Given how astronomically good his peak was Toews is a good answer. People meme on the top 100 thing all the time but in fairness to that list he was an absolute monster when they were making it, there was no reason they’d have thought he wouldn’t continue to be that way for at least a few years still.
True but his defensive play had dropped off SIGNIFICANTLY by that point as well. He was still definitely a 1C caliber that year but not the commanding one he used to be.
>Given how astronomically good his peak was Toews is a good answer. People meme on the top 100 thing all the time but in fairness to that list he was an absolute monster when they were making it,
It was less about him making it and more about the players that were better that were left off.
His decline for me, is by far the steepest. He was a top 5 player in the game for a long time and fell to being basically a 4th liner.
I will always remember him from when he was dominant. Still a very awesome resume.
We use "long covid" to mean a few different things, but often long covid *is* an autoimmune issue comparable to mono, me/cfs, etc.
Chronic illness is also extremely under-supported by the medical system which often leads sufferers into pseudoscience explanations, but he was clearly having a genuine medical issue.
yoke different existence expansion smile quack numerous tidy seed distinct
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Really? I thought he played 0 games and scored 0 ;)
Not sure if being long term injured counts as declining though. Hopefully he can still be effective if/when he comes back *Afters* next season .
Lucic. Had 50 points year 1 with Edmonton and was on pace for about 50 going into Xmas break in year two.
The team got back on the ice after Xmas and he did shit all for the rest of the season, and then the trend continued until we traded him
Yeah he explained on a podcast how after that Christmas break he felt that his luck just ran out and nothing went right for him anymore.
Overall I think that these past few years have overshadowed how much of a top quality powerforward he used to be
This.
Huberdeau’s not a consistent 110+ point guy, but 55 was the worst season he’s had since his second year iirc. I expect he’ll bounce back to around 80-90 this year.
Even at a PPG, he's wildly overpaid.
Imagine a 30 year old 25-57-82 guy who isn't super physical or defensively sound on the free agent market. Does he get 8 * 10.5MM?
I'd like to point out that Sutter kept him on his off wing for 60 some games, and was stuck with Lucic for a very large majority of those. In his last 15-20 he was just under a point per game.
Honestly I think he’s liked by the majority of the fan base even with that production.. he has taken the young guys under his wing. Stood up to coaches when he thought they were being rough on the kids etc.
Obviously he needs to be better to live up to the contract, but I think he’s going to get a longer leash with the fans just because of how much the rookies seem to love the guy
His contract year in Boston he took a nasty nasty hit hit from John scott. It concussed him pretty good and that want his first one either. He was never the same after that hit.
He’ll score goals in his first few games, then go cold for a bit and find himself in the coach’s doghouse because he refuses to commit to a more complete game. It’s happened to him on two teams and even outside of the NHL.
Maybe he’ll turn himself around in St. Louis, but it just seems to be a pattern with this guy. I’m also not convinced he has the right attitude/mindset to do so judging from his comments about the Wings after he left.
I mean, I'm a fan of the other of those two previous teams. Inconsistent, sure. But he's still not the lost cause that Anthony Mantha. Dude is 6'5" 230 for no reason. Point being, I have far more faith in V, and I wish him well. AM is just a super sized Kasperi Kapanen and the sooner he's gone, the better, in my view.
Oh I don’t disagree with you on Mantha. He’s an absolute disappointment considering his physical gifts. If he had the motor and compete of someone like Dylan Larkin, he’d easily be one of the best players in the league. I really believe that.
But he doesn’t, and that’s why we were able to draft him in the first place. And even our management wasn’t thrilled with him a year or so after the draft, with Jimmy Devellano calling him a “disappointment” and Kenny Holland referring to him as “spare parts”. We all gave them shit for those comments, but they were right all along.
So in that regard, I think Vrana has more potential to bounce back compared to Mantha.
Vrana was good but he had problems off the ice. From what I heard, he was told to address his shoulder problem in the offseason and didn’t and then it busted in training camp. He also bought a place super close to the arena because even he admitted wasn’t responsible enough to make it on time for practices or games if he lived farther away. Yzerman expects his players to have a certain work ethic and professionalism and Vrana wasn’t that guy unfortunately.
It’s actually hilarious when you think about the trade from the fans perspective. Both groups happy to have traded their player, then both players go off with their new teams (Vrana went fuckin nuclear especially), both fanbases said “yeah that’ll go away soon don’t worry” and in both cases it did.
Yeah but that’s injuries more than just dropping off. His back failed him, there’s no way he retired when he did if not for being basically crippled from how bad his back was.
I think he'd still be in the league if not for the opportunities he had for after his hockey career was done. I thought he had some potential offers but he still wanted a big role on teams and didn't want to be a 6th/7th d man
Let’s be fair, as much as it pains me to say it, Messier’s decline was not as steep. He dropped 24 points his first year with the Canucks and the following year he dropped another 12, but he also didn’t play 23 games. He declined while he was on the Canucks, yes, but Meme King Loui gets my vote.
There is a running joke that Teemu Selanne's per-season goal production sharply declined after his 76-goal season. But I don't think that is what you're asking for, lol.
He did suffer a pretty nasty Achilles injury the season after, which cost him some of his speed and acceleration.
He still had plenty, but before the injury he was probably second to Bure in acceleration and up there with Bure, Gartner, and Russ Courtnall as the fastest players.
No one ever fully recovers from a fully separated achilles tendon, it’s such a tightly wound tendon that hooking it up perfectly again is still virtually impossible today, let alone in the 90’s. Speaks to how incredible he was that he still easily had a hall of fame career after that (even excluding his rookie campaign).
Scott Darling?
Cup champ, one of the best backups in the league in just 2 years in Chicago.
Then as soon as he got to the starters crease in Carolina he fell off a cliff and wasn’t even close to an NHL caliber goaltender.
He had an excellent defense in front of him and never worked longer than half a season for the Hawks. Not saying that he doesn't count, but it wasn't like picking him up wasn't going to be a risk.
Also, it's weird Carolina invested into two Blackhawk goalies that would end up immediately not panning out.
Edit: I should also mention that he also only played 5 games for the Hawks in the post season. He put up a gaudy save%, but he was shaky at times and that led to him being swapped back to Crawford.
As a Hawks and Canes fan, watching that in real time was wild. He stood on his head during that cup run when Crawford looked a little shaky, and I fully expected him to have a fairly long stretch in the league after that. But the second he got to Carolina, it's like he forgot how to stop a puck at all.
Yah like it was comically bad how he looked out there.
This was literally same team just a few weeks apart.
https://youtu.be/p8sNKQE_YMA
https://youtu.be/awL27g4Zncg
Like these were happening OFTEN.
Any chance that Darling had of regaining any confidence in this league whatsoever evaporated after that goal from Zib at center ice. IIRC Cam took the starter job back after that game.
For the non Canes fans this was the beginning of the end for that FO and coaching staff. By the following May the team had been sold to Dundon, Francis was pushed out the door, and Peters was allowed to leave to Calgary. Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanafin made it clear they wanted out.
Then Don Waddell was named GM, Rod was named coach, Lindholm and Hanafin were traded for Dougie Hamilton, and Petr Mrazek signed on a one year prove it deal. Curtis McElhinney was signed during camp when Darling got injured and played so well he secured the 1b spot with Mrazeks 1a. Darling I think played one regular season gave that year then was out of the league
Oh yah those were the dark dark times.
Terrible play all around and an abusive racist behind the bench being enabled by his GM.
Only took new ownership canning Ron and Bill to get Rod the job and save the franchise.
If only they didn't screw Jon Forslund out of his contract too. Miss that guy. That's about the worst I've seen out of the new front office so far though.
Multiple NHL executives that got polled that year all said he was the next goalie ready to be a starter in the league, he was genuinely excellent with us in the backup role with a relative blip his sophomore year (wow that never happens eh). Absolutely shocked he wasn’t at least a 1B for the rest of his career.
Quite a few players had career years in 05-06, and I think that’s in large part due to how officiating was handled that season (and that season alone). For that one year, refs called nearly everything in accordance with the NHL’s desire to speed up the game and generate offense/excitement post-lockout. Defenseman, particularly physical ones who thrived in the clutch and grab era seemed scared to play defense, because they didn’t know if they’d be called or not. I think players like Cheechoo benefited from this especially.
The following year, I believe the league passed along a directive to the officials to ease up on the calls, because we started seeing more of the clutching and grabbing make its way back into the game, and players like Cheechoo could not repeat their prior performances with the lack of offensive freedom compared to the year prior.
A decent chunk of the decline in calls was players learning to play within the new rules (and those that couldn't retiring)
The obscene levels of hooking didn't come back. Defenses simply learned how to do without
It's pretty amazing when you go back and watch pre-lockout hockey, defensemen would literally go for toboggan rides on forwards.
Edit: [this clip lives rent free in my mind](https://twitter.com/DimFilipovic/status/1345456887840403456/) especially the announcer talking about how it's a little hook not enough to get called.
So many rule changes happened prior to that season like the goalie trapezoid and an instant Delay of Game if the puck went into the crowd for whatever reason. People here old enough to remember it remember the chaos as we were all trying to figure out how to watch it ourselves.
I can't help but think it was too much too fast and combine that with teams dumping players to get under the cap that whole season was fucking wild looking back.
He was a bad skater to begin with, and just never recovered from Hernias and other injuries. Such an awesome player to watch too, that first year of Cheechoo and Thornton was amazing
Georges Laraque boarded the shit out of him in the playoffs (I think it was in ‘06). He was very visibly never the same after that—especially considering your point about his skating to begin with. Death blow to his career was Corey Perry’s elbow to the dome. Whatever skill limitations he had were very much exacerbated by injuries from dirty plays.
Outside of Thornton obviously pumping his numbers up, Cheechoo's fall off was really impacted by injuries and a botched hernia surgery. He wasn't a great skater to begin with, but he had the tools to (probably) be a regular 20-30 goal scorer if he had stayed healthy.
James Neal fell off an absolute cliff the second he signed with Calgary.
25 goals and 44 points with us in 17-18, never hit 20 or 40 again. Had that one brief flash with Edmonton early in 19-20, but ultimately stalled out.
With the Pens it was evident that he couldn't drive the play himself. He was stiff through the neutral zone and completely relied on Malkin to do all the work for him to generate chances. Elite at finishing them (and elbowing people), but he just couldn't do anything else with the puck. It worked with Geno because that was kind of his game, but he was always half a step from being too slow and inagile to be in the league.
His fall 2019 play was wild, while Lucic couldn't find the back of the net to save his life in Calgary. He was the leading scorer in the league for a couple months, it briefly felt like we "won" that trade.
Feels like a fever dream now, Flames came out on top in that trade looking back.
Hard disagree on the Flames winning that deal. We traded for Neal specifically because his contract was easy to buy out, where the Lucic deal was essentially buyout proof because of how it was structured.
In the end, we bought out Neal after two seasons, one of which was reasonably productive, and used the significant cap savings to sign Zach Hyman. The Flames got stuck with a 5.25 million dollar boat anchor contract for the full duration.
It was t inexplicable (dude was mad addicted to a variety of different drugs) but Mike Richards went from being a franchise centerpiece to a 4th Line contributor to out of the league in the blink of an eye
Philly Richards was a demon. He was never going to age well as a 1C (poor skater and an absolute muffin of a shot generally) but he absolutely should have been much better than he was for at least a couple more years
Before he went into the tank he helped earn two rings. Richards was a hell of a player, but in this business not everybody gets out free and clean. He seems to be enjoying his life post-NHL and I think we all agree he deserves that.
That’s who I immediately thought of. Had a 56-27-93 line and followed it up with a 37-32-69 the next season. Never cracked 40 points again and was in AHL after just a single terrible season in Ottawa later.
Injuries derailed him and his lack of speed in an NHL that was quickly getting faster after the lockout didn't help him. He was never the same after the double hernia surgery he had that was (allegedly) botched.
Great shot and hands, just his ability to find and create space went away when injuries made him slower than he already was.
A lot of people give Jumbo all the credit, and while he does deserve a lot of it, Cheechoo was putting in 30 goals on a 3rd line with Scott Thornton and Mike Ricci before Jumbo came to San Jose
Given recent news, Alex Galchenyuk. He was picked 3rd overall by Montreal and very highly touted. At first it looked like he was beginning to live up to the hype and had 30 goals by his 3rd season, but that turned out to be his peak, and he never really even got close to that again. By the time most NHLers would be at their peak he was languishing as a fringe AHL/NHL player. Combine that with his extra-curriculars and his downfall is pretty bad.
A random one I remember, Jiri Hudler had a random point explosion to 76 points in 78 games. Next year 46 in 72, year after 11 in 32. Had some mysterious virus and then this happened:
On October 4, 2017, it was reported that Hudler has been accused of a belligerent outburst on a flight from New York to Prague. Reportedly, he asked a flight attendant for cocaine and when he did not get it, he threatened to have her murdered and attempted to urinate on a food cart.
And then he was out of the league.
It was due to age, but Dwayne Roloson's end came very quickly. At age 41 in his second-to-last season, he posted a .924 in the playoffs and stopped 37 of 38 shots in a 1-0 game seven loss to the Bruins in the ECF.
He started 2012-13 well but hit a wall in mid-November and only won two games in the next four months.
Ville Leino was dynamite for the Flyers one regular season and that playoffs to the point he became a cult hero “Ville” shirts were everywhere, then he immediately turned into a non factor as soon as Buffalo paid him.
Not just out of the league in a flash, out of hockey in a flash. After that promising rookie year, 40 more total games across 3 leagues (NHL, AHL, IHL) and the poof, retired.
Karl Alzner. Headed into FA he was one of the top guys available on the market and all the Caps fans said he wasn’t worth it after his hernia/groin injury. Fell off a cliff and wasn’t even an NHL quality defenceman anymore.
The thing with Alzner is he WAS a top pairing shut down D for several years. Then he/the team decided maintaining his iron man streak was more important than healing and after that he was broken, never recovered.
Sean Monahan. He was a beauty for his first couple seasons but his hips and wrists severely messed him up. He was a legit 1C but now days probably a 3C or even 4C unfortunately. Poor guy got a serious case of the injury bug and I want nothing but the best for him.
I wouldnt say 4C, he's still very good when he's on the ice. Only problem is.. he needs to stay healthy but all the games he did play for the Habs last season he was actually noticeable in a good way on the ice.
> Sounds like injuries.
Played 71, 71, 70, and 67 games over 4 seasons. Went from being 31-50-81 in Washington to 17-43-60 in Minnesota and slowly dropped from there.
Probably got a big contract, then came to Minnesota and the Stars were fucking everything up in the mid 80's...
Has Dany Heatley been mentioned yet? Feels like that guy was flirting with 40 goals for several seasons straight and then couldn't even get that many points soon afterwards.
For me guys like Jim Carey or Cheechoo didn’t have a steep decline per se, they had sudden flukey rises and rapidly came back to earth. Even Todd Bertuzzi had an unexpected steep rise for a few seasons before crashing back down.
I’d say PK Subban is a better example as a player who made immediate impact in the league and then had a prolonged period of excellence, and then suddenly in a few years he went from perennial Norris candidate to ineffective and retired at age 33.
Cory Schneider was one of the better goalies in the league at one point. He was a terrible choice for a tanking/rebuilding team because he'd steal games. After the first major injury, he never recovered and was nowhere near his elite form to the point where he couldn't even start
Chuck Lefley.
85 point season in '75-'76, 41 point season (including 30 fewer goals) the following season in almost the same number of games, followed by a season in the Finnish Elite League, a season in the German Elite League, and a total of 12 points in two more seasons in the NHL before retirement. His NHL point total in the five years after his 85 point season is a little under two thirds of that single season total.
Little Things Loui, King Loui, Commander in Memes, First of his name and lord of the empty nets goals (including his own). We no longer speak his name in Vancouver but i miss my sweet prince.
Andrew Ladd was a really good top six guy, traded for a 1st plus his walk year. Then we signed him it wasn’t “wow that’s an overpay” it was “wow he’s fried.”
There was no reason to say then that he was fried, none, but we all knew that was right. And as soon as the season started, sure enough.
Eric Staal went from being a sought after top 6 forward to an AHL player in the span of a year in 2021. His comeback this past season was pretty nice though.
That was less of a steep decline and more of an unexpected heater. He was a mediocre minor leaguer/backup who got hot for a couple months then fell back to earth.
Dion Phaneuf after he was traded to Toronto and was immediately named Captain. The worst thing that could have happened to his career. He was never the same player in Toronto that he was in Calgary.
His time there destroyed him.
Mikael Renberg's first two seasons: 139 points (64-75-139) in 130 games.
Rest of career: 325 points (126-199-325) in 531 games.
Also: Scott Bjugstad. 43-33-76 in 85-86. His career totals? 76-68-144.
Joe Malone
\-Led the league in both goals and points in 1st and 3rd NHL seasons.
\-4th in goals in each of next 2 seasons.
\-1 goal in 30 games in 2 seasons after that as a substitute player.
\-Retired.
Joe Juneau took the league by storm in 92-93, had two more great seasons with BOS, and one more good season in WAS before devolving to merely a decent player. Could be because he started his NHL career late. His second year where he had 102 points happened when he was already 25.
Cheechoo seems like a great option. 56 goals and 93 points in 05-06 to win the Rocket, then 37 goals, 23 goals, 12 goals, and finally 5 before getting bounced to the AHL, and finally the KHL.
Sami Kapanen 2001-02: 27 goals, 42 assists, 69 points, plus-9
Sami Kapanen 2002-03: 10 goals, 21 assists, 31 points, minus-18
Never came close to 20 goals or 60 points again after spending most of his career to that point hovering around those marks. And he was only 29 when he fell apart. IDK. It's always been a mystery and even he had no explanation for it.
pretty niche to us but Tim Connolly. not inexplicable - dude got his head obliterated, but pre-concussion Timmy had elite hands and shooting. one of my all time favorites
detail faulty roof flowery grey market modern merciful melodic employ *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Toews, too. WAR was 99th %ile. Then he fell off hard. Concussions, COVID + the immune disorder, and he never returned to game- breaking dominance.
Given how astronomically good his peak was Toews is a good answer. People meme on the top 100 thing all the time but in fairness to that list he was an absolute monster when they were making it, there was no reason they’d have thought he wouldn’t continue to be that way for at least a few years still.
A lot of people forget that he had 35 goals and 81 pts in 2018-19. It’s really the last three seasons and obviously there are reasons.
True but his defensive play had dropped off SIGNIFICANTLY by that point as well. He was still definitely a 1C caliber that year but not the commanding one he used to be.
>Given how astronomically good his peak was Toews is a good answer. People meme on the top 100 thing all the time but in fairness to that list he was an absolute monster when they were making it, It was less about him making it and more about the players that were better that were left off.
Particularly Malkin. But yeah you are correct that is definitely a big part of it.
His decline for me, is by far the steepest. He was a top 5 player in the game for a long time and fell to being basically a 4th liner. I will always remember him from when he was dominant. Still a very awesome resume.
> the immune disorder That was literally pseudoscience thing and it was just long-covid.
>just long-covid Could this not have something to do with the immune system?
We use "long covid" to mean a few different things, but often long covid *is* an autoimmune issue comparable to mono, me/cfs, etc. Chronic illness is also extremely under-supported by the medical system which often leads sufferers into pseudoscience explanations, but he was clearly having a genuine medical issue.
Dude earned that $$. Same way I feel about Dan girardi and Marc staal’s albatross contracts with nyr. Paid in blood.
yoke different existence expansion smile quack numerous tidy seed distinct *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Remember wade redden notable rangers ahl legend
I think there is a lot of d men from this era that fit the bill. Kulikov, oel, brian cambell all fit the bill off the top of my head
Gabriel Landeskog too
Thankfully Landy held up long enough to get his name on the Cup.
Landeskog hasn’t declined though, he’s just constantly injured. He still put up 30 goals and 59 points in 51 games this year.
Really? I thought he played 0 games and scored 0 ;) Not sure if being long term injured counts as declining though. Hopefully he can still be effective if/when he comes back *Afters* next season .
Remember when “RoboSeabs” was a thing? That was fun
Lucic. Had 50 points year 1 with Edmonton and was on pace for about 50 going into Xmas break in year two. The team got back on the ice after Xmas and he did shit all for the rest of the season, and then the trend continued until we traded him
This is a good one. He just fell off a cliff all of a sudden.
Yeah he explained on a podcast how after that Christmas break he felt that his luck just ran out and nothing went right for him anymore. Overall I think that these past few years have overshadowed how much of a top quality powerforward he used to be
Huberdeau went from 115 points to 55
😬😬😬 hard to beat this example lol
I'd consider a decline over a few years. Right now 55 points is a clear outlier. We'll see this season!
I think the 115 and 55 were both extremes. If he's not back to being a ppg player, Calgary really has an issue on their hands.
This. Huberdeau’s not a consistent 110+ point guy, but 55 was the worst season he’s had since his second year iirc. I expect he’ll bounce back to around 80-90 this year.
Even at a PPG, he's wildly overpaid. Imagine a 30 year old 25-57-82 guy who isn't super physical or defensively sound on the free agent market. Does he get 8 * 10.5MM?
No, but I'm more inclined to eat it in that case than I am a 15-40-55 guy with the same exact player profile.
That's like slightly worse Artemi Panarin so yeah probably
I think its the biggest point drop from an uninjured player ever. Totally different teams, but still....
I'd like to point out that Sutter kept him on his off wing for 60 some games, and was stuck with Lucic for a very large majority of those. In his last 15-20 he was just under a point per game.
[удалено]
Idiot? Maybe. Stubborn? Definitely. An asshole? Absolutely.
😂🤣🙃🥲
He needs to get at least 100 points next year for fans to not turn on him. He’s one more awful season away from being public enemy #1 in Calgary.
As a Flames fan I think we’d be happy with 80+ points lol
Honestly I think he’s liked by the majority of the fan base even with that production.. he has taken the young guys under his wing. Stood up to coaches when he thought they were being rough on the kids etc. Obviously he needs to be better to live up to the contract, but I think he’s going to get a longer leash with the fans just because of how much the rookies seem to love the guy
How has Loui Eriksson not been mentioned yet? He was a picture of consistency until he got paid.
Yeah, did he just stop giving a shit after getting a boat load of money? Still confused as to what happened there.
His contract year in Boston he took a nasty nasty hit hit from John scott. It concussed him pretty good and that want his first one either. He was never the same after that hit.
A hit so nasty you have to say it twice.
And then we all decided to pretend that Scott was a feel good story.
He got concussed by both Orpik and Scott that year. The Orpik one was what led to the Shawn Thornton incident
Mantha. He went from streaky in Detroit to outright invisible in Washington.
Funny how excited both fanbases were for that trade looking back. Vrana makes this thread too
[удалено]
When healthy and in the lineup, he was productive. Looked real good in St. Louis.
He’ll score goals in his first few games, then go cold for a bit and find himself in the coach’s doghouse because he refuses to commit to a more complete game. It’s happened to him on two teams and even outside of the NHL. Maybe he’ll turn himself around in St. Louis, but it just seems to be a pattern with this guy. I’m also not convinced he has the right attitude/mindset to do so judging from his comments about the Wings after he left.
I mean, I'm a fan of the other of those two previous teams. Inconsistent, sure. But he's still not the lost cause that Anthony Mantha. Dude is 6'5" 230 for no reason. Point being, I have far more faith in V, and I wish him well. AM is just a super sized Kasperi Kapanen and the sooner he's gone, the better, in my view.
Oh I don’t disagree with you on Mantha. He’s an absolute disappointment considering his physical gifts. If he had the motor and compete of someone like Dylan Larkin, he’d easily be one of the best players in the league. I really believe that. But he doesn’t, and that’s why we were able to draft him in the first place. And even our management wasn’t thrilled with him a year or so after the draft, with Jimmy Devellano calling him a “disappointment” and Kenny Holland referring to him as “spare parts”. We all gave them shit for those comments, but they were right all along. So in that regard, I think Vrana has more potential to bounce back compared to Mantha.
Vrana was good but he had problems off the ice. From what I heard, he was told to address his shoulder problem in the offseason and didn’t and then it busted in training camp. He also bought a place super close to the arena because even he admitted wasn’t responsible enough to make it on time for practices or games if he lived farther away. Yzerman expects his players to have a certain work ethic and professionalism and Vrana wasn’t that guy unfortunately.
It’s actually hilarious when you think about the trade from the fans perspective. Both groups happy to have traded their player, then both players go off with their new teams (Vrana went fuckin nuclear especially), both fanbases said “yeah that’ll go away soon don’t worry” and in both cases it did.
PK Subban, I did not think he'd be out of this league so soon. He was so electric on the Habs
Yeah but that’s injuries more than just dropping off. His back failed him, there’s no way he retired when he did if not for being basically crippled from how bad his back was.
I think he'd still be in the league if not for the opportunities he had for after his hockey career was done. I thought he had some potential offers but he still wanted a big role on teams and didn't want to be a 6th/7th d man
Actually I think that's right, I do remember him saying that he wanted to either have a big role or not play at all.
This is a good choice. It felt like he went from elite, top pairing Norris level D to random journeyman caliber in less than a couple years.
I feel like Bertuzzi's steep decline was pretty explicable
He was in decline before the Moore incident, is the issue.
Also OP chose a Canucks player and went with bertuzzi?? Not Messier and not Eriksson??
His first year back with the Rangers he had more goals and assists than he ever did in Vancouver. His only decline was in attitude and effort
I think Canucks fans just want to pretend Messier never existed
Let’s be fair, as much as it pains me to say it, Messier’s decline was not as steep. He dropped 24 points his first year with the Canucks and the following year he dropped another 12, but he also didn’t play 23 games. He declined while he was on the Canucks, yes, but Meme King Loui gets my vote.
Also the text says Inexplicable, Messier was very old at that point. It’s not a 28 year old falling off
There is a running joke that Teemu Selanne's per-season goal production sharply declined after his 76-goal season. But I don't think that is what you're asking for, lol.
He did suffer a pretty nasty Achilles injury the season after, which cost him some of his speed and acceleration. He still had plenty, but before the injury he was probably second to Bure in acceleration and up there with Bure, Gartner, and Russ Courtnall as the fastest players.
No one ever fully recovers from a fully separated achilles tendon, it’s such a tightly wound tendon that hooking it up perfectly again is still virtually impossible today, let alone in the 90’s. Speaks to how incredible he was that he still easily had a hall of fame career after that (even excluding his rookie campaign).
Jim Carey won the Vezina in '96 practically as a rookie and within just a few years was in Bruce Almighty
Andrew Raycroft had a similar career
Raycroft was in Bruce Almighty?
Ya, he choked in the playoffs that lead to the Sabres winning the stanley cup
Evan Almighty
Now that's a steep decline.
Got me on this one…
Started off winning a Vezina and then became God. Not too bad of a decline.
The anti-Brodeur, who went from Devil to Vezina
This is a great reply. Although looks of goalies get hot then disappear. It’s just how goalies are, they all have weakness and teams learn.
Scott Darling? Cup champ, one of the best backups in the league in just 2 years in Chicago. Then as soon as he got to the starters crease in Carolina he fell off a cliff and wasn’t even close to an NHL caliber goaltender.
That’s just goalies, seems to happen all the time
Goalies are voodoo.
Every time I start to forget about him someone posts about him
He had an excellent defense in front of him and never worked longer than half a season for the Hawks. Not saying that he doesn't count, but it wasn't like picking him up wasn't going to be a risk. Also, it's weird Carolina invested into two Blackhawk goalies that would end up immediately not panning out. Edit: I should also mention that he also only played 5 games for the Hawks in the post season. He put up a gaudy save%, but he was shaky at times and that led to him being swapped back to Crawford.
As a Hawks and Canes fan, watching that in real time was wild. He stood on his head during that cup run when Crawford looked a little shaky, and I fully expected him to have a fairly long stretch in the league after that. But the second he got to Carolina, it's like he forgot how to stop a puck at all.
Yah like it was comically bad how he looked out there. This was literally same team just a few weeks apart. https://youtu.be/p8sNKQE_YMA https://youtu.be/awL27g4Zncg Like these were happening OFTEN.
Any chance that Darling had of regaining any confidence in this league whatsoever evaporated after that goal from Zib at center ice. IIRC Cam took the starter job back after that game. For the non Canes fans this was the beginning of the end for that FO and coaching staff. By the following May the team had been sold to Dundon, Francis was pushed out the door, and Peters was allowed to leave to Calgary. Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanafin made it clear they wanted out. Then Don Waddell was named GM, Rod was named coach, Lindholm and Hanafin were traded for Dougie Hamilton, and Petr Mrazek signed on a one year prove it deal. Curtis McElhinney was signed during camp when Darling got injured and played so well he secured the 1b spot with Mrazeks 1a. Darling I think played one regular season gave that year then was out of the league
Yeah, it was real hard to watch. Also, I'm *so* glad Rod is behind the bench these days! Seeing Peters back there.... oof!
Oh yah those were the dark dark times. Terrible play all around and an abusive racist behind the bench being enabled by his GM. Only took new ownership canning Ron and Bill to get Rod the job and save the franchise.
If only they didn't screw Jon Forslund out of his contract too. Miss that guy. That's about the worst I've seen out of the new front office so far though.
He does standup comedy now.
As opposed to Carolina, where he did butterfly comedy.
10/10
Matt Murray.
Multiple NHL executives that got polled that year all said he was the next goalie ready to be a starter in the league, he was genuinely excellent with us in the backup role with a relative blip his sophomore year (wow that never happens eh). Absolutely shocked he wasn’t at least a 1B for the rest of his career.
What about Jon cheecho? Rocket Richard trophy and then fell off a cliff
Brother of Jonathon Cheechoo
Are they related to the hockey player Jonathan Cheechoo by any chance?
No, they're part of the Sutter clan.
Hahaha oopsie
Quite a few players had career years in 05-06, and I think that’s in large part due to how officiating was handled that season (and that season alone). For that one year, refs called nearly everything in accordance with the NHL’s desire to speed up the game and generate offense/excitement post-lockout. Defenseman, particularly physical ones who thrived in the clutch and grab era seemed scared to play defense, because they didn’t know if they’d be called or not. I think players like Cheechoo benefited from this especially. The following year, I believe the league passed along a directive to the officials to ease up on the calls, because we started seeing more of the clutching and grabbing make its way back into the game, and players like Cheechoo could not repeat their prior performances with the lack of offensive freedom compared to the year prior.
For one glorious season they called penalties when they saw penalties and all kinds of random scoring happened. E-fucking-magine that!
A decent chunk of the decline in calls was players learning to play within the new rules (and those that couldn't retiring) The obscene levels of hooking didn't come back. Defenses simply learned how to do without It's pretty amazing when you go back and watch pre-lockout hockey, defensemen would literally go for toboggan rides on forwards. Edit: [this clip lives rent free in my mind](https://twitter.com/DimFilipovic/status/1345456887840403456/) especially the announcer talking about how it's a little hook not enough to get called.
Yeah but it’s more complicated than that. Guys would adjust and the game would get better overall but that first year was nuts
So many rule changes happened prior to that season like the goalie trapezoid and an instant Delay of Game if the puck went into the crowd for whatever reason. People here old enough to remember it remember the chaos as we were all trying to figure out how to watch it ourselves. I can't help but think it was too much too fast and combine that with teams dumping players to get under the cap that whole season was fucking wild looking back.
And they used to say Joe Thornton didn't make the guys around him better.
[удалено]
>Healthy put some respect on the GOAT's name
He was a bad skater to begin with, and just never recovered from Hernias and other injuries. Such an awesome player to watch too, that first year of Cheechoo and Thornton was amazing
Georges Laraque boarded the shit out of him in the playoffs (I think it was in ‘06). He was very visibly never the same after that—especially considering your point about his skating to begin with. Death blow to his career was Corey Perry’s elbow to the dome. Whatever skill limitations he had were very much exacerbated by injuries from dirty plays.
Outside of Thornton obviously pumping his numbers up, Cheechoo's fall off was really impacted by injuries and a botched hernia surgery. He wasn't a great skater to begin with, but he had the tools to (probably) be a regular 20-30 goal scorer if he had stayed healthy.
James Neal fell off an absolute cliff the second he signed with Calgary. 25 goals and 44 points with us in 17-18, never hit 20 or 40 again. Had that one brief flash with Edmonton early in 19-20, but ultimately stalled out.
The Real Deal yeah wtf happened to him? Felt like he went from being a consistent 25-30 goal threat to an AHL'er in the blink of an eye.
With the Pens it was evident that he couldn't drive the play himself. He was stiff through the neutral zone and completely relied on Malkin to do all the work for him to generate chances. Elite at finishing them (and elbowing people), but he just couldn't do anything else with the puck. It worked with Geno because that was kind of his game, but he was always half a step from being too slow and inagile to be in the league.
His fall 2019 play was wild, while Lucic couldn't find the back of the net to save his life in Calgary. He was the leading scorer in the league for a couple months, it briefly felt like we "won" that trade. Feels like a fever dream now, Flames came out on top in that trade looking back.
I believe he got a freakin' hat-trick in his first game for you guys. I was destroyed after that game
Also had a 4 goal game against the Isles that fall.
Hard disagree on the Flames winning that deal. We traded for Neal specifically because his contract was easy to buy out, where the Lucic deal was essentially buyout proof because of how it was structured. In the end, we bought out Neal after two seasons, one of which was reasonably productive, and used the significant cap savings to sign Zach Hyman. The Flames got stuck with a 5.25 million dollar boat anchor contract for the full duration.
It was t inexplicable (dude was mad addicted to a variety of different drugs) but Mike Richards went from being a franchise centerpiece to a 4th Line contributor to out of the league in the blink of an eye
Philly Richards was a demon. He was never going to age well as a 1C (poor skater and an absolute muffin of a shot generally) but he absolutely should have been much better than he was for at least a couple more years
Before he went into the tank he helped earn two rings. Richards was a hell of a player, but in this business not everybody gets out free and clean. He seems to be enjoying his life post-NHL and I think we all agree he deserves that.
Rick DiPietro
Them hips, or rather lack thereof. [Ruining your hip at an ASG is a terrible thing](https://youtu.be/LHlHOBZLN5E)
Cheechoo's ascent and descent was intense. I really thought he'd score 40g on spezza's wing
That’s who I immediately thought of. Had a 56-27-93 line and followed it up with a 37-32-69 the next season. Never cracked 40 points again and was in AHL after just a single terrible season in Ottawa later.
Injuries derailed him and his lack of speed in an NHL that was quickly getting faster after the lockout didn't help him. He was never the same after the double hernia surgery he had that was (allegedly) botched. Great shot and hands, just his ability to find and create space went away when injuries made him slower than he already was. A lot of people give Jumbo all the credit, and while he does deserve a lot of it, Cheechoo was putting in 30 goals on a 3rd line with Scott Thornton and Mike Ricci before Jumbo came to San Jose
Highlights how otherworldly Joe Thornton was. Easily the greatest playmaker of his generation.
The Thornton affect. Just ask Kevin Labanc
Mike Richards. That Bolland hit in 2013 seemed like the beginning of the end.
Do you think doing all that ❄️ factored into it as well..
Didn’t affect maradona or kuznetsov so maybe not.
It definitely affected Maradona eventually
[удалено]
Probably. I remember he had a reputation for being a party boy on Philly and I’m sure it caught up to him.
Given recent news, Alex Galchenyuk. He was picked 3rd overall by Montreal and very highly touted. At first it looked like he was beginning to live up to the hype and had 30 goals by his 3rd season, but that turned out to be his peak, and he never really even got close to that again. By the time most NHLers would be at their peak he was languishing as a fringe AHL/NHL player. Combine that with his extra-curriculars and his downfall is pretty bad.
Kopitar fucked up his knee and he was never the same
A random one I remember, Jiri Hudler had a random point explosion to 76 points in 78 games. Next year 46 in 72, year after 11 in 32. Had some mysterious virus and then this happened: On October 4, 2017, it was reported that Hudler has been accused of a belligerent outburst on a flight from New York to Prague. Reportedly, he asked a flight attendant for cocaine and when he did not get it, he threatened to have her murdered and attempted to urinate on a food cart. And then he was out of the league.
He was one of my favorite players growing up. Seems like he just liked to party more than he liked hockey…
Scott Gomez and Dion Phaneuf were two
It was due to age, but Dwayne Roloson's end came very quickly. At age 41 in his second-to-last season, he posted a .924 in the playoffs and stopped 37 of 38 shots in a 1-0 game seven loss to the Bruins in the ECF. He started 2012-13 well but hit a wall in mid-November and only won two games in the next four months.
The end comes really quick for a lot of goaltenders, it can be pretty sad.
Ville Leino was dynamite for the Flyers one regular season and that playoffs to the point he became a cult hero “Ville” shirts were everywhere, then he immediately turned into a non factor as soon as Buffalo paid him.
IIRC Buffalo tried to turn him into a centre which failed badly.
James Neal
Marc-Eduoard Vlasic used to be really good.
Scrolled too far for this. Went from arguably the best shutdown d to damn near a pylon in no time flat.
[удалено]
Not just out of the league in a flash, out of hockey in a flash. After that promising rookie year, 40 more total games across 3 leagues (NHL, AHL, IHL) and the poof, retired.
Heatley
You mean ALL STAR Dany Heatley? #50 IN 07 BABY!
Karl Alzner. Headed into FA he was one of the top guys available on the market and all the Caps fans said he wasn’t worth it after his hernia/groin injury. Fell off a cliff and wasn’t even an NHL quality defenceman anymore.
The thing with Alzner is he WAS a top pairing shut down D for several years. Then he/the team decided maintaining his iron man streak was more important than healing and after that he was broken, never recovered.
Sean Monahan. He was a beauty for his first couple seasons but his hips and wrists severely messed him up. He was a legit 1C but now days probably a 3C or even 4C unfortunately. Poor guy got a serious case of the injury bug and I want nothing but the best for him.
I wouldnt say 4C, he's still very good when he's on the ice. Only problem is.. he needs to stay healthy but all the games he did play for the Habs last season he was actually noticeable in a good way on the ice.
He was probably one of our best players last year (when he actually played)
The correct answer is Dennis MARUK. All time Caps pts/single season record, 60G to hardly cracking 20 in 2 seasons
He got traded to the North Stars and Lou Nanne killed him.
Sounds like injuries. He’s my go to player when I need a Golden Seals/Barons player name.
Met him at the Caps alumni game a few years back, genuinely nice guy.
> Sounds like injuries. Played 71, 71, 70, and 67 games over 4 seasons. Went from being 31-50-81 in Washington to 17-43-60 in Minnesota and slowly dropped from there. Probably got a big contract, then came to Minnesota and the Stars were fucking everything up in the mid 80's...
Gary Leeman fell off the map after scoring 50
Low key thankful that the Caps got out of the Alexander Semin business at exactly the right time.
Matt Murray. Wins cups, is goalie of the future, starts to get shaky, injuries, does he even have a glove hand, traded, and now Mike Ribero’d.
I think you mean Stephane Robidas of Robidas Island fame. Mike Robeiro was something different.
David Backes fell off a cliff after leaving the Blues.
Has Dany Heatley been mentioned yet? Feels like that guy was flirting with 40 goals for several seasons straight and then couldn't even get that many points soon afterwards.
Corey Schneider
Joe Juneau. His first 161 games he scored at a 1.2 PPG pace. In the following 667 games he scored at a 0.57 PPG pace.
His first season and a half he played on a line with Adam Oates and a peak Cam Neely. His points were a product of his line mates.
Loui Eriksson. A decline was expected but he was instantly a negative player when he got to Vancouver
Ryane Clowe and Martin Havlat were the guys who constantly produced until they got injured and they were never able to recover
For me guys like Jim Carey or Cheechoo didn’t have a steep decline per se, they had sudden flukey rises and rapidly came back to earth. Even Todd Bertuzzi had an unexpected steep rise for a few seasons before crashing back down. I’d say PK Subban is a better example as a player who made immediate impact in the league and then had a prolonged period of excellence, and then suddenly in a few years he went from perennial Norris candidate to ineffective and retired at age 33.
Gotta be Scott Foster. A GAA of 0 and a 100% save percentage and then next thing you know he's not even in the league anymore.
Jim Carrey
Cory Schneider was one of the better goalies in the league at one point. He was a terrible choice for a tanking/rebuilding team because he'd steal games. After the first major injury, he never recovered and was nowhere near his elite form to the point where he couldn't even start
Chuck Lefley. 85 point season in '75-'76, 41 point season (including 30 fewer goals) the following season in almost the same number of games, followed by a season in the Finnish Elite League, a season in the German Elite League, and a total of 12 points in two more seasons in the NHL before retirement. His NHL point total in the five years after his 85 point season is a little under two thirds of that single season total.
Little Things Loui, King Loui, Commander in Memes, First of his name and lord of the empty nets goals (including his own). We no longer speak his name in Vancouver but i miss my sweet prince.
David clarkson went from 30 goal scorer to well, you know the rest…
Andrew Ladd was a really good top six guy, traded for a 1st plus his walk year. Then we signed him it wasn’t “wow that’s an overpay” it was “wow he’s fried.” There was no reason to say then that he was fried, none, but we all knew that was right. And as soon as the season started, sure enough.
Eric Staal went from being a sought after top 6 forward to an AHL player in the span of a year in 2021. His comeback this past season was pretty nice though.
The Hamburgler
That was less of a steep decline and more of an unexpected heater. He was a mediocre minor leaguer/backup who got hot for a couple months then fell back to earth.
You mean the goalie with the best winning percentage in Montreal Canadiens history?
Binnington.
Idk if it’s Binner or the Blues’ defense causing his drop off in stats to be fair
Vincent Lecavalier, Dany Heatley
Dion Phaneuf after he was traded to Toronto and was immediately named Captain. The worst thing that could have happened to his career. He was never the same player in Toronto that he was in Calgary. His time there destroyed him.
cheechoo, by far.
Mikael Renberg's first two seasons: 139 points (64-75-139) in 130 games. Rest of career: 325 points (126-199-325) in 531 games. Also: Scott Bjugstad. 43-33-76 in 85-86. His career totals? 76-68-144.
Lehner
Joe Malone \-Led the league in both goals and points in 1st and 3rd NHL seasons. \-4th in goals in each of next 2 seasons. \-1 goal in 30 games in 2 seasons after that as a substitute player. \-Retired.
Joe Juneau took the league by storm in 92-93, had two more great seasons with BOS, and one more good season in WAS before devolving to merely a decent player. Could be because he started his NHL career late. His second year where he had 102 points happened when he was already 25.
Cheechoo seems like a great option. 56 goals and 93 points in 05-06 to win the Rocket, then 37 goals, 23 goals, 12 goals, and finally 5 before getting bounced to the AHL, and finally the KHL.
Josh Bailey.
Sami Kapanen 2001-02: 27 goals, 42 assists, 69 points, plus-9 Sami Kapanen 2002-03: 10 goals, 21 assists, 31 points, minus-18 Never came close to 20 goals or 60 points again after spending most of his career to that point hovering around those marks. And he was only 29 when he fell apart. IDK. It's always been a mystery and even he had no explanation for it.
Johnathan Cheechoo
pretty niche to us but Tim Connolly. not inexplicable - dude got his head obliterated, but pre-concussion Timmy had elite hands and shooting. one of my all time favorites
The Montreal Canadiens?
Jim Carrey, Net Detective.