Yesterday’s vote for the player/prospect with the most potential was a tight one – the future is bright boys!!
Lots of excitement over Buium, Boldy, and Yurov, with a dead heat between Wallstedt and Faber. The top comments for each player were upvoted the same amount, with Brock seeing more comments overall by a small margin.
That said, the Wild player with the most potential goes to Minnesota’s very own, Brock Faber!
For Day 6 – which franchise player (all-time) had a ton of potential but never really saw it materialize so it went to waste?
25 comments
Addison
Josh Harding was developing into a top 10 goalie in the league before he was diagnosed with MS :/
I have to give it to **Colton Gillies**.
Colton Gillies was a highly touted prospect when he was drafted by the Minnesota Wild, but he never lived up to the hype and has some of the worst stats for players that played over 100 games in a Wild uniform.
**Here’s more information about him:**
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**1. Draft and Expectations**
– **Drafted:** 16th overall in the 1st round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild.
– **Expectations:** As a first-round pick, the Wild had high hopes for Gillies to become a power forward with size, speed, and physicality. His junior career with the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL showed potential, as he was known for his grit and leadership.
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**2. Time with Minnesota Wild**
– **Seasons:** Gillies played parts of four seasons with the Wild from 2008-2012.
– **Games Played:** 154 games with the Wild.
– **Statistics:** During his time in Minnesota, Gillies scored 6 goals and 12 assists for a total of 18 points in 154 games. **His points per game (PPG) average was around 0.12!**
– **Role:** Despite his high draft position, Gillies primarily played in a bottom-six role, often focusing on physical play and defensive responsibilities rather than offense. His offensive production never developed to meet the expectations of a first-round draft pick.
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**3. Waivers and Departure**
– In 2012, Gillies was placed on waivers by the Wild and was claimed by the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Wild eventually decided to move on from him after his lack of offensive output and failure to establish himself as a key contributor.
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**4. Post-NHL Career**
– After leaving the NHL, Gillies bounced around in various leagues, including stints in the AHL and overseas in the KHL, German DEL, and Slovak leagues. He never found consistent success and gradually transitioned out of top-level professional hockey.
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**5. Strengths and Weaknesses**
– **Strengths:**
– **Physicality:** Gillies brought size and grit to the ice, standing 6’4” and weighing around 200 pounds.
– **Leadership:** He served as a captain for Team Canada at the 2007 U18 World Championships, and in junior hockey, he was known for his leadership qualities.
– **Weaknesses:**
– **Offensive Production:** Despite being a first-round pick, Gillies never found his offensive game at the NHL level.
– **Development:** His skills never developed to match the initial potential he showed in junior hockey.
Shout-out James Sheppard
Benoit Pouliot
Filip Johansson
Remember that defenceman Fenton drafted in the first round? Filjo? Exactly.
AJ Thelen
What about Benoit Pouliet, drafted 4th overall in 2005 draft then…nothing happened. 18 pts in 65 games over 4 seasons.
Another one for Calen Addison. Dude was touted, was decent if not good at pp qb up to the point he earned a couple Calder votes in the trophy tracker but his attitude was trash and his refusal to improve his defensive side of the game was what ruined him. This is not the NFL that you play offense only. He was traded and then he was cut and now I don’t think he’s even signed for the upcoming season.
Matt Dumba, though not entirely through any fault of his own. He kept showing signs of improvement and really looked like the offensive dman the team needed with a bomb for a shot. Then he tore his pec in that fight with Tkachuk and was never the same after. His shot just never was the threat it was before the injury and though he’s still in the league, he never hit the potential a lot of people saw in him.
Erik Haula. Hear me out.
Haula always seemed to be in the dog house and was never the favored child with Coyle, Nino, and Zucker playing (which were supposed to be the young core to lead us to a cup), but when he did play with limited minutes he was efficient and actually put up points during a playoff run, which is more than any of the aforementioned guys can say. He was also a key part of a line that could shut down Chicago’s top line. Patrick Kane said “you’re gonna be sick in this league” as they shook hands after Chicago eliminated us in OT.
As soon as he went to Vegas during the expansion year his point production doubled. His style of play fit in well with the fast placed tempo Vegas played. His career took a hit with not one, but two, had injuries which eliminated entire seasons. But he still recovered to show that he can be a solid 2C or 3C player with above average PK skills. He’s demonstrated this in the NHL, which is more than can be said for Gillies.
The way the Wild managed Haula is the definition of wasted potential.
(He wasn’t going to be the next superstar, but of course no one we’re talking about for this spot was going to be a superstar.)
Matt Dumba before getting injured was on pace for a top 20 defender. Thanks Tkachuck!
Submitted for consideration – A.J. Thelen – 12th overall pick in the 2004 entry draft.
Played ZERO NHL games, but had NHL talent.
Jordan Greenway. Had (and still has) all the tools to be a dominant power forward in the NHL. Given plenty of talented linemates and ice time to put it together. Yet he seemed to play smaller than players half his size (barely averaged a hit a game with the Wild) and displayed one of the worst case of yips I’ve seen. By all accounts he seems like a good guy and maybe he’ll put it together with Buffalo but for getting over 300 games with the Wild, it just never clicked.
My husband and I talked about this last night but we weren’t quite sure how this category would be defined. For the definition given in this post, we said Granlund. He was expected to be very top-notch but things just never fully came together.
Another possible definition we thought was “a player who was traded by the team before reaching their full potential”, which we said was Brett Burns.
Martin Havlat comes to mind. All the skill in the world, had proven it when he wanted to, but just didn’t seem to care like 90% of the time.
I rank him higher than some of the guys that were drafted and just couldn’t adjust or grow (Pouliot, Sheppard, Thelen, etc.)
Benoit Pouliot
Bearing in mind that Alexandre Daigle once played for the Wild, it has to be AJ Thelan. How can there be any other answer?
Definitely Benoit Pouliot. Number 4 overall pick. Did literally nothing in the league
I’m going to buck the trend here of good prospects that sucked and say Brent Burns. With the benefit of hindsight, we basically traded away a future Norris winner for practically nothing.
In my mind, it’s not really wasting potential if the player just can’t transition to the NHL. To me, that means they had no potential unless they were just exceptionally lazy or exceptionally mismimaged. Those guys belong in a most disappointing category. Burns on the other hand had tons of potential as one of the league’s best young defenders and was coming off his best year before we traded him.
Any of our 1st round picks from 2005-2008…
05 – Pouliet 4th overall, 06 – James Sheppard 9th overall, 07 – Colton Gillies 16th overall, 08 – Tyler Cuma 23rd overall
On paper, Jordan Greenway was gonna be an absolute monster. And he disappointed us over and over again.
Deep cuts pick is Roman Voloshenko, he was the OG Russian hype prospect for the Wild. 33 goals, 60 points in 69 games for the Aeros in his first year NA, then completely stopped trying the following season and back to Russia, eventually turning into a VHL caliber player. He was our top ranked prospect at one point lol.
Holy cow, so many duds to choose from. Pouliot, Sheppard, Greenway, Dumba. But I’m gonna have to go with Mikael Granlund. Picked #9 overall, he was hyped up so much because he was dominating the Fin league, so already competing at an elite level. He was supposed to add to the scoreboard at a time when the Wild desperately needed offense. He turned out to be a pass-first player that just never seemed to be able to elevate his game to the NHL.