Who was the biggest NHL 1st overall bust in the last 35 years?
- Thread starter G1GBallday
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I chose Daigle also. Looking at the top five in that draft (1993), Pronger was picked 2nd by Brian Burke's Hartford Whalers, Chris Gratton was 3rd & Paul Kariya 4th.
The year (1980) Doug Wickenheiser was picked first overall by the Montreal Canadiens, Dave Babych was chosen 2nd & Denis Savard 3rd. Larry Murphy was chosen 4th.
In 1983, the Minnesota North Stars pulled a shocker & chose Brian Lawton first overall. Sylvain Turgeon was next, followed by the great Pat Lafontaine. Another hockey great, Steve Yzerman, was chosen 4th.
Finally, in the 1974 draft, Washington had just entered the league & chose highly touted Greg Joly with the first overall pick. He could have been a good one if they had rushed him into the league (with one of history's worse teams at that) instead of sending him back to junior. Wilf Paiement was chosen 2nd, Rick Hampton 3rd, and Clark Gillies 4th. Believe it or not, but the Mtl Canadiens had 5 first-round picks in that round. They chose Cam Connor in 5th, Doug Risebrough in 7th, Rick Chartraw in 10th, Mario Tremblay in 12th & Gord McTavish in 16th. To put it mildly, 1974 wasn't exactly the kind of drafts that franchises are built on. It was a very poor draft, containing mostly of pluggers. For me, the best player to come out of that draft was Pierre Larouche, chosen 7th overall by the Penguins. Some might argue that Wilf Paiement, Clark Gillies & Mario Tremblay had better careers, but i still say Peter had the most talent & had a pretty decent career himself.
The year (1980) Doug Wickenheiser was picked first overall by the Montreal Canadiens, Dave Babych was chosen 2nd & Denis Savard 3rd. Larry Murphy was chosen 4th.
In 1983, the Minnesota North Stars pulled a shocker & chose Brian Lawton first overall. Sylvain Turgeon was next, followed by the great Pat Lafontaine. Another hockey great, Steve Yzerman, was chosen 4th.
Finally, in the 1974 draft, Washington had just entered the league & chose highly touted Greg Joly with the first overall pick. He could have been a good one if they had rushed him into the league (with one of history's worse teams at that) instead of sending him back to junior. Wilf Paiement was chosen 2nd, Rick Hampton 3rd, and Clark Gillies 4th. Believe it or not, but the Mtl Canadiens had 5 first-round picks in that round. They chose Cam Connor in 5th, Doug Risebrough in 7th, Rick Chartraw in 10th, Mario Tremblay in 12th & Gord McTavish in 16th. To put it mildly, 1974 wasn't exactly the kind of drafts that franchises are built on. It was a very poor draft, containing mostly of pluggers. For me, the best player to come out of that draft was Pierre Larouche, chosen 7th overall by the Penguins. Some might argue that Wilf Paiement, Clark Gillies & Mario Tremblay had better careers, but i still say Peter had the most talent & had a pretty decent career himself.
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You serious Techie? Lindros was definite HOF material if he didn't get all of those concussions during his years with the Flyers. He was also never projected as being 'the next Gretzky'. I remember most experts at the time comparing him more to Messier than Gretz. He was being dubbed as the next phenom since Lemieux, which was partly true & the consensus among everyone at the time. But again, injuries killed his career.Techman said:
If Cam Neely's in the HOF, then i think there should be a place for Lindros.
True, the Flyers paid a lot for his services. The Rangers' offer was actually a better one. But at the time, everyone wanted him & no one knew how good Peter Forsberg would be. It was a no-brainer to draft him & every single team would have, at the time.
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I'm not saying he was the biggest bust, as in the topic of the thread. I am saying that he was the worst overall pick, as in the poll question, as he refused to play for the team that drafted him. It doesn't matter to me what he did or did not achieve in his playing carreer. I never respected the guy because of his refusal and I never will.
Techman said:
How can you say he was the worst overall pick when every single GM would have picked him over anybody else?
What about Mario Lemieux? Did you respect him? He refused to budge from his seat when the Penguins drafted him. Classless!
Doc Holliday said:
2 things-
I am a Ranger fan.
I remember we did make a better offer than the Flyers..but since supposedly there were 2 contracts signed ( ??? ) , a mediator/ judge ruled in the Flyers favor .
I wish I could remember what our offer for Eric was.
It was Cash, John Van Biesbrouck, James Patrick, Darren Turcotte...I am sure some of it is wrong
But I remember the Flyers gave up Steve Duschesne, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Chris Simon, Forsberg, and Cash
Ironic how he ended up being a Ranger later...
Mario- he was on " Live at 5 " in NYC the day before the draft, and stated how he would love to play for he Devils !!
Who did the Devils draft ??? Kirk Muller
Best Regards
Smuler
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smuler said:
Of course, Mario was being politically correct. If he would have been on Detroit radio, he would have said he'd love to play for the Red Wings, and so on.
I remember that season quite well. Both teams were at the bottom of the league's standings & Mario Lemieux was the prize catch. If my memory isn't failing me, they played one another in the final game. The loser would wind up with Lemieux, and the winner of the game with the 2nd overall pick, which among all consensus would be Kirk Muller. Pittsburgh tanked the game & the Devils wound up picking Muller. If Pittsburgh had won that game, kiss all of those Stanley Cups goodbye & the team wouldn't be playing in Pittsburgh anymore.
I think it was a contract thing for Lemieux, its old and i was maybe just newly born when he was draft(think he started in 85) but it was not that he didn't want to play for the penguins.
On the other hand Lindros said loud and clear i would not play for quebec, because its a french town, even of the guy was canadian he refused to play for a canadian team, thats lacking class...
As for the vote, the only one i know there is Daigle, overall he was not so bad, i think he got all this negative things because he was picked first and that Kariya for exemple had a much better career, but Daigle being selected 15+ rank would have been a nice addition to any teams im sure.
On the other hand Lindros said loud and clear i would not play for quebec, because its a french town, even of the guy was canadian he refused to play for a canadian team, thats lacking class...
As for the vote, the only one i know there is Daigle, overall he was not so bad, i think he got all this negative things because he was picked first and that Kariya for exemple had a much better career, but Daigle being selected 15+ rank would have been a nice addition to any teams im sure.
The fact he posed in a female nurse uniform for Upper Deck (can't remember if it was his rookie card or not) didn't help. But i'll admit he had a lot of guts (or was he an idiot?) for doing it.Halloween Mike said:
johnhenrygalt said:
It's because of situations like that (where teams at the bottom of the league were suspected of tanking it just to get a better pick) that the lottery system was implemented. It's no longer a guarantee that the last-place team automatically gets to chose first.
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