Each NHL franchise's top floater the last since the turn of the century.

[pilldoc]

So at the suggestion of @TropicalFruitGirl26 , who are the most laziest players, who take the most shifts off,  for each NHL team.  Lets try to get one nomination for each team.  I have a list of all NHL teams below.

 

This arose from a discussion in the Flyers thread how JVR has been almost universally crowned the most laziest/floating player for the Flyers .....

 

Lets get the ball rolling   

 

Anaheim Ducks
Arizona Coyotes
Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres
Calgary Flames
Carolina Hurricanes
Chicago Blackhawks
Colorado Avalanche
Columbus Blue Jackets - Derick Brassard
Dallas Stars
Detroit Red Wings - Teemu Pulkinnen
Edmonton Oilers - Petr Klima
Florida Panthers
Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota Wild
Montreal Canadiens
Nashville Predators -Alexander Radulov
New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Ottawa Senators
Philadelphia Flyers - JVR
Pittsburgh Penguins
San Jose Sharks
Seattle Kraken
St Louis Blues
Tampa Bay Lightning - Petr Klima
Toronto Maple Leafs - JVR
Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights
Washington Capitals -Alex Semin
Winnipeg Jets

Edited May 22, 2022 by pilldoc

[OccamsRazor]

TFG suggested this topic and with no playoffs for my favorite team....... WTF not??

 

So to start this off i will go first.

 

This was a hard one sort of for me i was torn between Jake Voracek and James van Riemsdyke.

 

But i have to go hard for JVR.

 

 

I lost track of how many times i wanted him to choke on that damn mouth piece.....i know i'm not nice.

 

Because well for two main reasons the Flyers actually drafted him and he left and had his best years as a Maple Leaf and then ol Ron Hextall brings him back so he can regain his floating form and continue to sabotage the Flyers chances at getting a top pick in the draft.

 

How did he do it you say?????

 

By scoring in meaningless games once they were pretty much out of the playoff hunt and well ol James comes through in flying colors so well he even ended up leading the teams in goals once Cam got hurt and never came back for the end of the season.

 

And even thought the last 4 years of Jake's career he got on my nerves with his floating around his own end he did have some good seasons in Philly with Giroux.

 

So my guy hands down is JVR....can't wait for that guy's Flyer career to be over!!!!

 

Feel free to say someone else for the Flyers or another teams favorite one to be shared....

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by OccamsRazor
expanded from last decade to turn of century

[pilldoc]

2 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

TFG suggested this topic and with no playoffs for my favorite team....... WTF not??

 

So to start this off i will go first.

 

This was a hard one sort of for me i was torn between Jake Voracek and James van Riemsdyke.

 

But i have to go hard for JVR.

 

 

I lost track of how many times i wanted him to choke on that damn mouth piece.....i know i'm not nice.

 

Because well for two main reasons the Flyers actually drafted him and he left and had his best years as a Maple Leaf and then ol Ron Hextall brings him back so he can regain his floating form and continue to sabotage the Flyers chances at getting a top pick in the draft.

 

How did he do it you say?????

 

By scoring in meaningless games once they were pretty much out of the playoff hunt and well ol James comes through in flying colors so well he even ended up leading the teams in goals once Cam got hurt and never came back for the end of the season.

 

And even thought the last 4 years of Jake's career he got on my nerves with his floating around his own end he did have some good seasons in Philly with Giroux.

 

So my guy hands down is JVR....can't wait for that guy's Flyer career to be over!!!!

 

Feel free to say someone else for the Flyers or another teams favorite one to be shared....

 

 

LOL .... I just started a similar thread ...will merge the two together ....

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

For the Lightning, a guy that comes to mind right away, but I'd have to go back to the mid 90's, is Petr Klima.

At the time, as a kid, I remember thinking, "Petr is our superstar!"
Well, he sorta was, for what the team as back then, but it wasn't until I got older and knew more about the NHL and its players in general, that I realized what a floater Klima often was!

Constantly "cheating" up ice, nowhere to be found in the defensive zone supporting the puck, didn't often backcheck, and certainly didn't go into the 'hard areas' of the ice.
I mean, the guy could score some pretty goals, and sometimes he would just go on some tears, but by and large, as I found out, he was pretty maddening to his coaches!

Ol # 85.
A guy with his skillset was allowed to leave his previous teams of Detroit and Edmonton before ending up on the still expansion labeled Lightning. Well, that is probably why!

Even TB announcers of the time were hard on him...particularly 'Chief' Bobby Taylor, who I recall him using the word "dog" when it came to Klima's work ethic in anything outside of scoring a goal on a rush started from bout mid ice. 

[pilldoc]

@TropicalFruitGirl26  I actually remember that name for some  reason.  Sounds like a JVR clone! LOL 

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

@TropicalFruitGirl26  I actually remember that name for some  reason.  Sounds like a JVR clone! LOL 

 

 

He, along with Brian Bradley and John Cullen were the Bolts' answer to your LOD back when the two clubs met in that '95-96 series your guys won 4-2.
Of course, those three guys weren't anywhere NEAR Lindros-LeClair-Renberg, but it was the best we could put out there.

Bradley and Cullen were real hard workers though. Played bigger than they were. 
Klima...not so much. lol

[ruxpin]

Define "floater."

If it's limited to players, yes on JVR, though this might be recency bias.

 

If it's simply defined as "individual making a boatload of money but had done nothing of value for an extended period of time," then my vote is Paul Holmgren.  Or Bob Clarke.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 minute ago, ruxpin said:

Define "floater."

If it's limited to players, yes on JVR, though this might be recency bias.

 

If it's simply defined as "individual making a boatload of money but had done nothing of value for an extended period of time," then my vote is Paul Holmgren.  Or Bob Clarke.

 

Nice to see ya! 

Floater as in player who doesn't work particularly hard, that often goes hand in hand in people thinking he most definitely is NOT worth his contract.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

For the Minnesota Wild, and perhaps some of the Wild fans here can help me a bit with this one as most Wild players, especially under Jacques Lemaire, were generally a hard working bunch.... but for some reason, Pierre Marc Bouchard comes to mind.

I believe he was a 1st round selection by the Wild and was generally considered a bust, but my memories of him were also seemingly hanging around the opposing blue line, trying to make the pretty play, or fancy his way into the offensive zone.

I can't really recall the guy CHECKING anyone, winning battles along the wall, and just generally being pretty easy to play against if you knew he was looking for that 'one big play'.
Maybe in his case, I am confusing 'soft' with floater, as they COULD be the same, but not necessarily.

Unless some in the Wild fanbase can come up with a better one and why they think Bouchard was NOT a floater in comparison, PM gets my vote for the Minnesota franchise.

Edited May 21, 2022 by TropicalFruitGirl26

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

We should drag @yave1964 into this topic.

He usually has a nose for floaters, softies, and work dodgers in the NHL....and usually lets them have it in his commentary!
I am sure he could come up with two or three across a some franchises!  

[JR Ewing]

30 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

For the Lightning, a guy that comes to mind right away, but I'd have to go back to the mid 90's, is Petr Klima.

At the time, as a kid, I remember thinking, "Petr is our superstar!"
Well, he sorta was, for what the team as back then, but it wasn't until I got older and knew more about the NHL and its players in general, that I realized what a floater Klima often was!

Constantly "cheating" up ice, nowhere to be found in the defensive zone supporting the puck, didn't often backcheck, and certainly didn't go into the 'hard areas' of the ice.
I mean, the guy could score some pretty goals, and sometimes he would just go on some tears, but by and large, as I found out, he was pretty maddening to his coaches!

Ol # 85.
A guy with his skillset was allowed to leave his previous teams of Detroit and Edmonton before ending up on the still expansion labeled Lightning. Well, that is probably why!

Even TB announcers of the time were hard on him...particularly 'Chief' Bobby Taylor, who I recall him using the word "dog" when it came to Klima's work ethic in anything outside of scoring a goal on a rush started from bout mid ice. 

 

In the 1990, Klima was traded to the Oilers and VERY quickly ran afoul of Mark Messier, who didn't take a liking to Klima's propensity for taking shifts off and forgetting that there were two nets on the ice. Kevin Lowe publicly stated that, a few games in Klima's run with Edmonton, Messier grabbed him by the throat, shoved him against the wall, and told him that if he didn't start playing harder, he was going beat the living sh|t out of him.

 

Interestingly enough, Klima really did pay a lot more attention to the details after that, until Messier was traded. The moment Mess became a Ranger, Klima tanked again, and within a couple of years he was traded to Tampa.

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 minute ago, JR Ewing said:

 

In the 1990, Klima was traded to the Oilers and VERY quickly ran afoul of Mark Messier, who didn't take a liking to Klima's propensity for taking shifts off and forgetting that there were two nets on the ice. Kevin Lowe publicly stated that, a few games in Klima's run with Edmonton, Messier grabbed him by the throat, shoved him against the wall, and told him that if he didn't start playing harder, he was going beat the living sh|t out of him.

 

Interestingly enough, Klima really did pay a lot more attention to the details after that, until Messier was traded. The moment Mess became a Ranger, Klima tanked again, and within a couple of years he was traded to Tampa.

 

 

Well...there ya go, people.
My pick has been confirmed! 

[JR Ewing]

2 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Well...there ya go, people.
My pick has been confirmed! 

 

I don't want to pile on Klima too hard, as his life hadn't been easy. In order to even get to Detroit, he had to defect from Czechoslovakia while the team was playing in West Germany. He later said that the decision and process was frightening, and he had guilt associated with "abandoning" his country, and left his friends and family behind. Within months of starting with Detroit (who had been trying to get him to defect for two years) he was turning to drugs and alcohol, binging and partying with Bob Probert.

 

Within the first year, Klima was a full-blown alcoholic, missing team functions/practice, and after four years, the Wings tapped-out, dealing him to Edmonton. And what a trade for the Oilers, by the way:

 

Out: Kevin McLelland, Jimmy "I Hate Living in Edmonton" Carson, 5th round pick

In: Klima, Adam Graves, Joe Murphy, Jeff Sharples

 

 

 

[yave1964]

Biggest floater for the Wings in decades was teemu Pulkinnen. He NEVER crossed the blue line to help the defense he skated around outside the defensive zone waiting for a breakout pass. Not that he knew what to do with a breakout anyway I have never seen a player whose slapper ALWAYS went three feet wide of the net like his. Basically he played the same style as Ovie but without the great shot to justify it. Dreadful mind numbing player who has more talent than desire.

 

Love the Klima reference always loved his oversized helmet he wore to keep his coif club ready for after the game

 

[yave1964]

Biggest floater I witnessed with Columbus hands down and bar none was Derick Brassard. He was an inmature snot nosed punk playing for Hitchcock in Columbus and he thought he was the teams best center and Hitch disagreed, Brassard got his revenge by demanding a trade and when the team refused he would just float around the ice booed by the home crowd on every shift, He would get benched for a game for his lack of effort and then get banished to the press box and he would just go home. He has matured quite a lot since then but I still dont like him, never will. 

[NoGoal]

Two players that come to mind right now are Alex Semin - Washington, and Alexander Radulov - Nashville. 

[flyercanuck]

10 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Biggest floater I witnessed with Columbus hands down and bar none was Derick Brassard. He was an inmature snot nosed punk playing for Hitchcock in Columbus and he thought he was the teams best center and Hitch disagreed, Brassard got his revenge by demanding a trade and when the team refused he would just float around the ice booed by the home crowd on every shift, He would get benched for a game for his lack of effort and then get banished to the press box and he would just go home. He has matured quite a lot since then but I still dont like him, never will. 

 

 This explains why Fletcher coveted him when there was no Minnesota connection. 

[OccamsRazor]

Wow so Klima won the honor for two different clubs what a honor...

 

[flyercanuck]

28 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

Wow so Klima won the honor for two different clubs what a honor...

 

 

Only because there's no Leaf fans to vote for JVR.

[pilldoc]

13 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Only because there's no Leaf fans to vote for JVR.

 

that oversight has now been corrected ... LOL

[pilldoc]

List has been updated ...

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 hour ago, pilldoc said:

List has been updated ...

 

And well...damn... Klima appears twice! Yikes... 

[pilldoc]

1 minute ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

And well...damn... Klima appears twice! Yikes... 

 

no worries .... he has company.... JVR

 

[OccamsRazor]

16 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

 

no worries .... he has company.... JVR

 

 

 

Is it possible someone to get it for 3 teams I will require some deep thought on that one.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

5 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

 

Is it possible someone to get it for 3 teams I will require some deep thought on that one.

 

It probably would have to be a player that's been traded and/or release several times as teams try to "fix" him...only to find out he is a career floater...