It's easy to pick Dmen, so I'm going to go with a forward.
Veilleux.
Yeah, that's right. People who liked him say that he was definsively great, fairly physical, and would put in 10 goals a year. And they are correct.
But anybody with any hockey sense saw that that Veilleux killed more offensive chances than anybody else in Wild history. I've never seen a player make that many wrong decisions in the offensive zone. Whether it was cycling the puck to nobody, turning the puck over to the Dman, taking a terrible shot through 5 defenders, or missing the net completely.
When Veilleux stepped on the ice, a giant black-hole for offense was created - for both teams.
Veillieux also had what is an increasingly scarce quality in the NHL: heart. One of the only guys on the Wild in the earlier years (besides Walz) who would actually put 100% effort in every single shift. Not very effective for all that, but still enough to put him over the likes of ineffective players such as Branko Radivojevic who actually had a little bit of ability but tanked whatever chance of fourth line potential he had by being friggin lazy as fk.
my nominees (off the top of my head) in no particular order:
Veillieux also had what is an increasingly scarce quality in the NHL: heart. One of the only guys on the Wild in the earlier years (besides Walz) who would actually put 100% effort in every single shift. Not very effective for all that, but still enough to put him over the likes of ineffective players such as Branko Radivojevic who actually had a little bit of ability but tanked whatever chance of fourth line potential he had by being friggin lazy as fk.
my nominees (off the top of my head) in no particular order:
Branko Radivojevic
Steve McKenna
Brad Brown
Eric Reitz
A pass to nobody is still a pass to nobody, no matter what the intentions.
Remember when he scored 4 goals in practice, so lemaire put him at Wing for a game?
I don't recall that specific incident... no. I'm sure I ripped that at the time too though.
He was the single worst player this team has ever consistently put on the ice. There have been a lot of players that people said didn't belong in the NHL... Dupuis, Veilleux, Pouliot.... but most of those players have remained in the NHL with other teams after their time here was done.
Benysek was never in the NHL BEFORE the Wild, and when the Wild didn't re-sign him, he's never been in the NHL since!
Think about it guys... at the time you would be BEGGING for JL to give Brad fricking Brown more ice-time so you didn't have to watch Benysek!
I don't recall that specific incident... no. I'm sure I ripped that at the time too though.
He was the single worst player this team has ever consistently put on the ice. There have been a lot of players that people said didn't belong in the NHL... Dupuis, Veilleux, Pouliot.... but most of those players have remained in the NHL with other teams after their time here was done.
Benysek was never in the NHL BEFORE the Wild, and when the Wild didn't re-sign him, he's never been in the NHL since!
Think about it guys... at the time you would be BEGGING for JL to give Brad fricking Brown more ice-time so you didn't have to watch Benysek!
As you can see, Ladislav Benysek did have his first "cup of coffee" in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, not the Wild. I don't think Benysek was nearly as bad as you say he was. He certainly was the team's first whipping boy as a defenseman, but not the worst overall.
I think other guys we had for smaller call ups were much worse; like Chris Armstrong, Mike Matteucci, or Ian Herbers were far worse. McKenna is the least talented player to ever wear the Wild sweater.
Other names that should at least garner honorable mention for Mount Suckmore: Tony Virta, Sergei Krivokrasov, Dieter Kochan, Christian Matte, Darryl LaPlante, Brian Bonin, James Sheppard, Erik Westrum (especially when you consider who the Wild traded, Zbynek Michalek, to get him), Jason Morgan, and Andrei Nazarov.
but in his career Simon actually was near the top performers of his "role" and still managed to put together better seasons than most of the players we've had penciled in as grinders or even "scorers" ever will
lets see Jimmy sheppard score 29 goals (for instance).
