Prospects that you were 100% sure were busts that turned out pretty well?

[Elias Pettersson]

Contrary to the other thread, which prospects were you sure were going to bust, but ended up playing pretty well in the NHL?

Some recent ones for me include:
Matt Dumba
Nino Niederreiter
Rickard Rakell
Darnell Nurse
Anthony Mantha
Leon Draisaitl (big miss for me)

Click to read more...

 

[LeonTheKing]

Matthew Tkachuk
Charlie McAvoy
Jakob Chychrun
Tage Thompson
Alex DeBrincat

 

[whitstifier]

Matthew Tkachuk
Charlie McAvoy
Jakob Chychrun
Tage Thompson
Alex DeBrincat

Thompson?

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

I wasn't the biggest fan of Perlini in his draft year. Right now he's got 10 goals in 36 games after 14 in 57 last year.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Johnny Gaudreau is my big one.

Other guys were...

Lawson Crouse
Will Butcher
Brandon Carlo

 

[lawrence]

Michael Grabner.
Devn Dubynk
Sven Baertchi
Sedins.

 

[mja]

I shrugged when the Flyer dealts Patrick Sharp. Thought he might be able to carve out a career as a bottom 6 winger, but wasn't overly optimistic. So, I was kind of wrong on that one, one might argue.

 

[135ace]

Johnny Gaudreau is my big one.

Other guys were...

Lawson Crouse
Will Butcher
Brandon Carlo

It's quite a stretch to say Crouse is doing well. He's not to far from being a bust at this point and is coming out of the most stacked draft class in recent memory.

 

[CraigBillington]

Matt Murray. I never thought he would make it until he made it.

 

[vincetheprince]

Bo Horvat for me... Never thought he would post top 6 numbers in the NHL when he was drafted

 

[rumrokh]

Thompson?

Obviously he's only played a handful of games, but he's looking very good for the Blues right now.

 

[HisNoodliness]

Dylan Larkin is my big miss. I was so certain that he'd be a third line C with limited offense and no playmaking creativity. He was the one guy I didn't want the wings to draft. Hopefully, I'm similarly wrong about Rasmussen.

 

[elitepete]

Dumba, Mantha, Draisaitl, Jankowski, Carlo, Perlini, Faksa

 

[duxfan1101]

Obviously he's only played a handful of games, but he's looking very good for the Blues right now.

I think he's more questioning how you were 100% sure he was a bust so quickly.

 

[Stive Morgan]

It's quite a stretch to say Crouse is doing well. He's not to far from being a bust at this point and is coming out of the most stacked draft class in recent memory.

Yeah, he's not that great, but I predicted he'd never play get an NHL game so so far he's exceeded my expectations.

 

[rumrokh]

I think he's more questioning how you were 100% sure he was a bust so quickly.

I'm not the person quoted and I always liked Thompson.

But someone could easily think a player would bust based on their abilities and performance pre-draft.

 

[Jyssy]

Joel Armia, Lauri Korpikoski.

 

[Kingsfan1]

For sure Nino for me.

 

[Grub]

Kyle Turris

 

[kabidjan18]

I thought Aleksander Barkov was overrated, I was heavily in the MacKinnon camp. I was wrong. I was skeptical of Tkachuk, not in a bust sense but ceiling-wise. Wrong again. I thought Kevin Fiala wasn't that good. Look wrong so far. Alex Tuch as well, and one can't say he's made it either but he's certainly been good. None of these are like "100% sure he'd bust", those I usually get right because there has to be some huge red flag with neon lights.

 

[canuckslover10]

I thought Aleksander Barkov was overrated, I was heavily in the MacKinnon camp. I was wrong. I was skeptical of Tkachuk, not in a bust sense but ceiling-wise. Wrong again. I thought Kevin Fiala wasn't that good. Look wrong so far. Alex Tuch as well, and one can't say he's made it either but he's certainly been good. None of these are like "100% sure he'd bust", those I usually get right because there has to be some huge red flag with neon lights.

Dude mackinnon is 2nd in points in the entire league what a beast but i myself was wrong about him too

 

[gifted88]

Johnny Gaudreau

 

[Quethas]

During his draft year, I would have drafted Sebastian Aho (yes, the Finnish one) in later rounds if at all. I thought that he was smart guy but I also thought he was smallish, lacked enough top speed, was too much on perimeter and I thought that overall he isn't all that special. I thought he would become really good player in Europe but who would struggle to get into NHL.

Six months later he lead Finnish team to U20 gold medal. And one year from that he had already played in World Championships, World Cup and looked comfortable in NHL.

I think it is safe to say my prediction was hilariously bad.

 

[MarVell]

Anze Kopitar ‍ ‍‍‍
Saw him playing in sweden and thought he was too damn slow to make it.

Barkov
Kinda for the same reason as Kopitar.
‍‍

Granlund
Too small and too slow.
‍‍

Klingberg
Thought he would just be a cheap Karlsson copy. Never impressed me when I watched him.
‍‍

Victor Hedman
‍‍‍‍

 

[ObscureAlien]

Daniel Sprong is better than I thought he'd ever be