Your view of Keith Primeau?

[overg]

Keith was so irritating to watch in both 95 and 96 playoffs... Grrrr.

This is going to be one of the weakest defenses of all time (my overall feelings about Primeau are pretty clearly set forth above), but I'm pretty sure that it was either in '95 or '96 when Primeau had a good playoff series against the Blackhawks. He was a physical presence who created his fair share of opportunities.

Of course, the fact that I can distinctly remember a single good playoff series should tell you everything about the rest of them.

 

[thom]

Good player but with size and skill he should have been twice the player.Also maybe not a great team mate he seemed not very popular dont know if its fact or myth

 

[Brooklanders*]

Guy was a huge underachiever.

Hands of stone.

 

[nik jr]

This is going to be one of the weakest defenses of all time (my overall feelings about Primeau are pretty clearly set forth above), but I'm pretty sure that it was either in '95 or '96 when Primeau had a good playoff series against the Blackhawks. He was a physical presence who created his fair share of opportunities.

Of course, the fact that I can distinctly remember a single good playoff series should tell you everything about the rest of them.

he was very good vs chicago in '95 WCF. obviously not as good as '04 (he was definitely better than his stats show), but still good. scored 4 of his 9p in that series (5 games, and belfour was great, other than the OT goals).

i think he is being bashed too much in this thread, but he was a primadonna and a disappointing player.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Another blown 1990s draft pick.

 

[Epsilon]

Another blown 1990s draft pick.

Eh, that's a bit excessive. It's only "blown" if you use perfect 20/20 hindsight (i.e. "should have picked Jagr/Brodeur"). The Red Wings were able to get some serviceable play from Primeau for a while and then flip him for a key component of their championship teams. That's pretty good return on a draft pick, even one in the top 5 of a strong draft.

 

[MS]

Guy was a huge underachiever.

Hands of stone.

Another blown 1990s draft pick.

As much as I don't like him, this sort of thing is excessive.

He was a multi-time 30-goal scorer who was twice selected for best-on-best international tournaments.

He wasn't a pure sniper obviously but didn't have 'hands of stone' and definitely wasn't a 'blown pick'. A disappointment, yes.

 

[overg]

Eh, that's a bit excessive. It's only "blown" if you use perfect 20/20 hindsight (i.e. "should have picked Jagr/Brodeur"). The Red Wings were able to get some serviceable play from Primeau for a while and then flip him for a key component of their championship teams. That's pretty good return on a draft pick, even one in the top 5 of a strong draft.

"Could've had Jagr or Brodeur!" hindsight is the best hindsight of all. Given how many Europeans the Wings stole over the years, I find it hard to get too worked up about this particular outcome. It's mainly just a fun, "holy bleep, how good would the Wings have been if they had either Jagr or Brodeur instead of Primeau?"

 

[tarheelhockey]

For that matter, Mike Ricci (the guy who went after Primeau) would have been a solid pick for the Wings, in terms of what they actually needed 5 years later.

 

[mrhockey193195]

For the life of me, I still don't understand why the Flyers trade Brind'Amour for him.

Hindsight is obviously 20-20, but still...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

For the life of me, I still don't understand why the Flyers trade Brind'Amour for him.

Hindsight is obviously 20-20, but still...

the answer is actually 100% predictable: OMGSIZEORZZ. it is booby clarke, after all.

RALEIGH, N.C. - As the story goes, the Flyers never wanted to trade Rod Brind'Amour.

He was a well-liked guy in the locker room, a well-respected leader and heck of a hockey player.

But Eric Lindros got in the way.

Not purposely, mind you. Old No. 88 didn't feel the need to sabotage Brind'Amour's career with the Flyers --- but his penchant for wooziness after a couple blows to the noggin left the Flyers in a bit of a pickle.

Back in the 1999-2000 season, the Flyers were a team built around size and strength. They were a team that punished you all over the ice with their physical prowess, and Lindros was the leader of the charge.

But when he went down with a concussion, then-G.M. Bob Clarke was left with a brutal decision: Plug on without Lindros and his size, or find a suitable replacement.

His decision, as tough as it was, centered around acquiring Keith Primeau from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Primeau had Lindros size but not quite Lindros skill. Still if the Flyers were going to bring home that elusive Stanley Cup, they would need a big man in the middle. And who knew how long Lindros would be out of action?

Try as he might, Clarke couldn't convince Hurricanes G.M. Jim Rutherford to part with Primeau for anything he offered. Rutherford was stuck on one player: Brind'Amour.

Clarke pondered the decision for days. He consulted with his most trusted assistants and advisers. He met with owner Ed Snider. Brind'Amour was such a valuable player, but to win a championship in the pre-lockout NHL, a two-way forward was more expendable than size down the middle.

So Clarke pulled the trigger and set off a wave of historical events that no one --- not Rutherford nor Brind'Amour --- could ever imagine. . .

http://www.delcotimes.com/general-news/20110217/brindamour-recalls-his-time-as-a-flyer

 

[BryzyInPhilly]

He was a good Flyer and a good leader. Probably the best captain the Flyers have had in twenty years (Pronger was also good, and Richards too in his earlier days). He didn't bring whatever primmadonna history he had to Philadelphia, and he was a heart and soul character that clearly had the respect of the team. He was not the most skilled, but he was tough and boy did he have a will to win. He may be overrated for that 2004 playoff run, but he absolutely carried that team on his back. Had they gone all the way, he would've won Conn Smythe. Really would've been one of the most memorable gutsy playoff performances in recent memory. The guy just wanted to win that badly.

EDIT im an idiot google searched this thread and then realized it wasn't active oops

 

[blood gin]

Overrated player. He got so much hype and then you look at what he actually produced and it just doesn't add up. That era in general started with guys like Lindros and Primeau and then snowballed to where every team wanted it's gigantic but raw unpolished linebacker prospect. Lots of Andrei Nazarov's, Shawn Antoski, Sean Prongers, Turner Stevensons floating around the league doing nothing of significance.

Primeau was a pretty fluid skater and good with the puck for a guy his size, but he didn't quite have the power and drive you'd expect. Not as physically dominant as he should've been. A lot of people were just waiting and waiting around for him to take that next step but he never did

 

[sr edler]

Primeau always felt irrelevant for us hockey lovers.

That Esposito quote from 04 is gold though.

 

[Moose Head]

I believe that Fedorov snub Phil mentioned earlier may have had to do with the addition of larionov. Primeau, a centre who didn't like playing wing, didn't like that the Wings added another centre and was probably vocal about it in the dressing room, pissing off the Russians on the team.

 

[VanIslander]

overrated primadonna who had one great playoff run in the twilight of his career after years of disappointment and for some reason is remembered for it.

THIS is what I clicked on the thread to write.

He scored 30 goals in 3 different seasons.

Heck, so does Jeff Skinner.

Primeau was a constant diappointment in the goal-scoring dep't. In his 14-year career he continually let us down as a so-called goal scorer:

• He had ONE 30+ goal season in Detroit on a team with two players that had 50+ goals!! And another player more than him. Then that postseason Primean got ZERO playoff goals on a team where 14 (FOURTEEN) Wings scored goals.
  
• He had ONE 30-goal season in Carolina (was the only 30-goal scorer in Carolina that season) and yet in the playoffs that year he had ZERO goals, a teammate had 5 and four other Canes scored goals.
  
• He had ONE 30+ goal season in Philly (was the only 30-goal scorer in Philly that season) and yet in the playoffs that year he had ZERO goals, while 9 (NINE) Flyers scored in the playoffs that year.
  
• Over his first 110 NHL playoff games he had.... 9 goals (on 198 shots!!).

Then later in 2004 he FINALLY had ONE decent playoff year in goals with 9 as he led the team to the conference finals. That is all some fans remember. I remember saying: Where the heck was THAT Primeau for the past 13 friggin' seasons?!!

 

[tarheelhockey]

Heck, so does Jeff Skinner.

Hmmm... this makes me appreciate what Skinner's doing a bit more. Post-1993, having 4+ seasons of 30 goals is an indicator of being a pretty good player.

 

[Rebels57]

Keith Primeau's performance in the 2004 Playoffs alone was enough to cement the legacy of his Flyers tenure. It should also be noted that he was setting himself up for a better back 9 of his career than front 9 of his career. He was named Captain in Philly and fit like a glove.

Unfortunately, he lost a season due to the 04-05 lockout and then he sustained the career-ending concussion just 9 games into the 05-06 season (7 points in those 9 games) thanks to a late hit by Perezhogin. That's right, he played just 9 NHL games after the 2004 Playoff run. Without the lockout and that concussion, he probably goes on to have several strong seasons in Philly after that run, which would have altered a lot of the perceptions of him around here.

Everything that came before his Flyers tenure, I can't speak on.

 

[stu the grim reaper]

He just needed the right (not detroit) environment to become the hockey player he was going to become

He got into that fistfight with probert during practice though--which i cant decide if thats more unprofessional or more just strangely immature

 

[Hockeyholic]

Always wondered why Primeau, Recchi, Stevens weren't a candidate for 02 Olympics.

 

[tony d]

Very good power forward who may have been slightly over rated.

 

[Hobnobs]

Primeaudonna is enough to describe him as a player. Highly overrated because of one good playoffs offensively. Couldve been a really great third/second line center on great teams but preffered being a below average first line center on mediocre/bad teams.

 

[GlitchMarner]

Then 2004 happens. He scored 7 goals that year. He made the all-star game. In the history of the all-star game I remember the comment that there quite possibly hadn't been a worse player playing in a season to make the all-star game. Then Primeau comes out of nowhere and scored 9 goals in the playoffs. People went nuts for him. I remember at this point thinking Primeau was an afterthought but when the 2004 World Cup team was announced in the middle of the playoffs I remember people on these boards and a specific interview with Wayne Gretzky by CBC where he was asked just how in the world "someone" like Brad Richards - and they said him by name - could make the team over Primeau. Let that sink in for a minute. This is mid-postseason, Richards eventually beats Philly and goes onto win the Conn Smythe and the hockey world can't understand how he gets picked over Primeau. Richards just finished a season with 79 points.

Ummm... what?

There were people who actually though friggin Keith Primeau was a better hockey player than Brad Richards?!

I remember Primeau mostly for his 2003 and 2004 playoffs. I didn't like the guy. He just rubbed me the wrong way. Yeah, he was a thorn in my team's side in 2003 and had that one great game where he owned the Leafs in 2004 (he scored a hattrick and had four points), but it wasn't just that. I just felt the guy was being over-hyped. He kind of came out of nowhere and rose to prominence quickly.

After the Leafs were eliminated from the 2004 playoffs, I cheered for TB the rest of the way. It was great to see Richards, Lecavalier and St. Louis light up the Flyers. If the Flyers had won that series, I think there's a good chance they would have beat Calgary and "Preems" might have won the Conn Smythe... ugh.

He covered up many years of disappointment and being considered not a very good teammate with that one playoff run.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

As a Flyers fan, I have no complaints. He very nearly willed us to the finals in 04, and had we'd beaten Tampa in game 7 I think we would have gone on to defeat Calgary in the finals. I've never seen anything like that playoff run.

I dont care what he did. The Flyers never should of traded Brind'Amour for him. Clarke wanted to trade Lindros to Carolina but Snider squashed it.
Of course the reasons the trade happened are up for debate.

 

[Roboturner913]

Gotta hand it to Rutherford for getting Brind'Amour in exchange for him. Wow does that ever look like a steal in hindsight.