Hall of Fame talents who faded into oblivion

[KMart27]

Esa Tikkanen through the first half of his career was probably on pace to at least get some Hall of Fame consideration. Strong two way player, lots of playoff success, unique. Then he started bouncing around the league and only had stretches where he got back to his previous level.

 

[Canadiens1958]

I think you’re incorrect.

Heatley was an up and coming star long before he came to Ottawa and Jason Spezza was both an underage exception to the OHL as well as one of the few 16 year old WJC players of all time.

Heatley and Spezza were both drafted 2nd overall.

Both were highly anticipated talents with enormous potential.

I agree that it is surprising that the guy drafted 133rd overall ended up as the best player of the trio.

2nd overall was the hilite of their career. Other than playing with Alfie they did not integrate a line or a team. Just individual talents, briefly.

 

[streitz]

2nd overall was the hilite of their career. Other than playing with Alfie they did not integrate a line or a team. Just individual talents, briefly.

I'm not really a Heatley fan, I always found his game lacking.

That being said.
You do realize he won the calder then had 89 points in 77 games in his 2nd year on junk thrashers teams, right?

 

[Dr John Carlson]

A good choice. I was actually shocked Green didn't make Team Canada in 2010. But just look at his stats post 2010, they are the epitome of "dropping off a cliff". I know Washington changed their style a bit, because Ovechkin's numbers took a dive too, but Green's just plummeted and never recovered.

Shoulders made of glass, a reluctance to shoot in his later Caps years due to a myriad of upper body injuries, emergence of Carlson taking away prime ES minutes with Ovechkin/Backstrom... a lot of things went wrong for him.

 

[YEM]

Tim Kerr had 329 goals and 578 points at the age of 29

 

[The Panther]

Bobby Carpenter peaked at age 21-22, and then came crashing down, despite a solid, 17-season career.

Carpenter's GPG 1981 to 1985 (aged 18 to 22): 0.45, includes three 30+ goal seasons (incl. a 53-goal season)

Carpenter's GPG 1985 to 1999 (aged 22 to 35): 0.20, never scoring more than 27 goals

What exactly happened to him in summer 1985? He dropped from 53 goals to 27, 96 points to 56, and from +20 to -12 despite the team actually being better in the latter season. One full year after that 53-goal season, he scored 9 in 60 games!

 

[NyQuil]

2nd overall was the hilite of their career. Other than playing with Alfie they did not integrate a line or a team. Just individual talents, briefly.

One played on an expansion team and the other inherited a mediocre line up.

Again, I think you’re missing the boat.

Ultimately, they disappointed career-wise with respect to the talent level they demonstrated.

Heatley wasn’t the same after the accident and fell off a cliff rapidly while Spezza never really overcame his chronic back issues.

To say that they were never expected to potentially become HoFers is disingenuous.

 

[Herby]

Jimmy Carson.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Ziggy Palffy played the bulk of his career in the dead puck era and still finished with 329 goals and 713 points in 684 regular season games (9/10/19 in 24 playoff games, for added measure), but only played 77 games after turning 30 due to shoulder problems, and retired from the NHL mid-season in 2006 (when he was still a point-per-game player).

He did eventually return and finish up his career in Slovakia and put up damned good numbers in the process, but it's very obviously not the same thing. But his shoulder problems did a number on his chances at the Hall of Fame, surely.

 

[trentmccleary]

Sergei Samsonov
At 14-15 yo, TSN shows clips of him in some sort of exhibition tournament with Russia visiting Canada. It looked like Pavel Bure skating through 9 pylons.

Gets drafted 8th overall in 1997.
Wins the Calder Trophy with 47 points in 1997-98.
Gets up to 75 points in 82gp and 70 points in 74gp in years 4&5.
Plays 8 games in year 6 due to a wrist injury & surgery.
Falls off of a cliff after that.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Sergei Samsonov
At 14-15 yo, TSN shows clips of him in some sort of exhibition tournament with Russia visiting Canada. It looked like Pavel Bure skating through 9 pylons.

Gets drafted 8th overall in 1997.
Wins the Calder Trophy with 47 points in 1997-98.
Gets up to 75 points in 82gp and 70 points in 74gp in years 4&5.
Plays 8 games in year 6 due to a wrist injury & surgery.
Falls off of a cliff after that.

wrist injury killed his career.

he's one of the best stickhandlers i can remember seeing. but he had a bad wrist injury that killed his ability and made him mortal

 

[steve141]

Mogilny and Selanne were roughly the same age, and had roughly the same stat line in 1993, tying for first in goals. Selanne went on to have a long HHOF career, Mogilny was never the same.

 

[FrozenJagrt]

How about Phaneuf? Came in looking like Scott Stevens (the Washington version). Piled up points and goals in his first three seasons, finishing third in Calder voting to Ovechkin and Crosby, also finishing second to Lidstrom in Norris voting in his third season.

Fell off a cliff after that. Traded to Toronto in his fifth season with hopes that he'd bounce back, named captain of the storied franchise in the offseason. Had a couple solid seasons, but never really got back to the level he showed early on.

 

[Neutrinos]

Mogilny and Selanne were roughly the same age, and had roughly the same stat line in 1993, tying for first in goals. Selanne went on to have a long HHOF career, Mogilny was never the same.

Mogilny was a 2nd Team All-Star in '96 after he finished 3rd in goals (behind Lemieux & Jagr), and finished tied with Fedorov for 9th in league scoring

In '01 he was 6th in goals with the Devils

 

[Mickey Marner]

How about Phaneuf? Came in looking like Scott Stevens (the Washington version). Piled up points and goals in his first three seasons, finishing third in Calder voting to Ovechkin and Crosby, also finishing second to Lidstrom in Norris voting in his third season.

Fell off a cliff after that. Traded to Toronto in his fifth season with hopes that he'd bounce back, named captain of the storied franchise in the offseason. Had a couple solid seasons, but never really got back to the level he showed early on.

I remember when Crosby vs Ovechkin vs Phaneuf was a serious question.

THN: Ovechkin, Crosby, Phaneuf - Who would you choose?

 

[sharkhawk]

Joe juneau

 

[mrhockey193195]

Through 96-97, it wouldn't have been a stretch to say Mike Richter was trending towards a HOF career. He certainly had the talent for it...arguably the most physically gifted goalie I've ever seen, perhaps behind only Hasek. His career fell off a cliff (partially due to injuries) after that, minus a couple exceptions (namely - the 02 olympics).

 

[ted2019]

Bobby Carpenter peaked at age 21-22, and then came crashing down, despite a solid, 17-season career.

Carpenter's GPG 1981 to 1985 (aged 18 to 22): 0.45, includes three 30+ goal seasons (incl. a 53-goal season)

Carpenter's GPG 1985 to 1999 (aged 22 to 35): 0.20, never scoring more than 27 goals

What exactly happened to him in summer 1985? He dropped from 53 goals to 27, 96 points to 56, and from +20 to -12 despite the team actually being better in the latter season. One full year after that 53-goal season, he scored 9 in 60 games!

The 1st player I thought of when I saw this thread.

 

[ted2019]

How about Phaneuf? Came in looking like Scott Stevens (the Washington version). Piled up points and goals in his first three seasons, finishing third in Calder voting to Ovechkin and Crosby, also finishing second to Lidstrom in Norris voting in his third season.

Fell off a cliff after that. Traded to Toronto in his fifth season with hopes that he'd bounce back, named captain of the storied franchise in the offseason. Had a couple solid seasons, but never really got back to the level he showed early on.

Don't think that Dion liked having pressure on his shoulders.

 

[ted2019]

Mike Richards was a strong 2 way shutdown center until he was 25 years old. Got traded from the Flyers because of his "social life" and went downhill after that. Didn't want to be a leader or captain of a team, he just wanted to blend in. Was considered the 2nd coming of Bobby Clarke in Philly.

I have another one, what about Mike Rogers? Started in the WHA and then went to the NHL when he was 25 when Hartford joined. 2 105 point seasons with the Whalers, got traded to the Rangers and put up 103 and then 76 points. Had 2 more decent seasons in New York, then the wheels fell off at age 31 and played 17 games between the Rangers & Oilers. Sent down to the AHL and then played 1 more season in 1986-87 for HC Ambri-Piotta in the Swiss league. Retired at age 32.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Jimmy Carson.

254 goals before the age of 25. Washed up before he turned 26.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Jim Carey. First two years, took the league by storm. Winner of the Vezina at 21. Fell off the face off the earth after that and was out of the NHL by the age of 25.

 

[alko]

Bryan Berard

If not this freaking eye injury, what could it be?

 

[feffan]

Markus Naslund is another name that comes to mind. Was arguably the best player in the years 2001-'04. How can a player who might be the best over three seasons not only not make the HHOF but be irrelevant two years later?

That´s not really hard to answer. The injuries (Naslund got an minor concussion and an hyper-extended elbow) from the hit by Moore. It made his wrist shot mortal. His game was built on that wrist shot, as the fear of it also opened up other plays when not choosing it. At the time he lead the scoring race. The hit was on 16th february. After that he scored 5 goals, 11 assists for 16 TP in 19 GP. He scored only 2 goals in the first 15 games after coming back from the hit. And before the hit his line was 60GP 30G 39A 69TP. That´s an 41 goal 94TP pace. Good for the Art Ross that season.

 

[McGuillicuddy]

And how about Jose Theodore?

I think this is a good one. I used to subscribe to Goalie's World magazine back in the day and they did a feature on Theodore which basically painted him as the new paradigm in goaltending for all future goalies to follow! Now this was a Quebec-based publication who might not have been completely unbiased (Jose was a Quebecois star playing for Les Glorieux after all) but clearly the opinion was that Theodore was going to be a dominant goalie in the league for some time.

In the end he had one huge season (2001-02: Vezina, Hart, and strangely only 2nd All-star) and maybe 1 other above average season (2003-04), and then a bunch of middle-of-the-road or below. He was basically done being an elite player by 28 at a time when goalies were being dominant well into their 30s.