Players Who Hurt Their Teams/Their Legacies By Not Retiring/Ending Their Careers Sooner

brachyrynchos

Registered User
Apr 10, 2017
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Certainly Paul Coffey bounced around a lot his last few years, and certainly he passed his prime after the '96 World Cup, but was he really that bad in his twilight years?

In sum, his Hartford, Philly, Chicago, Caroline, Boston (1996-2000) stats go like this:
255GP: 24G + 97A = 121PTS (-5). His stats in 24 playoff games are similar.

I mean, it's well off his good years, but it's not that bad! He was getting 1 point every 2 games in the dead-puck era as a pretty old guy.

He certainly wasn't his old self, but the stats don't suggest he was terrible or anything. Any particular memories of him in those years?
It seemed me that he can still skate, and like you mentioned, his numbers were decent. A nomadic mercenary in his later years who's style wasn't being coached anymore, Coffey wasn't a system kind of player, and as the rink seemed to get smaller he wasn't able to play his game as well. A victim of mileage and a new NHL era.
 

VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
Sep 4, 2004
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Gaborik was a 40-goal scoring 2nd team NHL all-star as a 30 year old after his 11th season. If he had retired then, he'd be mentioned as HHOF caliber in the same breathe as a Ziggy Palffy.

Instead, he has spent the last six seasons in his thirties limping around the league playing part seasons on injury after injury. Just retire already!

 

VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
Sep 4, 2004
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Bobby Holik was a well-respected player most often praised and after 12 years ought to have retired and been remembered in a shining light.

But of course in the modern NHL there's millions to be made in one's thirties, so he took a massive contract and stunk up the NYR because at the money he signed at he was expected to be a top-6 player offensively, which he never was. He's an all-time great 3rd line center, not a go-to pivot offensively.

The last half dozen years of his career ended up disappointment after disappoint, with criticisms and rolled eyes by many when the name "Holik" came up in conversation.

Bobby should have started doing this after his 12th season:


Yeah, that's Holik, stopping the only Ducks he could in his thirties.
 

Big Phil

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
31,703
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Like Paul Kariya's outstanding seasons in Nashville, the first Lindros season in New York always gets short-changed.

In 2001-02, Lindros had 73 points in 72 games, the 9th-best PPG in the NHL, and was +19 (best on his team) on an overall -31, non-playoff team. He had a way better season than guys like Fleury and Leetch, but I guess it doesn't fit the "Stevens ended his career" narrative so we just pretend it didn't happen.

I think what ended Lindros was the hit he took the following season, 2002-03. He was never himself after that. Having said that, he wasn't terrible after that, either. As late as 2004, he had 32 points in 39 games, +7, on a terrible team, and even with Toronto (after the Lock-out), he had a hot start with 11 points in the first 10 games. Didn't he beaned again early in that season?

Lindros had a wrist injury in 2006 and it limited him to 33 games. He just was not himself anymore in a Leafs uniform. The classic case of being a shadow of his former self.

As for the first season as a Ranger, yeah the points were there, but it was one of those years like Yashin in 2001, statistically it looks alright, but that was not Eric Lindros anymore. He turned into what I would call almost a "perimeter" type of player - at least from what we were used to - compared to what he was. He did hammer Joe Thornton pretty good later on in that fight, but he was not the same player anymore, there wasn't that fear of him. Kariya had the same fate in Nashville and I will say even post-Suter hit seasons after 1998. Something was "off" about him, but by Nashville he was just different. Perimeter player again. Good points wise, not bad, but not Paul Kariya.
 

Howie Hodge

Zombie Woof
Sep 16, 2017
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Buffalo, NY
Old Boot Nose here in Buffalo....

boot nose.png
 

Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
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i completely forgot gaborik was still playing until the kings traded him

he should have retired after winning a cup in 14
 

GMR

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Jul 27, 2013
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The best example I can think of in sports of a player who tarnished his legacy by playing too long, is Brett Favre. I don't think anyone in the NHL rises to that level of embarrassment.
 
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Jim MacDonald

Registered User
Oct 7, 2017
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I think it is more a case of a couple of things. Coffey finished 5th in Norris voting in 1996 and had 74 points. Then he was Canada's best player in the World Cup. It was then that he got traded from Detroit to Hartford. My guess is this happened. He's Paul Coffey, he's won everything a player needs to win - two fold - and he gets traded away from a stacked team to a lousy one. I think he just got deflated. Maybe lost some of his passion. He was 35 at the time, had played in the NHL 16 years by then, I think a lot of it was burn out.

Throw in the fact in early 1997 he collided with Leclair, after he was shipped from Hartford to Philly, and he was just never the same.

*nodding head* I didn't know or forgot about a friendly fire injury with John Leclair......interesting.
 

Jim MacDonald

Registered User
Oct 7, 2017
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Trottier- the last image of him as a player should have been celebrating that 1992 Cup with Pittsburgh. Trottier on the 1991-1992 Pens wasn't exactly one of those hanging on by a thread guys.

While Trottier was a little slow in 1991-1992, how much of a shadow of his former self was he on those 2 Pens teams?

Granted, his games played and stats didn't jump off the charts those years, but he did who provide real experience/leadership especially that first year on a young team with a lot of unproven guys save for him/Coffey.

Real shame what happened- would have been a nice way for him to go on top.

Had he not had that financial problems, how do you think we view Trottier overall if '92 had been the end and that 1993-94 stuff never happened?


I think you'll dig this Chris, in a Yzerman biography I have, Errey was in their quite a bit because he was Stevie Y's linemate in Peterborough (and later on in Detroit of course). The book brings up Trottier as an example in a very positive light when it comes to doing whatever it takes to win. With Trotts, by the time he arrived in Pittsburgh, his days as an offensive/scoring type player were over, and he knew it, but because he was good on defense he extended his career and won a couple more championships, knowing his role. Errey-"Trottier was a guy who knew how to fit in."
 

Jim MacDonald

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Oct 7, 2017
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The best example I can think of in sports of a player who tarnished his legacy by playing too long, is Brett Favre. I don't think anyone in the NHL rises to that level of embarrassment.


This is a very solid comment.
 

Jim MacDonald

Registered User
Oct 7, 2017
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Oh, and as for the holding his team back part, the Senators went on their borderline impossible playoff run after he set his franchise games played mark and was removed from the lineup. They dug themselves into that hole partly because be was playing the first half of the year.

That statement there is REALLY the essence of the second part of my OP/inquiry.....that's so crazy!!
 

LuckyPierre

Registered User
Jul 1, 2010
1,948
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That statement there is REALLY the essence of the second part of my OP/inquiry.....that's so crazy!!
Yeah, it really goes to show that sentimentality can drastically affect team performance if the organization allows it to.

When Phillips' 17 minutes a night were subtracted from the roster in early February of 2015, the Senators went on a 23-5-4 run to squeak into the playoffs. With a 3rd string goalie between the pipes.
 

The Roy Of Ottawa

HOCKEY HALL OF FAME
Oct 4, 2017
861
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Brodeur. I mean yea his final NJD season wasn't great, but that circus show he went through before signing with the Blues and then doing terribly? Yeesh

New Jersey, St. Louis, or whoever should have let Brodeur keep on playing until he got his 700th win! Some things are more important than making the playoffs. St. Louis made the playoffs by the way that year after letting Brodeur go and forcing him to retire with 691 wins! He wanted that 700!
 

sharkhawk

Registered User
Jun 1, 2013
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Aurora, IL
I don’t know if it tarnished his legacy, but seeing chelios playing with the wolves and thrashers was almost painful. Same with Roenick on the sharks. As for other sports Michael Jordan should have stayed off the wizards
 

Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
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The best example I can think of in sports of a player who tarnished his legacy by playing too long, is Brett Favre. I don't think anyone in the NHL rises to that level of embarrassment.

guy threw 33 TDs with only 7 picks in 09 and his team got to the NFC title game

if anything, he should have just retired after that season
 

Big Phil

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
31,703
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The best example I can think of in sports of a player who tarnished his legacy by playing too long, is Brett Favre. I don't think anyone in the NHL rises to that level of embarrassment.

It was that whole circus with Favre post-Packers. He spent a terrible season with the Jets in 2008. But had an MVP caliber year in 2009 with the Vikings followed by his final mediocre year in 2010. I think if he retired after 2007 and been remembered as solely a Packer (ignoring the fact his brief time after being drafted by the Falcons) then we'd be talking about him in a greater sense. However, the last play he ever did as a Packer was throw an interception in the NFC championship game.
 

Beukeboom

Registered User
Apr 1, 2007
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I think Jagr has become a bit underrated in a historical perspective due to him playing for so long. He would be deemed as more of an equal to Crosby if he had retired when he went to KHL. I do think this is something that will fade. Many players tend to be a bit underrated at the end of their carreers, since by then others beat them. Ten-fifteen years after retirement that is forgotten and their peak is yet again remembered.

Edit: I do think Crosby is in a higher tier btw. But still, 5 Arts for Jagr feel a bit forgotten today when talking about the greats. He is more revered for being ever lasting then his prime atm.
 
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LeafsNation75

Registered User
Jan 15, 2010
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Toronto, Ontario
Lindros had a wrist injury in 2006 and it limited him to 33 games. He just was not himself anymore in a Leafs uniform. The classic case of being a shadow of his former self.
It was a shame he couldn't have had a better run with the Leafs. I remember going to the Leafs season opener that year and when Lindros scored late in the 3rd period to give Toronto a very short 2-1 lead the ACC went crazy and I couldn't remember it ever being that loud when his goal was being announced. Plus when Sundin was hurt after getting a puck deflected into his face, Lindros went on a tear of offense and the thought was his injuries were finally behind him.
 

Regal

Registered User
Mar 12, 2010
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Vancouver
I think Jagr has become a bit underrated in a historical perspective due to him playing for so long. He would be deemed as more of an equal to Crosby if he had retired when he went to KHL. I do think this is something that will fade. Many players tend to be a bit underrated at the end of their carreers, since by then others beat them. Ten-fifteen years after retirement that is forgotten and their peak is yet again remembered.

Edit: I do think Crosby is in a higher tier btw. But still, 5 Arts for Jagr feel a bit forgotten today when talking about the greats. He is more revered for being ever lasting then his prime atm.

I tend to think Jagr did more for his legacy since returning in terms of being a likeable mentor type as opposed to the moody malcontent he tended to be seen as in the early 2000s. Prime Jagr was considered by many the type of player who could put up huge totals but wasn't an ideal franchise player to lead you to the cup. I think that's died down now. Though that might just be time
 

Sanf

Registered User
Sep 8, 2012
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Glenn Anderson, this free spirit was just like Coffey one of the Oilers dynasty guys. In his last years I didn’t see his wonderful skating, and the ability to crash the net on a constant basis, he too seemed quite blasé.

First names that came to my mind. When he came to Finland in the lockout season he said when asked if he still would go back to NHL...

There is no real reason for me to go back. ...
I have no enthusiasm, no drive to go back because i´ve done everything I wanted to there in the NHL.

That interview can actually be found in Youtube. Some can think that he was just being polite now playing in Europe, but he did seem sincere. He did seem to lose his step and also the passion...
 

ForsbergForever

Registered User
May 19, 2004
3,319
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Maybe to a lesser extent than some but I feel like Chris Chelios should have retired in 2008 after winning the Cup with Detroit. He was 46 years old and had been a healthy scratch in the finals which should have been a sign that it was time to call it a career. Instead he comes back for another year with Detroit but only suits up for 28 regular season games before signing in the AHL and making a late season cameo with the Atlanta Thrashers. I think he should have gone the Mike Keane/Eric Weinrich route if he really wanted to keep playing and gone directly to the AHL after 2008 so he could play at a level where he could still be an impact player to some extent.
 

MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
50,672
16,395
The best example I can think of in sports of a player who tarnished his legacy by playing too long, is Brett Favre. I don't think anyone in the NHL rises to that level of embarrassment.

TBH, that didn't have anything to do with his on-field performance, which was still pretty decent. He just obviously tried to perform too much off the field.
 

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