Tyler Wright's legendary 98-99 campaign

[Form and Substance]

Right, I just read over in the Ivanans thread that Tyler Wright detains the dubious honor of playing the most games in a season without recording a single point. That's 61 games without a goal or an assist. That's even more embarrassing than Muckalt's 0 goal season the year after (Muckalt at least had 8 assists that year).

This may have been the dead puck era but I'll be damned if someone could get away with being an NHL regular and aid the goal scoring cause in virtually no ways.


The funniest thing is I remember Wright as being a fairly serviceable 3rd-4th liner in Columbus and putting up some decent numbers (19 goals in 02-03) and thinking he could put up 20 if he played on a better team.

So what happened that year? And why did the penguins let him play 61 games? Was he that good in other aspects of the game that they could give his complete lack of offense a pass? Oh and he was 5'10 so he couldn't really play the enforcer card that well now could he? Or did the Pens really rely on a 5'10 guy to protect Jagr? Nah

I assume he was some sort of pest but man, it's amazing he couldn't chip one over the boards and get an accidental secondary assist.

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[MS]

Right, I just read over in the Ivanans thread that Tyler Wright detains the dubious honor of playing the most games in a season without recording a single point. That's 61 games without a goal or an assist. That's even more embarrassing than Muckalt's 0 goal season the year after (Muckalt at least had 8 assists that year).

This may have been the dead puck era but I'll be damned if someone could get away with being an NHL regular and aid the goal scoring cause in virtually no ways.


The funniest thing is I remember Wright as being a fairly serviceable 3rd-4th liner in Columbus and putting up some decent numbers (19 goals in 02-03) and thinking he could put up 20 if he played on a better team.

So what happened that year? And why did the penguins let him play 61 games? Was he that good in other aspects of the game that they could give his complete lack of offense a pass? Oh and he was 5'10 so he couldn't really play the enforcer card that well now could he? Or did the Pens really rely on a 5'10 guy to protect Jagr? Nah

I assume he was some sort of pest but man, it's amazing he couldn't chip one over the boards and get an accidental secondary assist.

The 61 games is misleading because he played so little.

Kevin Constantine only played 3 lines all year that season and double-shifted Straka and Jagr. Basically only used 10 forwards.

Straka and Jagr averaged about 25 minutes/game, which is unheard-of for forwards.

At the other end of the spectrum, Wright and Martin Sonnenberg dressed but barely saw the ice. Wright averaged a pathetic 3:46 of icetime (most of it on the PK), which is about half of what most no-talent goons average in a given season.

So in this case the '0 points in 61 games' is far more a reflection of how the coach used the player than of any specific failings by the player himself.

When Constantine was fired the next year, Wright promptly scored 12 goals in 50 games under Herb Brooks with normal 3rd/4th line icetime, and then had several 15-20 goal seasons in Columbus.

 

[Form and Substance]

The 61 games is misleading because he played so little.

Kevin Constantine only played 3 lines all year that season and double-shifted Straka and Jagr. Basically only used 10 forwards.

Straka and Jagr averaged about 25 minutes/game, which is unheard-of for forwards.

At the other end of the spectrum, Wright and Martin Sonnenberg dressed but barely saw the ice. Wright averaged a pathetic 3:46 of icetime (most of it on the PK), which is about half of what most no-talent goons average in a given season.

So in this case the '0 points in 61 games' is far more a reflection of how the coach used the player than of any specific failings by the player himself.

When Constantine was fired the next year, Wright promptly scored 12 goals in 50 games under Herb Brooks with normal 3rd/4th line icetime, and then had several 15-20 goal seasons in Columbus.

Wow, well that's as comprehensive an answer as we'll ever get. Thanks!

 

[MS]

Wow, well that's as comprehensive an answer as we'll ever get. Thanks!

No worries.

As a sidenote, there are 9 games that year where Pittsburgh is only listed as having dressed 17 skaters because Wright or Sonnenberg dressed but never left the bench to take a shift.

So Wright actually dressed for about 65 games without scoring a point.