Which past prospect were you completely wrong about?

[blood gin]

Well ..... Wayne Gretzky, believe it or not. I first saw him when he was sixteen. He was about 5’8” and perhaps 150 in his equipment at that point. More importantly, he was quick in short spaces but definitely not fast on his skates. Small guys have to be fast, right, especially in the 70’s! If you ever saw Keith Gretzky play, that’s what he looked like.

I think Wayne got three goals and two assists in the game but there didn’t seem any reason for it to keep happening. I mean, the kid would go stand in the corner and for some reason the puck would bounce off three players, the back of the goalie’s head and land on his stick. Obviously it was just luck and it couldn’t keep happening ...

Well, he grew a bit, worked very hard on his skating and shot. And that weird thing about the puck landing on his stick. It wasn’t luck. It was magic and Einstein level hockey IQ. It lasted for the next twenty plus years.

A lot of very smart seasoned hockey people thought the same. Basically they thought he would be beaten out of the league

 

[blood gin]

Kurtis Foster was going to be the next Al Macinnis

The entire 2017-2018 Golden Nights

Also watched a lot of early Zdeno Chara with the Islanders. Newborn giraffe on skates. Handled the puck like I live grenade. Never thought he'd make it in the NHL

 

[IceManCat]

I was mad the Panthers took Barkov in 13 I really wanted Seth Jones. I was clearly wrong

 

[Nordiques1979]

Yakupov was a major let down for me, still don't know what went wrong with him... Beaulieu is looking more and more like a wasted talent as well. And there is this old Hawks prospects Kyle Beach, he's playing in Europe now, with average stats. I always thought he would be a blast in NHL, he had a great combination of size, grit and skill, dunno what happened either.

 

[ello]

Alexander Salak. Thought he was an athletic specimen who would eventually become the Blackhawks' long term starter after Niemi was given the boot. Thankfully Crawford was in the system, since Salak has a grand total of 2 NHL games under his belt.

To be totally honest though, I still think Salak could've been a good NHL goalie had a team been more patient with him. His SEL and KHL stats are outstanding, and he played on a pretty poor Rockford AHL team. Regardless, I would imagine that the NHL ship sailed a long time ago for him.

 

[ello]

Kurtis Foster was going to be the next Al Macinnis

The entire 2017-2018 Golden Nights

Also watched a lot of early Zdeno Chara with the Islanders. Newborn giraffe on skates. Handled the puck like I live grenade. Never thought he'd make it in the NHL

Can hardly blame you here, most guys like him never make it. If anything him making it has caused some NHL teams to waste some picks looking for the next Zdeno Chara.

 

[krutovsdonut]

former giants season ticket holder here. i very much underestimated how lucic and kane would do in the nhl.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Scott Harrington. Loved him in the WJCs and Mem Cup, thought he'd be a high end defensive defenseman and a top 4 fixture with the Pens for a decade plus.

 

[JabbaJabba]

I thought that Emerson Etem would become a 30 goal scoring top-6 forward in the NHL. A lot of other Ducks fans had high hopes for him, but it didn't work out.

 

[Kevs Security]

I was mad the Panthers took Barkov in 13 I really wanted Seth Jones. I was clearly wrong

I mean, a Barkov for Jones -trade would be even. Win-win. They are equal in terms of value. Jones might be worth slightly more than Barkov right now. What a great draft that was.

 

[kelsier]

As a Finn I spend a lot of time viewing Finnish youngsters and while I normally do my homework for what comes down to other promising prospects beyond the borders and over Atlantic, I can't state that I would be watching any NA'n jr league games which obviously narrows down the scope. Nonetheless I've really enjoyed these past years of watching the new generation of young Finnish hockey players. So here's mine:

Saarela (Aleksi) - Was terribly wrong about him and thought he'd be a star at the NHL cause he showed so much promise and talent almost all the way until his draft season. Maybe all the injuries hammered him down or he just didn't quite have it all.
Aho - I thought he'd be a borderline NHL player at best and believed the hype he was getting in the Finnish media was mostly due to playing in the same team as Puljujärvi. Today everytime I see the "kid" it feels like watching young S. Koivu all over again.
Teräväinen - I'm not sure if I've ever seen as dominate performance in the WJC where a player leads a team - which should almost have no place in the tournament - in to the gold medal. He made Saku Mäenalainen the top goal scorer (like what the h***) that year, a player who's unlikely to carve out any kind of NHL career (he did just sign a one year NHL contract but is more likely to end up in the AHL). But honestly Teuvo looks more like a complimentary player especially when compared to his today's line mate (Aho), who is pulling the strings and driving the line. Clearly he didn't bust or anything. Still reflecting to my personal expectations it doesn't look like he'll be that player I thought he could become. In my opinion, he came short in the physical aspects which never really elevated to the next level.

That would make one good miss, one misjudgement and one bad call. At the end of the day NHL is just a different breed and one can fail to make it or come short in the way no matter how much international or domestic success a youngster has in the CV. Likewise, all the failings come to show how difficult it can be to correctly assess a prospect no matter how much time you waste on watching him.

 

[Tube Skates]

After watching Nico Hischier all year in Halifax I didn’t think that he was ready for the NHL last year let alone have the year he did. Thought he was to weak and small. Good for him. Great talent

 

[Captain Clutch]

Alexander Salak. Thought he was an athletic specimen who would eventually become the Blackhawks' long term starter after Niemi was given the boot. Thankfully Crawford was in the system, since Salak has a grand total of 2 NHL games under his belt.

To be totally honest though, I still think Salak could've been a good NHL goalie had a team been more patient with him. His SEL and KHL stats are outstanding, and he played on a pretty poor Rockford AHL team. Regardless, I would imagine that the NHL ship sailed a long time ago for him.

Salak was very much on his way to being a future starter and had a meltdown in the Hawks locker room which apparently was so bad they just waived him, which was astonishing at the time because he had the talent, and it was obvious, to be a very solid NHL starter. The reason he did well in the KHL is because he was damn good. I talked to a Hawks blogger who told me that Bowman was very high on him and that he was going to be putting pressure on Crawford going forward as the starter. Goaltenders are such headcases, there are endless examples of guys who just can't handle the (immense) pressure of that position. Another guy who was a prized Kings prospect (Patrik Bartosak) got drunk after losing a game 7 for the Monarchs in the AHL play-offs several years ago, went home and beat up his girlfriend. This all happened shortly after Slava Voynov rammed his wife's head thru a TV, so the Kings cut him immediately and he was off back to the Czech Republic, never to be heard from again.

 

[Garnet76]

One of the biggest has to be brendl. That guy was unstoppable for the hitmen in the WHL. Another guy that I thought was doing to be a big scorer in the NHL was Eric Fehr. He still managed to have a solid carrer

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

Hated the Jaden Schwartz pick. Wanted Tarasenko. It worked out in the strangest way but still didn't like Schwartz until he was great the next year at Colorado College.

I thought Marek Schwarz in 2004 was going to save the Blues.

Non Blues I missed either because I loved them too much or hated them too much -Galchenyuk, Puljujarvi, Pajaarvi, Luke Schenn, probably 50 more.

 

[Hfbsux]

I remember being really pissed when Montreal picked Carey Price instead of Gilbert Brule. I also thought Rico Fata was gonna be an absolute star.

 

[Whitesnake]

Thought for sure that Evgeny Grachev would be a surefire 2nd line forward.

 

[GoJackets1]

I thought Filatov was going to be ridiculous. Although I've convinced myself that the moment his NHL career started the downturn was when he got blown up in open ice in one of those opening season games in Sweden. He never wanted to carry the puck after that. Among other CBJ prospects, I thought Tomas Kubalik would be a solid middle-6 forward, and that Tomas Popperle would be some sort of NHL caliber goalie.

Also, I went to Miami U for school, and I'd yet to be wrong about someone from there making it to the pros (Czarnik, Kuraly for example, Belpedio is next, and Riley Barber not making it), except for probably the most obvious one: Jack Roslovic. I should have known better, but in the one season he was there, he was very obviously one of the most skilled guys on the ice, but he was so unbelievably lazy. I should have chalked it up to him feeling that his competition was beneath him, which it pretty much was, but I watched enough of his games to think he just was that lazy. Thought he wouldn't make it. I'm glad he's proving me wrong.

 

[ManofSteel55]

A lot of very smart seasoned hockey people thought the same. Basically they thought he would be beaten out of the league[/QUOTE]

Don Cherry probably still thinks this

 

[blood gin]

Cherry still slips up and says Soviets.

 

[Brownies]

Can't remember if I already answered, but Marc-Andre Fleury and Sean Couturier. I really loved watching Fleury in Junior, but I saw him look bad a few times against Rimouski (I think) and didn't thought he was worth a 1st pick overall. Good career.

I thought Sean Couturier didn't produce enough in the Q for his offence to translate well to the NHL, but he just had a really really good season and he's really good defensively. Good for him to "prove" me wrong !

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Cowen
Rundblad
Lehner

Sigh.

 

[Brownies]

A lot of very smart seasoned hockey people thought the same. Basically they thought he would be beaten out of the league

Yup, if you read articles from that times, lots of people expected him to fail. That's why I have a problem with people today saying that Gretzky would not be able to dominate in 2018... People said the same years ago and they were wrong. People keep talking about hockey IQ and well, Gretzky had that in spades.

 

[Gains]

I didn't think Dumba would be a Top Pairing Dman.

 

[blood gin]

I thought that Emerson Etem would become a 30 goal scoring top-6 forward in the NHL. A lot of other Ducks fans had high hopes for him, but it didn't work out.

I did too. Every time he was called up he had a few impressive moments but fizzled out