Levitate
Registered User
- Jul 29, 2004
- 31,055
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Also Petr Nedved
Nedved had a solid career when you step back and look at it, though he never really became the go to guy for his teams or pushed himself into being a legitimate 1st liner. He was more of a good 2nd line center that could produce very well with the right linemates. His wrist shot was also awesomely good except that it took him forever to get it off so that he was constantly getting it blocked. If he was able to get a clear shot off, he could roof that thing from wherever, but good god did it take him forever to shoot it.
Nigel Dawes is one guy I thought would at least turn into a 25+25 guy in the NHL...a decent second liner. He had good hands, a pretty good shot (not super hard but accurate), and a knack for finding open spaces on the ice. He had a good first callup with the Rangers and seemed on track for scoring 20+ goals the next year and start to establish himself as a 2nd liner, but something just didn't happen. I'm not sure if it's work ethic or he just couldn't find the open space like he used to, but his skating isn't good enough to make up for his size at this point, and even though he's strong, he's just too small to make up for some of that size difference.
He's still ripping up the AHL so maybe he gets some more chances and can make the most of them, but it was just frustrating that he seemed to stall out in his development right after a decently promising rookie season.
Some names that I thought were supposed to be top six forwards in the NHL but never panned out:
Jared Aulin,
Hah, Jared Aulin...I remember when Sather traded Anson Carter for a half-priced Jagr. Then the Caps turned around and traded Carter for Aulin, and a vocal contingent of Rangers fans were pissed as hell about it, saying "why couldn't Sather have traded for Aulin? Guy has potential, Jagr is washed up and finished, horrible trade, etc".
Jagr then almost singlehandedly revives the franchise and sets the franchise record for points and goals the next season. Aulin busts hard.
Incredibly early, but by meeting the kid and how positive he was and how his career started off, I thought Nikita Filatov would be so much of an impact by now. It's so strange see a former #1 prospect with the most immense amount of talent not even be able to replicate his rookie season in the AHL. No one but maybe him know what's going on, I'd still love to him him become a force on any club. There is more than enough time for his career to be salvaged though.
I wonder what his value in a trade would be at this point. I would be quite interested in the Rangers taking a chance on him if the price wasn't too high, but I kind of feel like Columbus wouldn't want to sell low at this point, and the Rangers and Tortorella might be tired of enigmatic players from Russia at this point