HFSJ Quarantine Survival: Burning Question #3: Who is the Sharks' all time biggest One-Hit Wonder?

[The Nemesis]

Like the trivia section, I've decided to put each question into a new thread just to keep things a little more segmented and easier to both follow and jump in if you're new to the debates. So with that we launch the 3rd Burning Question, which I have shamelessly stolen from a line of related columns being pumped out by The Athletic over the last few days:

Which player is, for you, the biggest or most interesting One-Hit Wonder in franchise history?

I'm going to keep what constitutes a proper one-hit wonder open-ended and up to you as long as you can support your answer. It could be a guy who plays a long time at an acceptable level but has a significant and aberrant jump in their seasonal production/performance somewhere in their careers. It could be a guy that starts out with a tone of hype, promise, and tantalizing result before flaming out and never amounting to anything. It could be a guy whose entire career can be distilled down to a brief supernova event that puts them on the map with a career of anonymity surrounding it (or no career at all). Do guys whose potential is wasted by injury count? That's up to you.

For the purposes of discussion a One-Hit Wonder is what you make of it. Short career or long. Unremarkable otherwise or non-existent. Whole season of exceptional performance vs otherworldly surge vs brief, indelible signature moment. The only limit is by the case you can make for your choice.

I look forward to seeing what everyone can suggest, and if anyone can make compelling cases as to why certain players maybe don't deserve such recognition.

Click to read more...

 

[hohosaregood]

Obvious one would be Cheechoo but I'd say Paul Martin should be a candidate for this one. Martin was fantastic in that 2015-2016 season and started to fall off pretty quickly after that. Granted, he was nearing the end of his career period. Also Tommy Wingels' whole career is basically based on a half season of really strong play.

 

[slocal]

The Missing Link. He was a myth until YouTube hosted videos that allowed me to prove to friends how much of an animal he was. Such a brief career, but left a lasting impression on me after all these years. And yes, @The Nemesis, Gaetz was the only "Link" who ever kicked ass.

He's still somewhere out there, eating hamburgers and denting asphalt.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Obvious one would be Cheechoo but I'd say Paul Martin should be a candidate for this one. Martin was fantastic in that 2015-2016 season and started to fall off pretty quickly after that. Granted, he was nearing the end of his career period. Also Tommy Wingels' whole career is basically based on a half season of really strong play.

I don't think Cheechoo is a one-hit wonder with a 28 and 37 goal season bookending his Rocket Richard year. I think Matt Carle is the biggest one hit wonder. Had a great rookie season then had the sophomore slump and then dealt for Boyle.

 

[WTFetus]

Heatley

 

[slocal]

Heatley

Forgot about Dany. Hat trick on his first night teased us so hard.

 

[OrrNumber4]

Nolan Schaefer
Nils Ekman
Alyn McCauley
Sandis Ozolinsh
Tom Preissing
Jim Fahey
Matt Carle
Andrei Zyuzin
Devin Setoguchi

 

[The Nemesis]

Obvious one would be Cheechoo but I'd say Paul Martin should be a candidate for this one. Martin was fantastic in that 2015-2016 season and started to fall off pretty quickly after that. Granted, he was nearing the end of his career period. Also Tommy Wingels' whole career is basically based on a half season of really strong play.

I'm inclined to exclude Cheechoo. He was on the Athletic's NHL list, but the gist of his segment was essentially "people don't realize he really doesn't fit the category"

Yeah, he scored 50 goals, but he had a near 30-goal season the year before while playing on a 3rd line without a Joe Thornton type to feed him passes. And then the year after his Richard season he scored 37. And after that he was at a nearly 30-goal pace that was limited by games. Obviously 56 goals is a crazy peak, but he was an established goal-scorer who had basically 4 pretty good (or better) seasons out of the 6-and-a-bit years he managed to play in the league before injuries robbed him of enough skating ability to keep up.



I didn't want to put out a suggestion in post #1, but if we want supernovas what about Nolan Schaefer?

He comes into a game on Oct 26, 2005 after Toskala hurts himself (Nabokov is already out with an injury) and makes 12 saves in 13 shots. He then goes:

21/25 for a win against LA in his first career start
23/25 the next night for a win vs Calgary
21/23 to beat the Predators
21 save shutout vs the Ducks
21/24 for his first career loss vs the Wild

After that Nabby and Toskala were varying degrees of healthy as the team went into the tank, losing 10 straight on their way to Schaefer's final NHL appearance, spending half a period of the December 2, 2005 game mopping up for a hurt (again) Nabokov in the debut game of some choking loser DW picked up off the Boston scrap-heap.

His final career line:

7 games played (5 starts), 5-1 record, 1.88 carer GAA, .920 career Sv% (11 goals on 138 shots), 1 shutout

After that he returned to the minors for a few years and finished up in Europe, never again coming close to the NHL or replicating that surge of cult hero relevance ever again.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Miroslav Zalasak scored a great goal and had a great celebration after in his 1st game.

Never scored an nhl goal again.

 

[Alaskanice]

Jan Caloun.
Scored 4 goals on his first 4 shots in the NHL. Thought he would be a stellar scorer scoring 11 points in 11 games. He was exciting then gone.

 

[Sharks99]

watch

Best Shark behind Soupy.

 

[WTFetus]

watch

Best Shark behind Soupy.

Campbell is a good choice too. 19 points in 20 games and then he just disappeared the next season.

 

[The Nemesis]

Campbell is a good choice too. 19 points in 20 games and then he just disappeared the next season.

Who can blame him for wanting go home. I'm sure it was awfully tempting to play in his back yard in Chicago.

...wait, he's from where?

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Nolan Schaefer. That 5 game stretch was magical, all close and most with late game heroics


For a whole season i'll say Tom Preissing

 

[Friday]

Devin Setoguchi had 65 points his first full season in 08/09 and then never sniffed even 42 points again. That 08/09 season looked like he was going to be a legit force

 

[Gecklund]

Benn Ferriero. 2011 OT goal against Detroit.

 

[Barrie22]

Benn Ferriero. 2011 OT goal against Detroit.

Because he scored 1 lucky goal against detroit makes him a 1 hit wonder?

To be a 1 hit wonder you actually have to do something that is a wonder.

 

[Gecklund]

Because he scored 1 lucky goal against detroit makes him a 1 hit wonder?

To be a 1 hit wonder you actually have to do something that is a wonder.

You literally remember him for a single thing. Does anyone remember him for anything else? Sounds like a one hit wonder to me.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

You literally remember him for a single thing. Does anyone remember him for anything else? Sounds like a one hit wonder to me.

Ed Belfour, 1 hit wonder

 

[Barrie22]

You literally remember him for a single thing. Does anyone remember him for anything else? Sounds like a one hit wonder to me.

Until you brought up his name no i did not remember him.

 

[The Nemesis]

Ed Belfour, 1 hit wonder

Nah man, I remember Belfour for sucking, bailing, and getting run over by Nolan. So that's like a 3-hit wonder.

 

[Coily]

There is only one answer to this question and it is Troy Grosenick.
2 games, 1 shutout (45 saves) where he basically had no help and his other game I don't even remember being played.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Nah man, I remember Belfour for sucking, bailing, and getting run over by Nolan. So that's like a 3-hit wonder.

Yeah but Nolan slamming him wasnt when Belfour was on the Sharks, anyway I was being facetious just in case

 

[RussianShark]

Bill's Guerin's hat trick against the Blackhawks on national television. Aside from that, dude was a huge liablity and made some series-changing mistakes in our own zone against the Red Wings in round 2.


Rinse & repeat the next season with trading for Brian Campbell as a rental. Scores a beauty, puts up great numbers during a 20 game stretch where the Sharks don't lose a single game in regulation... and then becomes a liability in the playoffs leading to a third straight round 2 game 6 exit.


Speaking of the Campbell trade... Steve Bernier was one of the biggest flash-in-a pan players. Absolutely lit it up as a 20-year old rookie and looked like a promising power forward. That Michalek, Marleau, Bernier line was a pleasure to watch.

 

[The Nemesis]

My enduring Bill Guerin memory is Ehrhoff rearranging his face.