The Wild is going to spend the year congratulating itself on surviving 10 years of playing existence this season.
Let's crash the party.
Who is your all-time worst Wild team?
Goalie, defense, defense, forward, forward, forward.
Noodles or Zac Bierk?
Zyuzin or Skoula? (Or both?)
Sly Blouin or Cam Stewart?
Sushi or Weinhandl?
Wyatt Smith or Dominic Moore?
All former Wild players eligible.
Tell me who and why, and we'll do this nice and scientific-like.
Heck, I'll even shoot the finished project off to the Wild PR peeps....nah, probably better to just write it up here.
NiNY
7 comments:
Using hockey-reference.com's play index, I found Ladislav Benysek.
Stephane Veilleux had the lowest +/- of all skaters with more than 50 GP.
Benysek! Man, I always forget that guy.
And Veilleux should garner some votes just for getting into that ill-advised scrap with Phaneuf in Calgary that turned a, if memory serves, 3-0 Wild lead into an eventual Flames win. And getting his ass kicked in the fight, to boot.
Good calls, CH!
Can I vote for Skoula in every position? I kid, I kid.
Goalie:
Manny Fernandez - not because of inability, but because of attitude.
D-men:
Skoula - Kuba - Take these two off the roster, and the Wild give up about 250 fewer goals in total.
Forwards:
James Sheppard - self explanitory
Pavol Demitra - The ultimate in let downs. Traded away way too much for way to little.
Benoit Pouliot - A floater with the temper of a two year old. A winning combination.
hard to argue against any of those, Buddha!
Skoula and Havlat have the same -19 net +/- over their Wild Careers to date.
Additions from HW:
Nathan:
Wade Dubielewicz (so bad he was pulled in warmups)
Martin Skoula (no more need be said) – Brad Brown (a black hole of suck)
Pavol Demitra – James Sheppard – Benoit Pouliot (the all-disappointment line)
JS:
Defense:
Skoula…because my level of commit is high! Nah, this is pretty obvious, he was a horrible defenseman who was brought in to help out on the powerplay, which he didn’t, at all.
Sean Hill. Never really liked him, at all, horrible -16 in 35 games with the Wild.
Forwards:
James Sheppard, another no-brainer, but then again, is it fair to judge this based on one bad year?… Yeahhh Fuck James Sheppard.
Benoit Pouliot, utter disappointment as a Wild… now the Habs are about to get disappointed as well… good :)
Chris Simon… ugh… yuck….
Dishonorable mentions: Craig Weller (F), Andrei Zyuzin (D), Jamie McLennan (G)
McLennan is the only one I’ve never seen play, but judging by his stats with the Wild, he apparently didn’t do too good… to be fair, the team was rather horrible at the time though..
All-time WORST Wild team? The problem there is that there are so many bad ones to choose from...
Goalie: This may be the one position that it's somewhat difficult to choose. But, overall, Jaime McLennan ("Noodles") gets the nod, simply because he couldn't hang on to the back-ups job.
Defense: The Human Pylons, Kuba and Skoula, the 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' of the NHL. Kuba was supposed to be a dominating influence on the blue line, which he was...against his own team. He literally was so immobile, he was an 'off-ramp to the net'. his inclusion to the 2004 NHL All-Star Game (at the 'X') was one of the League's biggest mistakes...until the lockout/strike cancelled the whole following season.
Skoula, on the other hand, was supposed to help on the power play. Too bad it normally resulted in nothing at all, or worse. He, too, had great size, but in reality was a lumbering lummox of embarrassing proportions. The aptly named (yes, by me) 'Martin Skoula Memorial Popcorn Machine' in the press box at the 'X' signifies where he should have been sitting, all too often. When he was finally announced as a healthy scratch at the 'X', the crowd actually cheered. LOUDLY.
Forwards: You've already named two of my three: Pouliot and Sheppard, two of the most miserable draft picks in the last decade in the NHL. Two draft day busts, two Grade 'A' head cases, two failures to communicate. One's gone; the other should be.
The third? I'm reaching for this, but...Maxim Sushinsky gets my vote for all-time Wild bust No. 3, as his 'I'm homesick, how come no one else here speaks Russian' routine got really old, really, really fast.
And, there you all have it. Six of the worst in Wild history. All brought to you by good ol' DR...
Post a Comment