first 100-150 games of a young players career isn’t indicative of how they will play 2-3 years down the line….

It usually is in the case of most highly drafted players.

 

[Aashir Mallik]

Bust status for me takes a couple years

I have both these guys in major disappointments, like I had Jack Hughes before last year. His rookie year was so shocking to me as it was the first time in a while since a rookie had let down that badly.

we got blessed with some Uber elite talent, like Mack, Mcdavid, Matthews and forget that sometimes it takes 2-3 years for talent to progress. I’ve since changed my outlook and usually take more than just 2 seasons into look.