Very good players on very bad teams

[VanIslander]

• Bill Mosienko was 5 times top-10 in NHL goals and 5 times top-10 in NHL assists for a lowly Backhawks team that only won one series of a mere four postseasons over his 14-year NHL HHOF career.
  
• Marcel Dionne never even made it to a conference finals over his 18 year career, and never even was on a divisional championship squad.
  
• Dale Hawerchuk famously never went deep into the playoffs in Winnipeg or Buffalo but in his 16th season he made the Stanley Cup Finals in Philly.
  
• Mats Sundin had an 18-year career, mostly captaining Leafs teams that never made the Finals.

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[tarheelhockey]

In b4 Mario

 

[McGarnagle]

Conor McDavid

 

[JackSlater]

Mats Sundin had an 18-year career, mostly captaining Leafs teams that just once made the conference finals.

Toronto twice made the conference final while Sundin was captain.

This topic makes me think of Paul Kariya. Also Selanne and Bathgate, though both ended up on stronger teams in the very late stages of their primes.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Mats Sundin had an 18-year career, mostly captaining Leafs teams that just once made the conference finals.

By once I assume you mean 3 times.

 

[VanIslander]

Lol.

I forgot he played 8 games of a 20-game Leafs run.

I knew he went to the conference in '99 where Hasek & co. bounced the Leafs in 5 games.

Please school me on his team's other very good postseason over his 18-year career?

 

[GMR]

The Calgary Flames were a bad team for pretty much all of Iginla's career. They missed the playoff 10 times during his stay there. You'll be hard pressed to find a first ballot Hall of Famer (which he will be) whose team missed the playoffs that frequently.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Kovalchuk with the Atlanta Thrashers.

 

[MS]

Wilf Paiement didn't play for a winning team until his 10th NHL season when he was almost on the decline.

Atlanta-era Kovalchuk is an excellent call.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Gilles Meloche with the Golden Seals.
Ziggy Palffy with the Islanders

 

[MadLuke]

Please school me on his team's other very good postseason over his 18-year career?

A simple search would do no ?

Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team statistics and history at hockeydb.com

During Sundin time with the Leaf they were
http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?aggre...e=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=points,wins

the team was #9 in regular season wins, #6 in goal scored, #10 in playoff wins.

They were not a very bad teams for long stretch, during Pat Quinn first 6 year's they went to the second round or better in the playoff 5 times.

They were even above mediocre from 94-95 to before the lock out.

 

[joe dirte]

A simple search would do no ?

Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team statistics and history at hockeydb.com

During Sundin time with the Leaf they were
http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?aggre...e=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=points,wins

the team was #9 in regular season wins, #6 in goal scored, #10 in playoff wins.

They were not a very bad teams for long stretch, during Pat Quinn first 6 year's they went to the second round or better in the playoff 5 times.

They were even above mediocre from 94-95 to before the lock out.

Even after the lockout they were barely missing the playoffs. Not a basement team at all (regrettably).

 

[Michael Farkas]

Not upper echelon, but recent...Shane Doan and Eric Staal seem to be consistently showing 14, 15, 16 at the blackjack table an awful lot...

 

[tony d]

Joe Sakic on some of those Nordiques teams in the late 80's/early 90's.

 

[kaiser matias]

Until this year Jay Bouwmeester would be a good candidate.

Olli Jokinen would also be someone to consider.

 

[solidmotion]

rick nash / columbus (was he that good tho?)
marian gaborik / minnesota
john tavares / islanders

 

[Ryan Pat80]

Even after the lockout they were barely missing the playoffs. Not a basement team at all (regrettably).

Yup, isn't that more frustrating than anything?

 

[Nick Hansen]

Taylor Hall with the Oilers and Devils. Could change this year.

 

[joe dirte]

Yup, isn't that more frustrating than anything?

Yes it was. If this were the "spent 5 years on one of the most painfully mediocre teams ever" sundin would be the easy winner. Poor guy went to vancouver after that too.

 

[Jyssy]

Bure in Florida.

 

[MS]

Mike Liut was the best goalie of the 1980s but spent basically his whole career for the Purina-era Blues and the Stinky Whale.

 

[Gambitman]

Not exactly what you are looking for but Guy Charron is an interesting case. Plays for Montreal and Detroit early in his career, but I think Is sent down before the playoffs start. He then develops into a point a game player for several seasons. 700+ games and never 1 game in the playoffs.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Roy Worters won multiple Hart trophies but never won a full playoff series (he did win single preliminary round that I think was a 3 games / most-total-goals-wins thing).

I agree with @MadLuke that the Sundin-era Leafs weren't very bad. They were generally above average team that couldn't get over the hump.

 

[brachyrynchos]

Yashin didn't have much to work with his first couple of seasons in Ottawa, led the lowly Sens across the board until Alfredsson showed up and they got a little better.

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Dennis Maruk scored 561 points in 501 games in his first 7 seasons with the Seals/Barons/North Stars & the Capitals without ever seeing the playoffs. This was followed by 4 consecutive playoff appearances in which he scored 36 points in 34 games while slipping to a 0.89 PPG in the regular season.