What players seemingly have all the tools but never quite put it all together?

[Laveuglette]

Alexei Kovalev. Probably the most talented player to ever play, never had the drive to be the best.

A 1,000 point career is a disappointment for someone with his skillset.

No. Kovalev was a hell of a player and it's no disappointment, as talented as he was.

 

[mm11]

Brock Nelson.

At one point I thought he would develop into a 30 goal scorer, who played a strong 2 way game.
Instead he is an inconsistent 20+ goal scorer who is lazy defensively and disappears for several games at a time.

yes Nelson just does not compete at a high level to get to the next level unfortunately...

 

[Souffle]

I think Pouliot is a really good example. There is nothing he cannot do on the ice. I mean, he can even fight. He just isn't the sum of his parts. He is an inferior player overall to many players who have inferior tools.

 

[Werewolf]

Drouin.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Matt Duchene

 

[schnapshot]

Nathan Beaulieu

 

[Crocket]

Cody Hodgson, super talented but just kinda fell from grace, same with Alex Burmistrov to a lesser extent. He would show strokes of brilliance then just do something completely stupid right after.

Ya, Cody had a really bad back injury and never really recovered.

 

[Charlie Conway]

As far as recent Rangers go, John Moore and Michael Del Zotto check those boxes.

Moore was always referred to as a "all the tools but no toolbox" kind of guy, and he'd wow you with some great plays, but he'd also have some head-scratchers. He's stuck in the NHL though, so he's doing something right.

Not sure what Del Zotto's problem was. Maybe it was just being a young guy in New York. Nice to see he's carved out a career, though. Doing decently with Vancouver, and he has an A to boot.

I've had a lot of guys over the years who I thought would be stars (or at least part of the hall of very good), but they never put it together, either due to attitude, injuries, or just a game not translating well -- Peter Mueller (concussion), Filatov (Filly don't do rebounds), Torrey Mitchell (I think the broken leg affected his game), Prucha, Lehtonen, etc.

Anisimov was another guy who I thought never found that second gear.

 

[Morgs]

Players drafted between 2010 and 2014.

Brett Connolly
Ryan Strome
Ryan Murphy
Sam Bennett (still too early)
Elias Lindholm
Michael Dal Colle
Kasperi Kapanen (still too early)
Valeri Nichushkin

 

[Paralyzer]

Ask OKG. He'd have listed every Flames player in Flames history as players who have all the tools but can't put it together.