Is career of Roman Hamrlik disappointment?

[C4R105]

Drafter 1st overall, what was expected of him going into the NHL ?

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[Nick Hansen]

Hello Vinnie,

yes, his career was a disappointment overall even though he was a solid and good defenseman.

 

[koyvoo]

In relation to draft position and expectations to be a franchise cornerstone, sure he was. But the guy played 1395 career regular season games. Not many players have accomplished that. I’m not sure his career can be considered disappointing.

 

[The Macho King]

Is Stamkos next?

But yes in that he was drafted 1st overall and was never an impact dman.

 

[Seph]

If you only look at him being a #1 overall pick, then you could certainly make the case that he's a disappointment. But if you look at that draft as a whole, he is probably a top 5 player from it -- I'd really only take Khabibulin and Lehtinen for sure over him, who didn't even go in the top 3 rounds, and I'd consider taking Gonchar or Stillman, but those are close. And if you look at the rest of the top 5 picks, i.e. the guys who could actually be considered to take at that spot (Yashin, Rathje, Warriner and Kasparaitis), he probably came the closest of any of them to being worthy of taken #1, which IMO, make him not a disappointment so much as the product of a weak draft year.

In relation to draft position and expectations to be a franchise cornerstone, sure he was. But the guy played 1395 career regular season games. Not many players have accomplished that. I’m not sure his career can be considered disappointing.

He's also 31st in all time points by a defenseman (though Chara and Burns will probably push him to 33rd before the season is over) and 36th in goals. Only 3 forwards from his draft class ended up with more points. Also, he was strong defensively and played a physical game. In his prime, he was a pretty legit #1 dman, though admittedly never an elite one.

 

[Stephen]

I thought Todd Warriner was the favorite to go first overall that year, so Hamrlik was a surprise pick (though not as good as Alexei Yashin who went second). However, as the first pick for a new franchise and a defenseman, people expected him to be more of a franchise cornerstone like a Denis Potvin, so he really fell short in that regard.

 

[Elvs]

Did any defenseman picked #1 overall ever live up to their draft position other than Denis Potvin?

 

[Michael Farkas]

He did, if he was the guy that clobbered Roenick in that ASG like 20 years ago haha

 

[Seph]

I thought Todd Warriner was the favorite to go first overall that year, so Hamrlik was a surprise pick (though not as good as Alexei Yashin who went second). However, as the first pick for a new franchise and a defenseman, people expected him to be more of a franchise cornerstone like a Denis Potvin, so he really fell short in that regard.

Have to disagree with you that Yashin was better. Yes, Yashin put up more offense in his 4 best seasons, but even then, if we look where Yashin finished in the scoring race for forwards, it really wasn't any better than the best 5 years offensively Hamrlik's career when looking at where he finished amongst defensemen in scoring. Here's all the times either of them finished in the top 30 for points by a forward or defenseman and where they ranked:

Yashin: 6th ('99), 11th ('01), 14th ('02), 18th ('98), 27th ('97)
Hamrlik: 9th ('96), 11th ('00), 16th ('03), 17th ('01), 18th ('97), 21st ('02), 23rd ('98), 30th ('99)

These are pretty comparable, really. I'll give Yashin the edge for his Hart nominated season, but that aside, he doesn't hold much of an edge in the top 4 seasons, whereas Hamrlik has a huge edge when comparing the next 4 best seasons after that. But also, this is just looking at offense, which was only part of Hamrlik's game, whereas offense was literally the only thing that Yashin contributed. Even when Hamrlik wasn't putting up points, he was contributing with strong defensive play and hitting. He also wasn't a problem in the lockerroom or with contracts. So though I'd give Yashin the edge offensively in his prime, that Hamrlik had a notably longer prime, was better overall during it, and wasn't a headache to deal with, makes him the much better player in the end for me.

 

[Neutrinos]

Did any defenseman picked #1 overall ever live up to their draft position other than Denis Potvin?

Jovanovski maybe

 

[Michael Farkas]

Sarcasm?

 

[FerrisRox]

Drafter 1st overall, what was expected of him going into the NHL ?

Not in the slightest. He was a fantastic defenseman and had an excellent career.

 

[Nocashstyle]

I find it difficult to consider a player who played almost 1400 NHL games a disappointment. He may not have been a perennial Norris contender....but he was still doing something right to have the career he did.

 

[tony d]

For a #1 pick, yes. Still the guy had a very good career just not worthy of a #1 pick.

 

[VanIslander]

Gawd i dread the TOI praise for him to come from a certain longtime poster.

Zhitnik was awful defensively outside of big bodychecks. Yet Alexei was better than Roman by my eye test.

Hamrlik and Phaneuf deserve to be talked about in the same breath, and not in a good way.

 

[puckpilot]

No, not a disappointment. That draft was supposed to be a weak draft. As mentioned, Warriner was supposed to go 1st, and nobody was expecting superstar out of him. Just look at #5, Darius Kasparaitis. I could be wrong on this, but I believe this was his second year of availability. Every other team had passed on him the year before.

And if you look at that first round, Yashin was as close to a superstar as one could get, but he was a bit of a flake. Then there was Gonchar, who played 1300+ games. The thing with him was nobody expected any offence out of him. He wasn't supposed to be a point producer, but he surprised.

Everyone else in the 1st and 2nd rounds that became something were all serviceable players, but again, no superstars, or really, any stars. Outside of Yashin, nobody reached 300 goals. So getting a 1300 game solid defensman, that produced at a reasonable clip in his prime, isn't something to sneeze at.

Not all 1st overalls picks are expected to be superstars.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

hamrlik, rob ramage, rick green, all long respectable careers. all imo far ahead of erik johnson unless he somehow jumps a level as he gets older.

is bouwmeester a good comp?

 

[Thenameless]

I'll give Yashin the edge for his Hart nominated season,

Yashin was certainly the most talented from that draft year. Even though Daigle was supposed to become the league's now Golden Boy, it was evident at the time that Ottawa's best player was Yashin. There were a few years there where Yashin was really nudging some of the top tier forwards - if only he had a better head on his shoulders.

 

[Jim MacDonald]

I gave the eyeball test to Hamrlik's numbers and can't get over the high minus (-49) for his career....but want to cut him some slack because the beginning of his career was with Tampa....a good amount of games played for a D man....but expected maybe a touch better offensive numbers, even coming from the D position.

 

[ImNeverWrong]

No, Hamrlik was a solid dman and defensively responsible for many many seasons after his offense started to slow down.
- In regards to his draft, he was 5th in total points...only 3 forwards and Gonchar had more.
- Ranked first in total games played from his draft class.
- Ranks 14th in all times games played by a dman
- Ranks 31st in all time pts by a dman.

That's a very good first overall pick.

Edit: YAH What SEPH said.

 

[seventieslord]

Gawd i dread the TOI praise for him to come from a certain longtime poster.

Zhitnik was awful defensively outside of big bodychecks. Yet Alexei was better than Roman by my eye test.

Hamrlik and Phaneuf deserve to be talked about in the same breath, and not in a good way.

Yeah cause let's just talk about the points he scored, and compare where he ranked among points by defesemen compared to Yashin's ranks among forwards, cause that's the best way to gauge a defenseman's value...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

all-time games played list

19. joe thornton, 1,510+ GP
20. mike modano, 1,499 GP
41. hamrlik, 1,395 GP
53. sundin, 1,346 GP
65. turgeon, 1,294 GP
105. lecavalier, 1,212 GP
109. nolan, 1,200 GP
119. hawerchuk, 1,188 GP
155. jovanovski, 1,128 GP
160. lafleur, 1,126 GP


all-time games played by a defenseman

Rk	Player	GP	Tm	Pos
1	Chris Chelios*	1651	TOT	D
2	Scott Stevens*	1635	TOT	D
3	Larry Murphy*	1615	TOT	D
4	Ray Bourque*	1612	TOT	D
5	Nicklas Lidstrom*	1564	DET	D
6	Phil Housley*	1495	TOT	D
7	Glen Wesley	1457	TOT	D
8	Tim Horton*	1445	TOT	D
9	Zdeno Chara	1441	TOT	D
10	Luke Richardson	1417	TOT	D
11	Al MacInnis*	1416	TOT	D
12	Harry Howell*	1411	TOT	D
13	Paul Coffey*	1409	TOT	D
14	Roman Hamrlik	1395	TOT	D
15	Larry Robinson*	1384	TOT	D

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

1992 draft

Overall	Player	GP ▼
1	Roman Hamrlik	1395
14	Sergei Gonchar	1301
117	Adrian Aucoin	1108
158	Ian Laperriere	1083
65	Kirk Maltby	1072
6	Cory Stillman	1025
18	Jason Smith	1008
186	Stephane Yelle	991
19	Martin Straka	954
68	Craig Rivet	923
48	Mattias Norstrom	903
88	Jere Lehtinen	875
40	Michael Peca	864
5	Darius Kasparaitis	863
2	Alexei Yashin	850

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Brunomics]

I thought he was really good on the isles. But other than that I have no clue about his career.

 

[Big Phil]

I don't know if it was a disappointment as much as we think. Those were some bad drafts in the early to mid 1990s. Think 1992 and 1994 right off the bat. Then 1995 and 1996. All 4 had a defenseman go #1 overall that didn't have a "great" career but in some cases serviceable. The thing with going #1 as a defenseman is that you get the tag "Future Norris winner" attached to you whether you like it or not. Did Hamrlik get this? I can't remember, but everyone else does. Bouwmeester did. You'd have looked foolish if you predicted Bouwmeester would NEVER win the Norris. In 2008 they said the same thing about Doughty, and were right about it.

I'll say Hamrlik was a good defenseman. Not great and not what you may expect out of a #1 guy, but to be honest there are weak drafts that you know are weak at the time and that end up being weak historically. 1992 was one of those drafts. So based on that draft, no, he is not a disappointment.

I had to do a double take, in 1996 he skyrocketed in points with 65 after his first three years in the NHL of no more than 23. Yet that was his peak and he never came close again. It was the only season he had any Norris votes, finishing 7th.