Guys who never got a chance in the NHL

[Hockeyfrilla]

Janne Pesonen

 

[ChuckLefley]

This topic could have a lot of names of high scoring AHL players who were under six foot tall, during the 90’s and 00’s. It’s amazing how much talent was never given a real chance because NHL teams were obsessed with size.

Hopefully ITM doesn’t see this post and go on one of his page long tirades that have zero basis in reality or what the poster actually wrote. LOL

 

[HansonBro]

Mike Murphy.

 

[Hyack57]

Brett Sterling count?

 

[Jyssy]

Janne Ojanen

 

[Stive Morgan]

Darren Dietz. Two-way D who had 5 points and good defensive play in his 13 NHL games. Currently has 53 pts in 62 games in the KHL.

Could have been a good #4/#5

 

[The don godfather]

Zach hamill

 

[Hobnobs]

Anders Eldebrink and Jonathan Hedström

 

[MS]

As a Canuck fan, one that stands out is Chris O’Sullivan.

Played 11 games in Vancouver in 1998-99 and it was almost comical how much better of an outlet passer he was than everyone else on the team. Just beautiful tape-to-tape zone exits over and over again.

But his career fell right in the heart of the Dead Puck Era and guys like this who didn’t play physical and had 12 PIM/82 GP or whatever were shunned and typecast as soft even though his defensive play wasn’t bad at all. Teams instead carried atrocious players like Jason Strudwick for their ‘crease clearing physicality’ and watched them bleed goals.

Would be a top-4 defender today in the era of advanced stats and zone exit tracking.

 

[Eye of Ra]

mozyakin

 

[sr edler]

Janne Ojanen

Ojanen played 98 NHL games. That's at least somewhat of a chance. For European skill players (or whatever you would like to call them) I would say Thomas Rundqvist is probably a better choice. He only got 1 or 2 games in Montreal with the Canadiens in the middle of the 80s, spending rest of the season in the AHL. He later captained Sweden to a gold medal at the World Championships.

I'm not saying Rundqvist would have been a big hit in the NHL had they given him more games though. His Färjestad contemporaries Loob and B-Å Gustafsson were both better players and also had styles better suited for the NHL game. He probably could have hanged around though.

Regarding Jonathan Hedström (@Hobnobs), I don't think he was anything special. Peter Nordström was a better player and never got a serious chance with the Bruins, I think 1 game. I remember he was a little sour or bitter about it saying the only thing he learned in the AHL was new swearwords.

Eldebrink was a legitimate good player, but didn't he chose to go back to Sweden on voluntary premises?

 

[Hobnobs]

Ojanen played 98 NHL games. That's at least somewhat of a chance. For European skill players (or whatever you would like to call them) I would say Thomas Rundqvist is probably a better choice. He only got 1 or 2 games in Montreal with the Canadiens in the middle of the 80s, spending rest of the season in the AHL. He later captained Sweden to a gold medal at the World Championships.

I'm not saying Rundqvist would have been a big hit in the NHL had they given him more games though. His Färjestad contemporaries Loob and B-Å Gustafsson were both better players and also had styles better suited for the NHL game. He probably could have hanged around though.

Regarding Jonathan Hedström (@Hobnobs), I don't think he was anything special. Peter Nordström was a better player and never got a serious chance with the Bruins, I think 1 game. I remember he was a little sour or bitter about it saying the only thing he learned in the AHL was new swearwords.

Eldebrink was a legitimate good player, but didn't he chose to go back to Sweden on voluntary premises?

Rundqvist is a good one. Deserves a mention here. Nordström wasnt really better than Hedström. Its true though that he never got a chance in the NHL. Hedström on the other hand was bullied into eating disorders and depression (again) while in Anaheim, thats why I mentioned him. His career tanked completely after that. Scary stuff.

Eldebrink returned home because he never got to play significant minutes in the NHL and was sent back to AHL. Though he did get more chances to return (Demers wanted him to join both the Blues and the Habs) but chose to stay home because he had kids so I guess that rules him out of the thread.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Kinda a two parter..
Someone mentioned this guy Chris Valentine in some other thread. Dude scored 30g 37a for 67 points in 60 games as a rookie in '81-'82. He then somehow played most of the next season in the AHL, torching that league and putting up 17 points in 23 games when he was called up. Next year, 11 points, 22 games, so definitely a bit of a slide but still seemingly serviceable, even if it was the high scoring '80s. Still spent most of that year in the AHL though. After that the dude shipped out to Germany and just wrecked house there for a decade (103 points in 45 games one year) before calling it quits.

So

1) Anyone know the story there? Was his D that bad? Problems with management? Crazy to me that he put up 95 points in his first 105 games and that wasn't good enough.
2) Any players you can think of that just didn't get a fair shake in the NHL? What about those dudes who torched the AHL but just couldn't quite play at the NHL level?.

The knock on Chris Valentine was his poor skating (according to scouts) and that is why he was drafted so late (10th round). Valentine was really promising, but impatient. He bolted for Europe way too early. Düsseldorf offered him a better salary than he had in the NHL/AHL.

In Düsseldorf, Valentine teamed up with Peter-John Lee, a former first round draft pick in the NHL and a two-time 30+ goal scorer in the league. They had instant chemistry and formed a formidable duo. Valentine didn’t complain, he played less games in Europe and was handsomely paid for his service.
He thrived on the powerplays, where he was deadly. All-in-all he had a very successful playing career over in Europe.

Tony Hand was the Gretzky in the British League. Sather invited him to camp, would've made team but felt homesick.

Yeah, Hand have stated that he was homesick, and I heard that the North American mentality did not suit him that well. Those were different times back then, a lot tougher for Europeans than today.
Hand was talented, and could have made the NHL if he had just toughened it out a little.
One guy from the Edmonton Oilers organization (who shall remain nameless), told me (many years later) that Hand was almost lapped by Mark Messier when they were doing skating drills in training camp. Other than that Hand did pretty well in training camp and did not look out of place.

Alexander Khokhlachev.

World class talent, but a really shitty attitude spoiled his NHL-chances.

 

[Toene]

Marcel Paillé

 

[Jericho111091]

Erich Kuhnhackl

 

[crobro]

Dan Hodgson
Bruce Beaudreau
Rudi Hiti
PAUL Gardner
Scott Driscoll

 

[Puck Dogg]

Peter Lindmark - played in three Canada Cups for Sweden and won IIHF best goalie award twice. Lundqvist calls him his idol when growing up. Don't think Lindmark was ever even drafted.

 

[VanIslander]

Herb Carnegie.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Josh Holden

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Falls more into the category of guy you liked on your junior team and always thought should have been given more of a shot in the NHL, but to me Ryan Parent never got a reasonable look at the NHL level. Although now that I see his possession numbers, he really was a boat anchor in that regard, maybe the analytics revolution killed his career

 

[Mayor Bee]

[deleted]

 

[ForsbergForever]

Erich Kuhnhackl

I don't think he applies to this thread, it was he who turned his back on the NHL. Kuhnhackel turned down multiple huge contract offers from NHL teams so he could stay in Germany and dominate the local league instead of competing against higher caliber talent in North America.

 

[RegDunlop]

The knock on Chris Valentine was his poor skating (according to scouts) and that is why he was drafted so late (10th round). Valentine was really promising, but impatient. He bolted for Europe way too early. Düsseldorf offered him a better salary than he had in the NHL/AHL.

In Düsseldorf, Valentine teamed up with Peter-John Lee, a former first round draft pick in the NHL and a two-time 30+ goal scorer in the league. They had instant chemistry and formed a formidable duo. Valentine didn’t complain, he played less games in Europe and was handsomely paid for his service.
He thrived on the powerplays, where he was deadly. All-in-all he had a very successful playing career over in Europe.



Yeah, Hand have stated that he was homesick, and I heard that the North American mentality did not suit him that well. Those were different times back then, a lot tougher for Europeans than today.
Hand was talented, and could have made the NHL if he had just toughened it out a little.
One guy from the Edmonton Oilers organization (who shall remain nameless), told me (many years later) that Hand was almost lapped by Mark Messier when they were doing skating drills in training camp. Other than that Hand did pretty well in training camp and did not look out of place.



World class talent, but a really ****ty attitude spoiled his NHL-chances.

I don't tecall a lot about Hand except there was hype around him. I do remember thinking not much of what I did see though.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Zellio Toppazzini

If not for playing in the O6 era, he would've been an NHL star (and arguably should've been anyway)

AHL hall of famer (played from 1948 to 1964)

310-476-786 in 745 games (mostly with the Providence Reds)
16-28-44 in 40 playoff games

Only got 1 significant crack at the NHL, 1950-51. Put up 14-14-28 in 59 games @ 21 years old

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

feel like mika noronen was a big talent who never got his shot. never got the fair opportunity to succeed or opportunity to develop that biron, then miller did in buffalo, then vancouver picks him up at the deadline and crawford refuses to play him.

freakin' alex auld got 16 out of 18 starts after nonis dropped a 2nd round pick on noronen at the deadline. of course, the team went 7-9-2 to finish in 9th place.