Trophy winners who had mediocre careers.

[vippe]

not so much as the others mentioned, but Milan Hejduk won the Richard Trophy in 2003 with 50+ goals, and up until that point he was having a great career (40 goals multiple times), but since has not been much of a superstar at all.

Not that he's had a bad career, but certainly not what was expected of him.

Forsberg..

 

[BeauRoger]

not so much as the others mentioned, but Milan Hejduk won the Richard Trophy in 2003 with 50+ goals, and up until that point he was having a great career (40 goals multiple times), but since has not been much of a superstar at all.

Not that he's had a bad career, but certainly not what was expected of him.

Its because Forsberg left. Its actually interesting to track the best playmakers throughout nhl history, looking at how they inflate lesser players stats. Same thing happened to simon gagne. Was a mediocre player until forsberg came. Suddenly he is a superstar, and when forsberg leaves, his scoring production starts to decrease season after season.

 

[Bohemian93]

randy carlyle who won the norris while with the winnipeg jets

 

[kaiser matias]

randy carlyle who won the norris while with the winnipeg jets

Carlyle won the Norris in 1981 while with the Penguins. He finished with 83 points that year, 5 behind Rick Kehoe for the team lead, and tied for 25th in the league. He was the top scoring defenceman that year.

 

[MXD]

Thanks. Knowledge like this is why I come to this board.

Actually, 2nd is arguably between him and Joel Otto.

 

[Nalyd Psycho]

Actually, 2nd is arguably between him and Joel Otto.

So hard to compare. Otto is great as a brute force checker while Poulin is a great finesse shadow.

 

[tony d]

Jim Carey

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Carlyle won the Norris in 1981 while with the Penguins. He finished with 83 points that year, 5 behind Rick Kehoe for the team lead, and tied for 25th in the league. He was the top scoring defenceman that year.

80-81 and 81-82 look to be weak years for defensemen, as Randy Carlyle and Doug Wilson won the Norris in back to back years, each in his only season as a first team all-star.

 

[MXD]

80-81 and 81-82 look to be weak years for defensemen, as Randy Carlyle and Doug Wilson won the Norris in back to back years, each in his only season as a first team all-star.

Both were MUCH, MUCH better players than, let's say, Darren Jensen.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Both were MUCH, MUCH better players than, let's say, Darren Jensen.

Of course they were. But both would also be much better choices for relatively weak Norris winners than Langway.

 

[Dreakmur]

80-81 and 81-82 look to be weak years for defensemen, as Randy Carlyle and Doug Wilson won the Norris in back to back years, each in his only season as a first team all-star.

Carlyle had a mediocre career, but Wilson was pretty good.

After his Norris win, Wilson also ended up 3 other top-4s in Norris voting.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Randy Carlyle is, IMO, easily the worst defenseman to win the Norris trophy.

Last year I wrote an essay about "Norris trophy shares". Basically, a player who wins a unanimous Norris trophy earned 1.00 points, a player who earns 80% of the maximum votes in a certain years earned 0.80 points, etc. Here are the Norris trophy winners with the fewest career Norris trophy shares:

Player|Shares
Randy Carlyle|0.40
Tom Johnson|0.85
Harry Howell|1.02
Doug Wilson|1.05
Jacques Laperriere|1.39

Here's all the seasons they earned at least 5% of the maximum number of votes:

Carlyle: 1st (1981)
Johnson: 1st (1959), 4th (1956), 5th (1960)
Howell: 1st (1967), 5th (1964), 6th (1966), 9th (1965), 9th (1962)
Wilson: 1st (1982), 3rd (1990), 4th (1983), 4th (1985)
Laperriere: 1st (1966), 2nd (1965), 4th (1964), 4th (1970), 5th (1973), 5th (1968)

Carlyle won the Norris trophy in 1981 (and he did have a great season), but never earned more than 5% of the maximum available votes in any season. Even the next worst Norris trophy winners are far superior in this regard.

 

[SyracuseBulldogs*]

Excluding a couple Calder winners (Brit Selby anyone?), Rick Meagher winning the 1990 Selke is both the worst player ever to win a significant award and the worst choice ever in the voting itself.

'Best defensive forward in the NHL' found himself in the AHL and his career over two months into the next season.

Journeyman forward who finally found an NHL niche in his 30s as a good PK guy for the Blues, but wasn't even close to the best defensive forward in the league. How he won over Tikkanen and Carbonneau that year is still a mystery.

Obviously you didn't watch Meagher if you really think that.

 

[Dark Shadows]

80-81 and 81-82 look to be weak years for defensemen, as Randy Carlyle and Doug Wilson won the Norris in back to back years, each in his only season as a first team all-star.

They were not "Weak years" so much as they were strong years for both Carlyle and Wilson. Flash in the pan great seasons do happen, although Wilson was better than most give him credit for.

Carlyle should NOT have beaten Potvin for the Norris that year, but voters felt his contributions on a weak team deserved note apparently. Robinson had a terrific year defensively and not a bad year offensively(50 points), and Bourque had a very strong follow up to his rookie season and was a wall defensively.

The year Wilson won was certainly his best two way year and he deserved the Norris, despite strong competition. Bourque had a terrific year and was just impassable defensively again. Coffey had a terrific offensive year with 89 points(but was not great in his own end) and Robinson again had a strong year.

 

[bruins309]

It's weird to think of Manny Fernandez as a two-time Jennings winner, but he is. Not as if he was terrible or anything because he had a role in the success of Minnesota in 07 early on and Boston this year also early in the year.

Of course, you could name a bunch of backup goalies who won a Jennings (Rejean Lemelin, Brian Hayward), or the Vezina when they gave it to multiple goalies from the same team (Denis DeJordy).

 

[MXD]

It's weird to think of Manny Fernandez as a two-time Jennings winner, but he is. Not as if he was terrible or anything because he had a role in the success of Minnesota in 07 early on and Boston this year also early in the year.

Of course, you could name a bunch of backup goalies who won a Jennings (Rejean Lemelin, Brian Hayward), or the Vezina when they gave it to multiple goalies from the same team (Denis DeJordy).

Again, all those guys are way, way better than Darren Jensen. None of them strikes me as being inferior to Robert Esche, actually.

 

[mercury]

Its because Forsberg left. Its actually interesting to track the best playmakers throughout nhl history, looking at how they inflate lesser players stats. Same thing happened to simon gagne. Was a mediocre player until forsberg came. Suddenly he is a superstar, and when forsberg leaves, his scoring production starts to decrease season after season.

That is ridiculous. Gagne was very good pre-lockout, including 33 goals/66 points as a 2nd/3rd line winger at 21 years of age. He had career highs with Forsberg, but his PPG was up this past season from the one before. Outside of his major injury in 2007-08, he has been a consistent 70-75 point player since the lockout, playing with Forsberg/Briere/Richards. He's also one of the best defensive wingers in the NHL. What are you talking about?

 

[Cherepanisimov]

Cheechoo.

 

[arrbez]

Herb Cain is clearly the worst player to ever lead the NHL in scoring. But that was in strange circumstances due to the War.

Apart from him, I'd nominate Punch Broadbent as the worst player to win the NHL scoring title.

 

[mikeybuddha91]

Liut was a superstar goaltender. Hardly belongs to this list in any way, shape or form. He was 6th for the Hart in 79-80, 3rd among goaltenders for the Vezina(All star selection = Vezina back then), and between his all star selection, was always a top 5-10 goaltender in the league. He was also top 4-5 for the Vezina in 89-90.

This reminds me of Roberto Luongo for some reason. Time will tell.

 

[Axxellien]

1959-60 Lady Byng Trophy:

Don Mckenney won the Lady Byng in 1959-60, at the peak of his brilliant career, he was a finalist twice prior, was 2nd in Calder voting, appeared in 7 All Star games, led a strong Bruins team in scoring 3 times in the late 50s & Captained a very bad & rebuilding team in the early 60s. He subsequently played a crucial role in Toronto's Stanley Cup win in 1964!

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Steve Kasper, Guy Carbonneau, John Madden, Rick Meagher

 

[Pear Juice]

Steve Kasper, Guy Carbonneau, John Madden, Rick Meagher

I would argue that Carbonneau is among the absolute best to have won the Selke.

 

[Super Fadio Bro]

That Andrew Raycroft guy

 

[Mad Habber]

Carboneau? Mediocre career?

Is that why he won it 3 times?

You have no idea what the trophy is for if you think he had a mediocre career, or isn't worthy of the award.