Who was the worst player/goalie to play for the Flames?

[Gemnoble]

Now before we all start rushing to hurl abuse at Gary Leeman.

They have to have played for at least a half season, although dishonourable mentions are welcome.

They have to be properly, thoroughly bad. Not just a defensive liability/turn over based life form or allergic to goals/assists. They need to be a two way train wreck and not otherwise useful for drawing penalties or playing enforcer.

Goalie wise it can't just be save percentage, take into account relative quality of opposition, softness of goals and time in net. Lots of goalies have had to come cold off the bench or play the Second game of a back to back behind an exhausted team and gotten blown out. Eating losses to keep the starter fresh.

Few Goalies have truely been actively terrible and maintained a spot out of a coach or GM's stubborn pride.

Germyn Titov and Anton Babchuk come to mind, but they seem to at least be decent locker room guys and Babchuk at least had a howitzer of a shot. I'm looking for entirely unredeemable.

There is no shortage of sub-par back up goalies either.

[Snuffleupagus]

Germyn Titov?

The guy played 5 seasons with the flames and had three 20+ goal seasons for them. he played over 600 NHL games and for a 10th round pick he was hardly a bad player

Anyway, Chris Dingman was a complete dud

[Madrox]

Titov doesn't belong on the list. He may not have been great, but relative to who he was playing with, he was well above average. He was on the team for 5 seasons, from 93-98, and during that time he was the second highest point producer for the team overall, and was 6th in points/game for forwards, ahead of guys like Nylander, Stillman and Iginla. Babchuck didn't produce a ton, but he had a cannon. If you want to put a useless d-man up on the board, I'm going to suggest Chris Butler is a better option.


However, he's not the worst Flame of all time. If you want someone who truly brought nothing positive to the team, and was shockingly bad compared to his teammates (and reputation), I'm going to suggest Hall of Famer, Vezina winner, and member of the NHL's 100 Greatest Players, Grant Fuhr. The Oiler stink loses him points right off the bat, but he doesn't need any help there. When you look at his stats compared to his teammates, it's shocking how much worse he was than Freddie Brathwaite (who I loved, but really wasn't a starting goalie) and a handful of games from 22 year old J.S. Giguere. More than a full point of GAA worse than either of them, and .049 worse save percentage than Freddie, .058 worse than Giguere... and for some reason he played a quarter of the season.

[MrMike]

Anders Eriksson is the worst defenceman who isn’t a one off I’ve ever seen lace up for this team.


He was buried in the AHL for the full season of 08-09, probably our best team we have had in 30 years and our defence was so decimated we had to bring him up for our playoff series vs Chicago. I knew the game was lost even before he stepped on the ice.

He was the absolute worst. Made Butler look like Hanifin, Babchuk look like Al Iafrate and Andre Zyuzin look like, well, Zyuzin because he was our second worst and during the same time.

[DAN0383]

Jeff Friesen, Darryl Shannon, Stewart Malgunas.

[Zary's-Mustache]

German Titov???? He doesn't even make my top 50 list. He was a good player and a great guy in the community.

I think Chris Butler was the worst player I ever saw play.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Bryan Marchment. Embarrassing signing.

[BurningSteel]

James Neal and Leland Irving.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Is Hiller up there?

[1qqaaz]

The worst that I've seen, by a large margin, was Anders Eriksson.

Alex Chiasson constantly had the puck die on his stick. Derek Forbort was the worst I've seen in the playoffs. I think he was -4 one game with only a few minutes played.

[troutman]

Todd Bertuzzi.

[The Fisher Account]

Originally Posted by Zary's-Mustache

German Titov???? He doesn't even make my top 50 list. He was a good player and a great guy in the community.

I think Chris Butler was the worst player I ever saw play.

'Ol Butsy

[Brodie66]

There were some guys worse than Butler but for some reason it seemed like Butler played 30 minutes a night and was on the ice for 90% of goals against

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by troutman

Todd Bertuzzi.

Nailed it

####ing embarrassing that the organization signed him

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by MrMike

Anders Eriksson is the worst defenceman who isn’t a one off I’ve ever seen lace up for this team.


Probably our best team we have had in 30 years and our defence was so decimated we had to bring him up for our last game vs Chicago. I knew the game was lost even before he stepped on the ice. Absolute worst. Made Butler look like Hanifin. Made Babchuk look like Al Iafrate

Easily Erikkson. Dude pretty much lost us the series against the sharks in 07. I remember people praisng him when he wasn't noticeable (ie. had a passable game) and those were incredibly rare. His bar was so low. But I think I hated him most because Keenan kept playing him repeatedly 20mins a night. Just a horrible player that still gives me nightmares.

[PaperBagger'14]

Niklas Grossman was painful to watch in his very short stint. The guy skated at the speed of smell.

[Strange Brew]

James Neal.

[boogerz]

Todd Simpson or Andrei Zyuzin

[calgarygeologist]

Sven.

[ComixZone]

Troy Brouwer and James Neal.

Not only did they destroy any line they got put on, but they also were key factors in sewering the development of Sam Bennett.

Goalie wise? Brian Elliott is up there for me. Cratered a hopeful season outside of a 10-game stretch and then lost a playoff series all on his own.