Skillswise, Who's The Worst NHL That You Have Ever Seen

[Johnny Engine]

By the looks of his statistics, Shantz seems to have played his way out of the NHL after one year with the Avalanche. I'd understand why a Colorado fan would think he sucked.
Sort of like Clark Wilm with the Leafs I guess. I remember him being a pretty solid role player with Calgary, but in his last year, he didn't do anything.
Chris McAllister is a good choice for non-fighters.

 

[vippe]

Some really bad players have played at least a few games in the NHL. My interest is in analyzing who were the worst players to meet certain GP thresholds.

Worst players to play 100+ games:

Riley Cote
Derek Boogaard
Shawn Antoski

Worst to play 250+ games:

Steve Webb
Wade Belak
Mick Vukota

Worst to play 500+ games:

Wade Belak
Mick Vukota
Darren Langdon

Worst to play 1000+ games:

Craig Berube
Donald Brashear
Kelly Buchberger

Worst to play 1500+ games:

Dave Andreychuk
Mark Recchi
Larry Murphy

 

[Pokecheque]

Shantz played a good role and was actually a pretty good player, not sure how you came to this determination but I'm not going to argue about your opinion.

Maybe the Jeff Shantz you saw (Calgary I'm assuming) is different than the one I saw here. Dude absolutely put in the effort, but his skill was nonexistent. Cummins was another guy who was all heart, no talent. I liked both as people, but not as players.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Worst to play 500+ games:

Wade Belak
Mick Vukota
Darren Langdon

During the lockout year, Langdon played for the Deer Lake Red Wings in Newfoundland's West Coast Hockey league, which I'm pretty sure would barely be more than a beer league in most provinces. The Red Wings won the provincial championship that year*, but Langdon didn't even stand out as a particularly good player. That's the kind of talent we're talking about here.

* The Red Wings beat my hometown Conception Bay Stars to win this. The local paper reported that Dan Cleary had considered playing for the Stars, but signed in Switzerland instead. If only...

 

[seventieslord]

Either Allan Bester or Igor Kravchuk.

Bester is not bad.

http://brodeurisafraud.blogspot.com/2009/10/underrated-allan-bester.html

Shantz played a good role and was actually a pretty good player, not sure how you came to this determination but I'm not going to argue about your opinion.

Absolutely agree. Shantz was like many decent 3rd/4th liners who have come and gone - Paul Ranheim, Jody Hull, Garry Valk, Claude Lapointe, Michal Grosek, the list goes on. They are disposable, but useful, and not worthy of mention in this thread.

 

[MXD]

Either Allan Bester or Igor Kravchuk.

Bester was far from the worst Leafs goaltender in the 80ies, and a D-Men good enough to notch 50 points one season doesn't belong in this thread.

 

[MXD]

The worst non-fighter I ever saw? Andrei Bashkirov.

Makes Ed Ronan look like a perennial Hart Memorial candidate.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Christian Laflamme, Alexander Karpvtsev, Jason Doig, Igor Korolev

 

[kmad]

Dale Purinton

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Bester is not bad.

http://brodeurisafraud.blogspot.com/2009/10/underrated-allan-bester.html

Why would I label Allan Bester as a horrible goalie over one bad goal? I'm a Sens fan; I have Patty Lalime for that

In fairness to Bester, I'm going on what little I remember of him as an 8-year-old (what little I remember isn't pretty), plus his career stats (4.01GAA, 0.883S% lifetime), and it's a safe assumption that a lot of that could be a function of the team playing in front of him.

 

[MXD]

Why would I label Allan Bester as a horrible goalie over one bad goal? I'm a Sens fan; I have Patty Lalime for that

In fairness to Bester, I'm going on what little I remember of him as an 8-year-old (what little I remember isn't pretty), plus his career stats (4.01GAA, 0.883S% lifetime), and it's a safe assumption that a lot of that could be a function of the team playing in front of him.

Well, 0.883 wasn't exactly this bad considering the era he played in.

 

[Tavaresmagicalplay*]

Maybe the Jeff Shantz you saw (Calgary I'm assuming) is different than the one I saw here. Dude absolutely put in the effort, but his skill was nonexistent. Cummins was another guy who was all heart, no talent. I liked both as people, but not as players.

check out this beauty



Anyways I don't have to go back that far. Steve MacIntyre literally could not do anything. I've seen ball hockey players who are probably better than him.

 

[the_speedster]

Francois Leroux

Francois Leroux

and...Francois Leroux

absolutely the worst...ever... skated like a 5yr old, had zero offensive skills, everyone and their dog skated by him on defense... all he was ever good for was losing fight and ending hall of fame careers...

simply put, a walking, skating advertisement for the birth control

 

[adsfan]

The entire Detroit Red Wings from around 1975, except Alex Delvecchio. They played a preseason game in Dayton, Ohio and lost 6-2. The Red Wings had a guy in the penalty box for nearly the entire game. I think my pond hockey friends could have outskated those goons; the worst NHL team that I ever saw.

Bill Riley from the 1970's Capitols, he couldn't really skate and had no shot.

 

[Tunnel of Death]

Raitis Ivanans should get a look on this thread. I'm not even sure the dude knows how to actually play hockey...:

 

[Trottier]

Dale Purinton immediately comes to mind.

 

[the_speedster]

Christian Laflamme, Alexander Karpvtsev, Jason Doig, Igor Korolev

ahh,... memories

 

[Jack DiBiase]

Francois Leroux

absolutely the worst...ever... skated like a 5yr old, had zero offensive skills, everyone and their dog skated by him on defense...

Everyone except one person:

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Not very good players, but ...

Being a solid defensive defender is a 'skill' and Pederson was a guy who was steady enough in his own zone to play decent NHL minutes as a defender on good Boston teams for several years.

Blum put up huge offensive numbers at the University of Michigan and was a guy who scored 40+ points as a defender in the AHL. Hell, the 16 points he scored in his only full NHL season are more than a hack like Caufield scored in his entire 200+ game NHL career (as a forward).

Compared to some of the guys being mentioned in this thread who could barely stick on the 4th line of their junior clubs and couldn't put up points in the ECHL, they aren't *that* bad.

Agreed.

Blum and Pederson are not in the same league of terrible as those mentioned.

Brian Curran was another bad Bruins Dman who was slower and less talented than both Blum & Pedersen yet still isn't a serious candidate for this list.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Peter Worrell. I can't believe a guy who skated like THAT was allowed in the NHL. Sure was entertaining to watch though. I can still remember being at the annual Frozen Fury in Vegas between the Kings and Avs and watching Eric Belanger earn an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for mocking Worrell's almost drunken-like skating stride.

The Avs have had some pretty borderline NHL guys on the roster over the years. Jim Cummins, Jeff Shantz, Chris McAllister, and Francois Lerroux were all pretty damned awful.

Indeed a worthy candidate.

 

[thefifthsedin*]

During the lockout year, Langdon played for the Deer Lake Red Wings in Newfoundland's West Coast Hockey league, which I'm pretty sure would barely be more than a beer league in most provinces. The Red Wings won the provincial championship that year*, but Langdon didn't even stand out as a particularly good player. That's the kind of talent we're talking about here.

* The Red Wings beat my hometown Conception Bay Stars to win this. The local paper reported that Dan Cleary had considered playing for the Stars, but signed in Switzerland instead. If only...

you're misinformed ... daniel cleary played for mora ik in the swedish elite league in 2004-05, the lock out season ... he played there with his friend from the edmonton oilers, shawn horcoff

 

[Johnny Engine]

you're misinformed ... daniel cleary played for mora ik in the swedish elite league in 2004-05, the lock out season ... he played there with his friend from the edmonton oilers, shawn horcoff

Ouch, not sure how I fooled that one up.
Anyway, enough talk about top 6 forwards, and more talk about guys like Darren Langdon!

 

[seventieslord]

ahh,... memories

WOW!

 

[paperclip maniac]

I'm going with Marek Malik on this one...

 

[campmolson19]

Jason Peters.....He can not even do what he is supposed to do, terrible fighter.