Jimmy Carson... Why did his career never take off?

[Kunta Kinte]

I found article saying how he was a disappointment in Edmonton... I mean he finished the season 9th in league scoring. How having a top-10 scorer is a disappointment.. People thought he was Gretzky?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I found article saying how he was a disappointment in Edmonton... I mean he finished the season 9th in league scoring. How having a top-10 scorer is a disappointment.. People thought he was Gretzky?

i'm guessing disappointment means the playoffs, where he scored one single even-strength point, had zero points of any kind in the last three games as LA came back from a 3-1 deficit, and had an identical statline to normand lacombe.

 

[The Panther]

He wasn't disappointing in terms of season stats (49 goals). But he was losing focus as the season went along.

At one point from late October to mid-December, he scored 25 goals in 24 games. Then, he had 8 in the final 25 games, and 2 in 7 playoff games with only 1 assist.

 

[kakeurpola]

I don't have first hand knowledge about his antics, but I recall seeing a thread about Carson somewhere (maybe here, maybe in OilersNation) and many posters suggested that Carson had a habit of scoring for Oilers at times when it mattered the least, you know a couple of late consolation goals in a landslide loss.

 

[The Panther]

Carson's Annus Mirabilis was 1988. He was never better.

He scored 33 goals in 41 games for L.A. in the first half of 1988, followed by 5 playoff goals in 5 games against (1st overall) Calgary in the playoffs. So, that's 38 goals in 46 games.

Then, with Edmonton, he scored 30 goals in 38 games before 1988 ran out.


So, in sum, in the calendar year 1988, Jimmy Carson scored 68 goals in 84 games, and this is before he was legally old enough to drink in most states.

And by age 28, he was in the IHL.