Most overhyped prospects in recent memory?

[Smirnov2Chistov]

This is all subjective, but I feel like Brad Lambert and Marco Rossi are ones that definitely fit the bill off the top of my head

 

[kevsh]

Many Leaf fans were convinced he was better than his brother - Jason Robertson.

I'm sure someone probably said something - this is a message board with a lot of Leafs fans - but I don't recall anyone, ever saying anything remotely close to this. There certainly was some optimism among the majority as he had speed and a good release but again, in my recollection, no one was suggesting he was going to be a star, never mind top his brother's numbers.

Maybe we just have a different definition of "many"?

 

[CycloneSweep]

Nick Robertson, Philip Broberg, Dustin Wolf

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

He's still a decent and useful player, but Lafreniere. People were throwing around best prospect since McDavid, better than Matthews, Dahlin, Hughes, MacKinnon, and Eichel after his WJC. He simply never had the dynamic skill sets those guys had. Can he still be a useful top line player? Yeah. But, he's not really elite at any one thing.

He was supposed to walk into the league and comfortably be a top line winger. 4 years in, he still isn't that. Maybe he makes a big jump soon.

If we want to go back over 10 years, obviously names like Yakupov, Ryan Murray, etc.

I'm gonna avoid saying Nolan Patrick since while hyped, hard to separate what went wrong from a long string of injuries.

To be fair, the only difference between him and a top line winger is the PP. He’s T65 in 5 on 5 points for forwards. He has the third most on his own team.

I’m not disagreeing with your overall point, but he’s had a very good year and if he played PP1 would probably be on pace for like 70 points. He’s on pace for 50, which would be 11 more than last year. Hard to score more without playing PP1. I’m not sure his best seasons will ever get there, but the Huberdeau comparisons are starting to look more real. Lafreniere’s taken a little longer to break out, but has been a difference maker this season. This is also the first season anything’s really been expected of him, in terms of his role. Giving a player responsibility usually forces them to improve or sink.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

I'm sure someone probably said something - this is a message board with a lot of Leafs fans - but I don't recall anyone, ever saying anything remotely close to this. There certainly was some optimism among the majority as he had speed and a good release but again, in my recollection, no one was suggesting he was going to be a star, never mind top his brother's numbers.

Maybe we just have a different definition of "many"?

Robertson brothers: Jason vs Nick

Who is going to end up the better NHL player? Both highly skilled players with a lot of potential - Jason much bigger with great reach and vision, Nick is smaller but is a more dynamic goal scorer.

forums.hfboards.com

Take a look at the responses - this was just before Jason’s rookie season and just after Nick Robertson’s goal per game OHL season. It was a majority on this poll for Nick Robertson (around 60-65% at the time) until it was bumped after Jason exploded as a rookie and people realized how dumb they were.

 

[Brodeur]

Story is that Patrick Roy, recently hired coach of Colorado, absolutely insisted that Sakic and team draft MacKinnon instead of Jones. Avs fans can thank him for that.

Rewatching the draft footage, Bob McKenzie said something to the effect that MacKinnon was unanimous among their whole staff. So it might not have simply been a Patrick Roy thing.

It was an interesting draft year as MacKinnon/Jones went head-to-head at a couple points. MacKinnon started at #1. Then at WJC, Team USA won Gold and Jones had a bigger role than MacKinnon. Jones started to show up at #1 after that.

MacKinnon had a huge playoff and then outshined Jones at the Memorial Cup; MacKinnon had two hat tricks against Jones/Portland. Seemed like MacKinnon reclaimed #1 by the time Roy was officially hired.

 

[93LEAFS]

To be fair, the only difference between him and a top line winger is the PP. He’s T65 in 5 on 5 points for forwards. He has the third most on his own team.

I’m not disagreeing with your overall point, but he’s had a very good year and if he played PP1 would probably be on pace for like 70 points. He’s on pace for 50, which would be 11 more than last year. Hard to score more without playing PP1. I’m not sure his best seasons will ever get there, but the Huberdeau comparisons are starting to look more real. Lafreniere’s taken a little longer to break out, but has been a difference maker this season. This is also the first season anything’s really been expected of him, in terms of his role. Giving a player responsibility usually forces them to improve or sink.

He's a useful player, but I felt he was overhyped at the time too, and it's sort of shown itself in the NHL. He lacks the sort of rare skills the guys he got grouped in with had (Matthews size/strength/shot, Eichel's speed/size/strength, and MacKinnon's speed/strength).

When people throw around terms like best since McDavid, or group him with MacKinnon, Matthews and Dahlin as the best prospects since McDavid, it's gonna take a lot to catch-up to that. He was expected to walk in and be a high-level contributor. Picks that people group like that, should be immediate impact players on their ELC's. Doesn't make him a bad player, just mean's he got overhyped. Like, the expectation at the time was he'd be fighting it out for the best LWer in the league.

I'd say very high-picks tend to always have more hyped and them not quite hitting the mark is huge. Especially, 1OA in a decent class. You could argue guys like Kakko, Puljujarvi, Patrick, Glass, Turcotte, were bigger disappointments and they are valid arguments. I do feel Lafreniere's hype got out of control, I remember multiple people thinking I was nuts for saying he was closer to a Taylor Hall level prospect, than he was to that group of Stamkos/ Tavares/ MacKinnon/ Eichel/ Matthews/ Dahlin, which I'd say is the tier behind the Crosby/McDavid. The only one of those guys who lacked clear dynamic traits was Tavares, but he played a more valuable position, and I'd say had slightly higher hockey IQ.

 

[HanSolo]

He’s played 4 games in the NHL, let’s see if he sticks

I mean sure. No argument there but the kid was dynamic and helped Anaheim's transition game a ton.

I can only imagine the only reason he's not up right now is the Ducks would prefer to have him keep working on his defense in the AHL without higher risk of injury in the NHL.

Its just weird to see his name in a "most overhyped" list before he's gotten a full look in the big show.

 

[lawrence]

there are so many names we can go off of, but for the sake of discussions I too think, Lafreniere is the most overhyped prospect. I don't know you Rangers fans, and I've seen some of your comments. You guys not too happy about him. He's the best QMJHL prospect since Sidney Crosby although we kinda knew he's not going to be that good, best prospect since Mcdavid, and so for.

draft year, Lafreiner 112 points in 52 games
draft year, mcdavid 120 points in 47 games. He only had 8 more points while playing 5 less agmes, and Mcdavid also had teamates such as Dylon Strome, Debrincat and Dermont as line mates, who are all nhl regulars today.

Laf didn't have anyone. one can imagine if he had A dylon Strome or a debrincat as teamates he might have exceeded Mcdavids stats on draft year. that being said my conclusion?

Lafreniere most over hyped prospect due to the main fact, he has not come close what he was suppose to become, not even close, heck I don't even know if you can call him a second line winger? can you? I watched him play one game against the Canucks, and his skating wasn't even that good, what's wrong with that guy? just trade him already.

 

[JohanFranzenstein]

Leaf fans managed to convince me Jeremy Bracco was going to be a top line winger.

 

[MasterMatt25]

Tuomo Ruutu had insane hype back in the day. I remember someone calling him the best prospect in all of Europe

 

[Michoulicious]

I’ll chime in here, Nick Robertson.

At one point in time, it was almost insane how hyped he was by Leaf fans, especially around here. Many Leaf fans were convinced he was better than his brother - Jason Robertson.

Now injury’s haven’t helped but at one point the hype and attention around him was INSANE.

He was better than Caufield at some point, if I remember well.

 

[Michoulicious]

Ty Smith for the devils

I remember that one as well. Will Seamus Casey surpass him?

 

[Stelio Kontos]

Anyone rmb how hyped mantha was after hes D+1? People were hyping him as future 50 goal guy

Came here to say the same

 

[Bubbles]

The Brannstrom hype was outrageous. Ditto for Krebs

Krebs? Who overhyped Krebs? One guy on the internet?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

there are so many names we can go off of, but for the sake of discussions I too think, Lafreniere is the most overhyped prospect. I don't know you Rangers fans, and I've seen some of your comments. You guys not too happy about him. He's the best QMJHL prospect since Sidney Crosby although we kinda knew he's not going to be that good, best prospect since Mcdavid, and so for.

draft year, Lafreiner 112 points in 52 games
draft year, mcdavid 120 points in 47 games. He only had 8 more points while playing 5 less agmes, and Mcdavid also had teamates such as Dylon Strome, Debrincat and Dermont as line mates, who are all nhl regulars today.

Laf didn't have anyone. one can imagine if he had A dylon Strome or a debrincat as teamates he might have exceeded Mcdavids stats on draft year. that being said my conclusion?

Lafreniere most over hyped prospect due to the main fact, he has not come close what he was suppose to become, not even close, heck I don't even know if you can call him a second line winger? can you? I watched him play one game against the Canucks, and his skating wasn't even that good, what's wrong with that guy? just trade him already.

So because you watched a player against your team that makes what you say true even though it is not backed by the evidence of the season the player is having?

 

[ToDavid]

I'm sure someone probably said something - this is a message board with a lot of Leafs fans - but I don't recall anyone, ever saying anything remotely close to this. There certainly was some optimism among the majority as he had speed and a good release but again, in my recollection, no one was suggesting he was going to be a star, never mind top his brother's numbers.

Maybe we just have a different definition of "many"?

He seems to be specifically upset about a poll (which Nick lost) that was done in the summer 2020... before either of them were NHLers. Apparently some Leafs fans in that thread made the critical mistake of failing to predict that Jason Robertson was going to be a 40 goal/100 point player.

 

[jiboy]

Adam Larsson was hyped a lot during his draft year. Hes a good player but going from hype you’d think he was Dahlin.

 

[lawrence]

So because you watched a player against your team that makes what you say true even though it is not backed by the evidence of the season the player is having?

well no, i'm using stats as evidence right now. Clearly he's not performing up to par as a 1st overall pick, especially one that was that good in his draft year.

 

[93LEAFS]

He was better than Caufield at some point, if I remember well.

We can play this dumb game all day. I remember Habs fans saying Josh Brook was a better prospect than Sandin. Or how Galchenyuk should have been on Team North America over Matthews.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Dominant or record-setting draft seasons deserve hype. End of story

Zach Senyshyn was overhyped. Logan Stanley was overhyped. Liam Foudy definitely was overhyped. Philip Broberg was overhyped and he still is overhyped. Helge Grans was completely underserving of his draft-year rankings and his landing spot. Noel Gunler was loved by the stat nerds and they would not shut up about him, so mainstream rankings fell for it even though his SHL play was Tiger Woods soft. I drank the Jan Mysak Kool-Aid because Litvinov stunk and his P/60 was close to Necas’ in 2017, but clearly no longer a potential star as we assumed.

Nick Robertson was overhyped by Leafs fans after getting picked but he had a very good draft year for a mediocre team.

 

[The don godfather]

Dylan mclirath.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Lafreniere dominated the QMJHL in consecutive seasons and was a WJC MVP. Rimouski had nobody and it’s all been documented. I swear people act like the internet hasn’t been invented yet.

Dylan mclirath.

Good one. He beat up Petrovic and everyone went bananas.

 

[Bubbles]

Dominant or record-setting draft seasons deserve hype. End of story

Zach Senyshyn was overhyped.

2014-15

Soo Greyhounds

OHL

66

26

19

45

Bob McKenzie had him ranked at 40. Who overhyped him? His dad?

 

[WarriorofTime]

Much of the myth of Lafreniere was due to the draft lotto funkiness where it was known a team eliminated in the Play-Ins would get him.