Trevor Kidd

Huge94

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Oct 8, 2011
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I've always really liked Trevor Kidd. Not only because of his incredibly awesome equipment throughout the years but also his style of play. when I was younger, I really thought he would become part of the top 10 goalies in the League. That never really materialized (apart from a year or two of real quality).

I wonder why that is? My bet is that he was behind Mike Vernon in Calgary and never really could get his confidence up when cast in Vernon's shadow.

Any thoughts?
 

Johnny Engine

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Jul 29, 2009
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Since Vernon wasn't in the picture, and Kidd led the NHL in GP at age 22, it probably wasn't getting stuck on a depth charts.
Kidd was often outperformed by his 1B type teammates like Rick Tabbaracci.
If you want to point at a confidence killer, getting torched in the playoffs would be a sounder theory than an insurmountable veteran, although his numbers from his first playoff aren't that bad.
 

Huge94

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Oct 8, 2011
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Since Vernon wasn't in the picture, and Kidd led the NHL in GP at age 22, it probably wasn't getting stuck on a depth charts.
Kidd was often outperformed by his 1B type teammates like Rick Tabbaracci.
If you want to point at a confidence killer, getting torched in the playoffs would be a sounder theory than an insurmountable veteran, although his numbers from his first playoff aren't that bad.

That is definitely true but maybe it wasn't the insurmountable veteran but maybe it came from below (i.e. being outperformed by young talented goalies). If I remember correctly he was surpassed by a young Roberto Luongo in Florida.

Difficult to say how exactly he flopped, even though he put some solid numbers in a couple of seasons with average teams. Maybe he couldn't bear having solid competition.
 

Huge94

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Maybe explaining my point about the teams :

Calgary 1993-1997 : Team in decline, split chores with Mike Vernon and Rick Tabaracci
Carolina 1998-1999 : Very average team, split with Arturs Irbe
Florida 1999-2002 : Not a bad team but upstaged by young phenom Luongo
Toronto 2002-2004 : Behind Eddy Belfour
 

BraveCanadian

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Jun 30, 2010
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Just going by memory here but didn't Kidd also run into a bit of injury trouble? His shoulder I think?
 

Hoser

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Aug 7, 2005
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Kidd was often outperformed by his 1B type teammates like Rick Tabbaracci.
If you want to point at a confidence killer, getting torched in the playoffs would be a sounder theory than an insurmountable veteran, although his numbers from his first playoff aren't that bad.

:handclap:

Kidd was never consistent, ever. He relied on his athleticism and size to make saves instead of more sound positioning and 'fundamentals'. Sometimes he was very hot, rattling off a few very impressive wins in a row. Most of the time he was mediocre. Often he was flat-out bad.

He wasn't bad in the '95 playoffs but he was easily outplayed by Arturs Irbe and Wade Flaherty. The following season he split a lot of time with Rick Tabaracci, and was not happy about it. He was insistent on being the clear "number 1" goalie in Calgary but didn't play well enough to earn it. In '95-'96 Tabaracci was clearly the better goalie, particularly in the playoffs.

Still, Flames management acquiesced and traded Tabaracci away early in '96-'97. Kidd was the undisputed number 1 again; it was his team to lead. What did he do with the opportunity? .500 hockey at best. Backup Dwayne Roloson played about as well.

Kidd's tenure in Calgary was done after that. He whined and moped and demanded to be the undisputed starter and he flopped, hard. Kidd was gone in the '97 offseason and the Flames brought back Tabaracci.

In '97-'98 he played in the goalie carousel that was the first-year Hurricanes, splitting time with Sean Burke and Kirk McLean. He was actually pretty good that year but in '98-'99 Arturs Irbe was brought in and usurped the starting position. More flaky whinging on his part had him exposed in the expansion draft and shipped out to the Panthers.

In his first season there he was the #1 until the Panthers acquired his old 'mentor', Mike Vernon. Kidd once again took a back seat to Vernon. Vernon was getting older though and was left exposed in the expansion draft but the next year Kidd had to split time with Roberto Luongo, freshly acquired from the Islanders. Again he was relegated to a backup role. Kidd turned into a complete suckhole from then on. His career, even as a backup, was pretty much done. He got another shot in Toronto as a backup to Belfour and failed miserably.


Kidd had a promising junior career, was the top goalie drafted in 1990, and seemed to expect to be handed a starting job in the NHL. He got one in Calgary, flopped, and bounced around from team to team after that, moping as he went. I remember him best in his years in Calgary where I think he could be best summed up as having a bad attitude. He seemed to expect to be given success and accolades rather than having to earn them.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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sorry for the slight derail, but can i throw jamie storr's name into the mix here? another guy who i waited for years to emerge but never did. both guys were in my division (smythe) to start, but they never played so i never saw what the problem was with them.

it's kind of funny. you wait years and years and then one day you hear that they retired. and you never even got to see them play.

from what i remember though, kidd was kind of a bitter dude in florida. actively hated on bure in the press, for example, the minute he was traded to new york, blaming bure for his bad stats and whatnot.
 
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MS

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Kidd had loads of ability – which he harnessed on occasion – but really didn’t seem to have the focus or mental strength to be an elite NHL goalie. Different sort of guy who was lazy in his preparation and training and underachieved for most of his career.

Huge buzz around him in junior – was the most-hyped Canadian goalie in years when he was drafted.
 

nutbar

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Jan 19, 2011
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Incidentally, I came across this while browsing through Youtube recently. It's the last game of the 1992 world juniors. Kidd vs 'Khabibouline'.

 

Stephen

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Feb 28, 2002
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Kidd had great athletic tools to work with but probably didn't have much of a head for the game, since he often played like a street hockey goalie. When you're on instincts alone, you're either hot or very cold. And he was often very cold.
 

Huge94

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Oct 8, 2011
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sorry for the slight derail, but can i throw jamie storr's name into the mix here? another guy who i waited for years to emerge but never did. both guys were in my division (smythe) to start, but they never played so i never saw what the problem was with them.

it's kind of funny. you wait years and years and then one day you hear that they retired. and you never even got to see them play.

from what i remember though, kidd was kind of a bitter dude in florida. actively hated on bure in the press, for example, the minute he was traded to new york, blaming bure for his bad stats and whatnot.

I do think Storr is a good comparison, although I think Storr ultimately had a better career and that might be solely because he was with better teams (LA for the better part)
 

Grinder89

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Aug 20, 2010
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in Theo Fleury's book he mentioned that Kidd never took his preperation seriously and often ate very poorly. He had all the ability in the world but he never took care of his body the way a pro NHL'er should have
 
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Stephen

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His hockey cards were highly regarded in my school around 1995. He had such cool helmet...

goalie-kidd.jpg


Aha I wonder if we went to the same school, or if all the kids liked his mask! Potvin, Cujo, Belfour, Kidd were the coolest, Jamie Storr's king tut was awesome too...
 

MS

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in Theo Fleury's book he mentioned that Kidd never took his preperation seriously and often ate very poorly. He had all the ability in the world but he never took care of his body the way a pro NHL'er should have

Yeah, was a really different guy. Had a laid-back, lazy hippie persona, but at the same time was kind of a surly, entitled ass. Not exactly the greatest combination for an NHL goalie.
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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He was never a goalie where I ever thought "Boy I wish we had him."

It was Calgary's headache. He played pretty bad in the 1995 playoffs and was pushed aside for Tabaracci in 1996. He was never a goalie I feared
 

Hab-a-maniac

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He was never a goalie where I ever thought "Boy I wish we had him."

It was Calgary's headache. He played pretty bad in the 1995 playoffs and was pushed aside for Tabaracci in 1996. He was never a goalie I feared

Yeah he was quite a sieve in that series. Considering the Flames outscored them 34-27 in the seven games (34 actually being the record for one team in a seven game series I think), they should've won but didn't mostly because Kidd gave up backbreakers. To wit:



And there were plenty others like that but worse.
 

Brodeur

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Apologies for the bump, I was doing a deep dive on the Devils 1999-2000 and looked a bit deeper into the playoff opponents that season. I had forgotten that Trevor Kidd was on the Panthers and was initially confused when I saw that they carried three NHL goalies that season. I remembered Mike Vernon in net against the Devils in the playoffs. I did a little reading on Kidd to refresh my memory:

- June 25, 1999: Carolina opts to protect Arturs Irbe over Kidd at the Expansion Draft. Kidd had a solid 1997-98 with Carolina but lost the starting gig to Irbe in 1998-99. Atlanta drafts Kidd and immediately trades him to Florida.

- November 18, 1999: With Kidd seemingly locked in as the goalie of the present/future, the team trades veteran goalie Sean Burke to Phoenix for cheaper backup Mikhail Shtalenkov. Phoenix was dealing with Nikolai Khabibulin's holdout which would linger into the 2000-01 season.

After Panthers goalie Trevor Kidd dislocated his right shoulder making a save during Florida's SuperSkills competition on Dec. 13, several teammates grumbled that taking part in the NHL-mandated exhibition was a needless risk. The Panthers were understandably shocked to learn that Kidd, who was 13-4-2 with a league-best .930 save percentage, will be sidelined for at least two months.

- December 13, 1999: The NHL required teams hold a local skills competition to promote the eventual one at the All-Star game. During the rapid fire event, Kidd dislocates his shoulder and is out at least two months. To that point, Kidd was doing really well.

- December 30, 1999: Shtalenkov has some shaky starts and Florida starts shopping for a goalie. Eventually they work out a three way deal where they send Radek Dvorak to the Rangers, New York sends Todd Harvey to San Jose, and the Panthers get Mike Vernon from the Sharks. San Jose decided that they would go forward with Steve Shields as their starter and they had a young Evgeni Nabokov ready to be called up from the AHL. Dvorak seemed to be lost in the shuffle behind Pavel Bure, Scott Mellanby, and Mark Parrish but he'd have a couple good years in New York.

- February 23, 2000: Kidd comes back but has a rough stretch (1-7-0, 3.99 GAA, .881 sv%) and Florida sticks with Vernon for the playoffs.

- June 23, 2000: Florida opts to protect one goalie (Kidd) for the expansion draft and lose Vernon.

- June 24, 2000: Florida trades Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha to the Islanders for Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen

Kidd begins the season as the starter but ends up splitting starts with Luongo who puts up superior numbers. It was an interesting thought exercise to think if Kidd's career would have been any different had he not been injured in that skills competition. Then again, perhaps it would have been a repeat of his Carolina years.
 

Doctor No

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I don't see this loop closed in the thread (I may have missed it), but Kidd did have a shoulder injury in December 1999:

1999-2000 Florida Panthers Goaltender Game-by-Game Performance

Which led to a Panthers' combination of Shtalenkov and Shulmistra until the team acquired Mike Vernon around New Year's. Even when Kidd returned in late February he struggled (whereas his performance pre-injury was high level).
 

Gambitman

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Jan 30, 2019
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The painful part (if you are a flames fan anyways) is Calgary badly wanted Kidd and traded up with New Jersey to ensure they would get him. New Jersey also needed a goalie and with their new lower pick selected Martin Brodeur.
 
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