Josh Ho Sang goes to the KHL, GriffIn Reinhart retires

[yave1964]

  About a month late here....

 

  A cautionary tale on what can happen with first round picks.

 

Josh Ho Sang was the Islanders first round pick in 2014 after a promising career with the Windsor Spitfires. He could score but he was a loose cannon even then, breaking Zack Bell's leg on a dirty hit and getting suspended for the final year of Juniors. He got his first tast of NHL action in 2016-17 and with long lazy looping shifts where he refused to come off the ice he drove coaches Jack Capuano to Doug Weight to Barry Trotz to fits of madness. He drew suspensions in the AHL for insubordination, refused to report to the Islanders AHL club, when peace was made he was loaned to the Blues club to keep him away from their own players as he was under contract but even placed on waivers several times he was never claimed. He spent part of 2020-21 in Europe, spent last year with the Marlies where he kept his head down and played his game with little controversy but was unable to get an NHL deal from anyone so he signed with the KHL in July.

 It is not that he could not play, over parts of two seasons in his first 42 games in the NHL he scored 6-16-22 whic is a 43 point pace. He is the very definition of all the tools with no toolbox. At least in Europe where hitting is very rare and long shifts are the norm he should be able to relax and play his game.

 

GRIFFIN REINHART was drafted two years before Ho Sang also by the Islanders with the 4th pick in the draft. This was a draft where defenseman dominated the top of the draft, right behind Reinhart went Morgan Reilly, Hampus Lindholm, Matt Dumba and Jacob Trouba. A few picks later went Forsberg. Then Hertl. Then Tom Wilson. In a very deep and talented draft Reinhart will go down as one of the most monumental busts of all time.He played a whopping total of 9 games for the Isles before they realized the dreadful error they had made.

  And then they found the Oilers willing to take him off their hands for a first and second rounder. Reinhart played 28 games for Edmonton and was dreadful, slow, always out of position, just a bad, bad player. The first rounder the Islanders got for him turned out alright. A kid named Barzal.

  Reinhart spent a year in the KHL, a year in Germany and then the ultimate step down, a year in the EIHL in Britain where you would think his numbers as a former 4th overall pick not that many years before would be dominate but they were very pedestrian. Unable to find a league below the British beer league, he hung up his skates in Late July loathed by the Islanders fans for his draft position and who went right after, and loathed by the Oiler faithful every time Barzal comes to town and they think how he would look on a line with one of their big boys.

 

   Just thought these two needed mention somewhere as Reinhart rides off into the sunset and Ho Sang in lazy long loops skates off. Goodbye to the two cautionary tales of getting to excited about first rounders.

 

 

  

 

[yave1964]

And as a Wings fan I know the pain more than most in recent (pre Yzeman) drafts, where I saw such beauties as Martin Frk, Cholowski, Svechnikov (the bad one) Jurco, Turgeon (the bad one) Rasmussen, Veleno, skate around the ice with something missing and wondering how they were drafted so high. But Ho Sang and Reinhart really are in a class of themselves when it comes to the total package of bad scouting combined with poor development.