Was Rick DiPietro Actually a Bust or Just Unlucky

[@BloodRider1914]

Don't draft goalies 1st overall, especially if you already have Roberto Fucking Luongo

[@classic.cameras]

Haha Oops!

[@kj6446]

Agreed... he's in the unique quadfecta of busts...bust relative to his draft position, relative to number of games played, relative to his contract and relative to the hall of fame player he "replaced". I struggle to think of what other busts meet all of these criteria.

[@Goodrowd]

Their GM didn't know how to manage a team.... Atleast if you're going to draft a goalie 1st overall, don't get rid of every other fucking goalie in your organisation lmao! What a dumb error lol

[@clippervelocity6191]

Mike Milbury was on crack the entire time he was GM of islanders

[@dr.loomis4221]

Garth Snow was the GM at the time

[@clippervelocity6191]

@@dr.loomis4221 Milbury was GM of islanders 95’-06. He drafted DiPietro in 2000 and traded away Roberto Luongo. Then Garth Snow signed him to that atrocious contract in fall of 2006

[@hughjass1044]

Don't make excuses for him. He's just f**king stupid!

[@WantonBaby]

Much more likely he was duin coke

[@bearwooden660]

Mike Milbury is buffoon who was a horrible player and even worse GM. Even listening to his broadcasts on NBC made my ears bleed of who clueless this guy is.

[@atex6175]

Grew up with Rick he was unbelievably talented athlete. Injuries definitely derailed him

[@Legoface660]

I don't really feel bad for him though. He gets paid 1.5M a year to go on vacation

[@plaidzebra5526]

The man's not on vacation though. He's got an ESPN podcast and an annalist for many NHL games. Man's still working in the sport he loves clearly.

[@Legoface660]

@@plaidzebra5526 Oh that's nice. Being on vacation for 10 years would get boring anyway, so it's good he's still involved in the sport.

[@PenguinNote67]

The Scouts were an NHL team. The Blues farm team was called the Kansas City Blues

[@dabrowny]

Guy just had bad luck with injuries, he did decent when he wasn’t injured

[@sourpeach4599]

No no he was really bad

[@PolishCarbon]

@@sourpeach4599 He wasn't

[@coastaku1954]

@@sourpeach4599 Did you watch the video? He wasn't too bad, he just had to get comfortable with playing professionally, but then struggled with injuries later

[@sacredalien8011]

It’s literally just the contract and injuries that haunted him. Other then that, if he wasn’t on a ridiculous contract he played well while healthy. If he wasn’t signed to as long as he was only to succumb to injuries early in the contract his history would be different. I blame that more on Islanders management than Dipietro

[@NickNificent]

yea right when he was finally getting it, the bad injury happened in the all star game.

[@NHLineCombo]

He’s awesome on espn NY radio. Should get more exposure on tv for nhl on espn nationally

[@charliem9831]

Not a Garth Snow but that contract was something the owner, Charles Wang, pushed to be done.

[@Modulater83]

This gets lost sometimes so I am glad you said it. Garth Snow was the GM at the time but the contract was negotiated by Charles Wang. @Hectic Hockey had the context correct as well. The thought at the time was you needed that highly paid elite goalie to win a cup. The idea behind the 15 year contract was that his AAV would be below his elite peers when he was hitting his stride, with the trade off being the long term security. It was a gamble and had DiPietro lived up to the potential, the deal would be viewed very differently. However, it shows why even with that upside, you DON'T make these kind of deals, because if it blows up in your face, it really hamstrings you.

[@BillyRamirez]

6:00 Osgood took this team to the playoffs. Show some goddamn respect.

[@NolanEgbert]

He did in 2001-02, but he definitely struggled in 03 before getting traded and leaving Garth Snow as the starter

[@kyledavidson8712]

Osbad

[@Narkogurio]

I feel like considering how poor the islanders teams he played in front where he was pretty decent while not injured

[@mattvball17]

I remember him for caring for his dog and helping get him an international health certificate so he can play overseas during a strike. Love him and his wife; super nice people.

[@JustARegularPylon]

13:22 Dan Blackburn gets a pass from the 'bust' title; he was named to the All-Rookie team in the '01-'02 season along with Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk. He suffered a weightlifting accident which left permanent nerve damage in his left shoulder to where he couldn't make high glove saves which just ended his career.

[@peter8367]

without injuries, i think he could have had a longer and more successful career

[@WarioSaysSo]

Rick DiPietro can't be said he was a "bust" as he was a genuine tallent with a lot of potentials. But as we all know, injuries took him out and he sadly was prone to them. What made things so tough for his legacy was all BUT his fault in 1. The Islanders had freakin Roberto Luongo already and believed they needed this over him. 2. They signed him on a MONSTER big contract never seen on a goalie that STILL is alive.... so cap bombing deluxe hurt the team for ages thanks to the incompetent GM.

[@JohnDaubSuperfan369]

Okay, but how come you don't tolerate curse words or sexual tones? Swedes used to be cool, you guys made the best porn and eurovision tracks, you were a highly educated free-thinking society. What happened? Why is a Swedish child such a conservative?

[@kyledavidson8712]

Awesome vid bud more please

[@DanielNYR]

My knees actually began hurting while watching this video

[@DailyWordsofWisdom888]

He was supposed to be the next Tony Esposito. 😮

[@CB14.]

wow dude you don’t miss on these videos

[@HecticHockey]

Thank you!

[@rebeltvr6046]

@@HecticHockey I agree. You're amazing with your details. I subbed a few days ago.

[@PingoupTV]

Bro had so much injury that it made me rethink about my conception of: goalie are less injured (I’m a goalie too)

[@Zach________]

He was one of the best stick handling goalies of all time

[@ryant3922]

Chris Osgood being in the class of very good is debatable. But good movie sir.

[@bramstedt8997]

Honestly Fleury would probably be considered a bust if not for his longevity. He was solid most seasons, but wasn’t really elite aside from that one year in Vegas. He’s not a HOFer because of his peak, he’s a HOFer because he was good enough to not drag down some loaded pens teams and because he’s been able to put up decent numbers for a really long time

[@pyrielrising4338]

Very generous....I would have called it "The worst contract in the history of professional sports". I honestly cannot think of one that is close.

[@braydenmartin3666]

Bobby Bonilla?

[@pyrielrising4338]

@@braydenmartin3666 Sorry but Bonilla was an all star and MVP candidate when the Mets signed him, DiPietro got his ridiculous contract as an NHL rookie, from a man who has since been bounced from professional hockey...never to return. 😂

[@braydenmartin3666]

@@pyrielrising4338 fair but safe to say Bonilla did not play up to that contract either

[@pyrielrising4338]

@@braydenmartin3666 Agreed

[@bramstedt8997]

It’s too early to say definitively, but the DeShaun Watson contract might take that title

[@classic.cameras]

Worst contract in NHL history is the Alexi Yashin contract, then Darnell Nurse.

[@Legoface660]

Nurse is not a good contract, but nowhere near the world in NHL history

[@mangotango2909]

Kovalev was a pretty bad one too

[@classic.cameras]

@@Legoface660 ok maybe just the worst of current players then.

[@Legoface660]

@@classic.cameras It's one of the worst yeah

[@lilwoodiewood3457]

​@@classic.cameras huberdeau says no

[@rikupv]

I have a hard time calling someone a bust because they got injured a ton. I consider someone a bust, who had all the talent and ability without excuses to make it but for whatever reason they didn’t. Look at the nba, a lot of people thought Greg oden was and still is a bust but he wasn’t bad at all when he did play, he just didn’t all that often.

[@HoweyJR_]

If you watched him you know the answer he literally kept the isles in games im a Sabres fan & that 07 series was closer than ppl think all because of him… Go Sabres Go Rangers

[@thartley16]

He got them to the playoffs twice afer they hadnt made the playoffs in a long time. He was the backbone of their team, but their team was completely flawed unfortunately :(

[@jzimmer8]

Just want to point out how outstanding his gear setups were throughout the years. Definitely some misses in there but Rick had style for sure.

[@leafsfanforever2896]

Since Billy Smith: - Kelly Hrudey (1984-1989) - Glenn Healy (1989-1993) - Ron Hextall (1993-1994) - Tommy Soderstrom (1994-1996) - Tommy Salo (1996-1999) - John Vanbiesbrouck (1999-2001) - Chris Osgood (2001-2003) - Rick DiPietro (2003-2009) - Dwayne Roloson (2009-2011) - Al Montoya (2011) - Evgeni Nabokov (2011-2014) - Jaroslav Halak (2014-2018) - Robin Lehner (2018-2019) - Semyon Varlamov (2019-2021) - Ilya Sorokin (2021-present; first franchise goalie since Billy Smith)

[@PumaTomten]

All star potential, that's why he got a huge contract but overall everything is just sad and unlucky. Busts are Raycroft

[@Krobscorner2006]

Johnson and Hamrlik were not inexperienced d men; Roman was the first pick of the lightning in 93, and was very rock solid; that entire roster was a tire fire, until the following season, when Chara was traded to Ottawa for Yashin, they acqired Peca and Osgood, and made the jump from 51 to 95 points.

[@jasonvoorhees8545]

I've never ever seen a player who's tires were pumped so hard by the media then that of MA Fleury. Here is a goalie who won one Stanley Cup early on in his career (as a starting goalie on the ice for the majority and the winning game) on a stacked Penguins team. This team deserved more Cups but they had a weak link in net. They went out and got Fleury a sports psychologist because of how bad his playoff performance had become. The Penguins almost did not offer him a new contract but they eventually did sign him but Fleury was still having issues in the playoffs. Enter Vokoun, and later Murray. Murray is a story all to himself but he did win two Stanley Cups and sent Fleury packing. The Pens made sure that Vegas took him in the expansion draft. He had one good run but ultimately lost and found himself on the go again. Peter DaBoer was no fan of Fleury, he was the Sharks coach that blasted their way thru him so he knew what the hockey guys knew. Fleury has always been on a relatively good team and he has found success that way. It still doesn't explain why the media continually pump his tires even after all of his mishaps and sometimes terrible play. For example his Gold Medal game of 2004 is never brought up but that's where I remember him from the same as my dad who said that he should have been retired right then and there, I agreed but here he is 20 years later and he's still prone to that kind of play. His buddy Bill is still feeding him cash from the Wild organization some how and no one is the wiser, I think they probably split the money as Fleury has no business being there anymore but hey, it's Marc Andre Fleury. The man has more wins than that bum Patrick Roy who we should forget now that he's down in 3rd place! Tabernac!

[@aralornwolf3140]

Have you looked at his stats? 2.60 GAA, .912 Save Percentage... multiple seasons in which he dominated in net. His playoff numbers are just as good... 2.56 GAA and .911 Save Percentage. *Shakes Head* 2004 was the _beginning_ of his professional career... and his numbers were bad then as was expected of a rookie goal tender! Do you judge all goalies by their first season and then demand they retire?

[@jasonvoorhees8545]

@@aralornwolf3140 I stated my opinion in my comment and it’s backed up not by numbers but by his play and performance. He’s a starting goalie who lost his starting job 3 x as a Penguin. He’s had some trouble with performance over his long career and if you read my comment then I also mentioned that he’s benefited from a good team in front of him for most of his career. Yes his stat line is ok but he’s played with some stacked teams. That stacked team had a weak link in goal and that’s why Fleury lost his starting job not once but THREE times. Fleury was not a world class goalie, if he was he would not have played himself out of Pittsburgh and that’s exactly what he did. They gave him to Vegas and Vegas gave him away for nothing to Chicago. World class goalies are not given away. There’s smarter hockey people in the NHL making these decisions, not guys like you and me and I’m just telling you what happened and how it really is because like I said, Fleury is getting his tires pumped by the media, not by the GMs. When Peter DeBoer took over Vegas Fleury was not popular with him and it’s known why but people were still upset about it because of the media. Anyway, he’s average and he has the ability to play well and overachieve as well as just stink up the joint. There used to be 10 or 20 min videos of his bloopers on KZbin.

[@Chimidway88]

He’s the Bobby Bonilla of the NHL

[@tsak912]

You don’t “need” an elite goalie to win a cup but, it definitely helps if you do

[@KibblezanBitz]

And they had Roberto Luongo. Talk about fumbling the bag.

[@semmcstevenson]

The goalie fight was a ridiculous BAD IDEA… got beat up pretty badly …. with all of his injuries that was definitely not not a good decision.

[@jedforceone]

Not here to pretend like DP was actually amazing (he wasn't) and that contract till makes me laugh... but I do always like to point out in my lifetime Islandersisms... when he was there it was a time when no one wanted to be an Islander and even if it didn't work out (and probably everyone not in the Islanders front office knew it wouldn't lol), its worth remembering that it was nice having a high profile player actually be excited to be an Islander and always look excited to be there.

[@Krobscorner2006]

Also, in 04, he had some of the best defensive play in front of him, which did not hurt.

[@JeremiahJohnson-l8h]

Is he a bust or unlucky? The answer is irrelevant, the winner is Rick DiPietro - guy has been retired for years and wakes up every morning laughing to the bank.

[@rona6063]

Was a weird time when goalies started getting drafted 1st overall. Just like when Goons were getting drafted too high. The old dinosaur execs had to start retiring before teams got smart and prioritize Centers and D-men and you dont draft anyone without skill.

[@christopherdugan6303]

About 8 mins in, “collision with Steve Begin”… BAY-gin, FYI.

[@raggamuffin2682]

Imagine having a rookie Roberto Luongo, and thinking you want something better

[@DumbTiger]

Both, both is good

[@michaelb5119]

Hard to call him unlucky with that contract tho

[@visualdarkness]

It's not fair to completely attribute the change in goalie drafting to DiPietro, or the dead puck. It also coincided with a leap in goalie skill and development. The modern butterfly got perfected and suddenly the era of contrast between the good goalies and truly awful ones died off.

[@bb-gc2tx]

dipietro bulked up a lot and there were rumors he didnt get that big naturally . a lot of his injuries are consistent with people who used steroids

[@bramstedt8997]

Trouble with drafting goalies is that they take a really long time to mature and it’s perhaps the most mental position in pro sports. Both of these make it extremely difficult to project how good they’ll be. Tim Thomas for example was elite for a good run of seasons but he didn’t really play until his 30s. Jordan Binnington posted mediocre numbers in the minors for years and got to start for the blues after the 3 goalies ahead of him either got hurt or had mental collapses, then we come to find out Binnington is a cold blooded psychopath who goes from average to superhuman under pressure.

[@ShinAkuma204]

There's nobody in the top 20 of the 2003 draft that I would pick ahead of MAF.

[@Redlife666]

I still remember watching that Pittsburgh game. When what's his face punched Rick in the jaw lol Good time

[@vincentr.6109]

It's a little of both, but longer to the side of being a bust rather than unlucky. He was probably never going to be good enough to lead the Islanders to the Stanley Cup due to his incontinency. Also, giving a player a huge contract after having multiple concussions is insane. Unfortunately, those players have much shorter careers.

[@jean-philippedoyon9904]

Rick DiPietro is the best exemple of the bad management of a great asset....Bad management of ice time, bad management of health and psychology, atrocious management of contract. Also he had no support from a good team in front of him. Sad really...

[@PhiladelphiaCollins451]

Idk if its the Poutine, but most of the goats of goaltending are Quebecers 😂😂😂

[@WilliamBonney-gl2qf]

RDP is the Anthony Rendon of the NHL

[@JC-hi8fk]

Getting 1.5 million dollars a year for doing nothing doesn’t sound very unlucky…

[@Gphazor]

Well at least he was payed well enough to cover his extensive medical bills, if any

[@Seb_Wasd]

missspellt the title lol

[@HecticHockey]

ha fixed it

[@Seb_Wasd]

@@HecticHockey hapens to the best of us

[@clebo99]

He was probably a bust but he loved being part of the franchise and he had some really bad luck. Isles fans I think aren’t upset with him and wish that he just wasn’t injury prone.

[@B-NIELOVESHOCKEY1]

He would have been goat stats if he was not always injured

[@Unholy_Louie]

The bust wasn't really Rick. It was, and has always been, without accountability as a member of the Ol' Boy's Club, Milbury. You can't control the injuries you get as a player. You don't decide what weak points your unique body always came with. But as a GM, you do control how to react to it, how you manage expectations for the injury prone player, and what path might be best for the player and the team (i.e. by not giving the longest contract in history to an injury prone player with stuff to prove). People can still blame the player if they so choose (I do not), but at the very least don't blame him alone.

[@jtp2007]

Snow did not offer that contract, Charles Wong did

[@bradmarepublic]

The 2000 Draft: #1 pick is a massive bust, best goalie in the draft is taken in the 7th round

[@Fenrirmaster30]

Blackburn's story is sad, dude could've been a great goalie if not for his career ending injury

[@mattduchene8033]

I honestly think the islanders rushed this guy out from injuries to play further messing him up more

[@realranger6297]

Brent Krahn not Kahn. He's a radio personality in Calgary now, a pretty funny guy and they make fun of his first round bust career often.

[@BeerLeagueGoalieGodfather]

Bad luck and made of glass. Sometimes being a top draft pick is a cruel joke…your potential greatness is rewarded by going to a terrible team. Although you usually get a nice contract.

[@ryananderson5202]

😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅 He wss locked down forever with that contract. He had no motivation to really comeback.

[@Dowder]

Rick was very good bad teams and bad luck.

[@Iambetterthanyouanduknowit]

He wasn’t a bust. He made the all star game and had good seasons. He just had injury problems

[@ethanparker7900]

both tbh

[@leovaillancourt5683]

Still being paid good for him

[@rooplmao]

it was wang who signed that deal

[@bearwooden660]

Being a Rangers fan I always thought DP is a great goalie, but because of his gym obsession got a lot of injuries. I mean at times he looked like 80s action movie star and not an NHL goalie. As a goalie you have to watch your weight and not only fat, but muscle weight as well look at Lundqvist and Brodeur. DP is definitely very talented but his carrier ended too soon by wrong choices on his part.

[@v4v819]

I have a hard time calling any prospect a bust when they get critically injured from the starting line... Also i think his long term contract- which is as egregious as any in history- also compounds his notion of being a "bust", though that's the fault of his team and not him- anyone who is sane would take what they give you! So one of the least bang for buck players of all time. Sure! But a bust... Look at his play when he was healthy, and look at how little time he stayed healthy and the concussions that added up- knowing what that does now to you as a player and beyond- and then tell me that if he was healthy he would had the same outcome and be out of the league before the mid point of his twentieth decade... Once again it's unfair to judge anyone for what they can't control... It's just such a misfortune to get a career ending injury so early- but no player is immune and if it hits even the best becomes a shadow of themselves and are forced into early retirement, no matter what their playing ability was before the onset of the injury... So i would categorize him as one of the most promising players with one of the most unfortunate careers! But he's not a bust in my books!

[@CapnNutbutter]

He was relatively solid, not spectacular to the point he'd be #1. Had he stayed healthy, he may have hit his potential.

[@Ferg13]

Oops. I forgot it was the snow man who signed him. Not mad Mike. My bad.

[@clandon9624]

We won't get a definitive answer, 1st ovr? most definetly not, but he wasnt't bad by any means. Unlucky for sure an probably coould have been very solid for a while. Erick Johnson kind of 1st overall

[@HecticHockey]

Exactly

[@berwick777]

New York Islanders - no cups in 41 years. Now there’s a good idea for a video on an NHL team’s failure! Hop to it Septic Tank Hockey!

[@HecticHockey]

i’m good

[@berwick777]

@@HecticHockey why not? You did one on Toronto and Buffalo. Don’t you believe in consistency? You’ve got so much material for the Islanders - you could spend an hour alone talking about Mike Milbury! And Lou as well, some of the awful moves that he’s made. Garth Snow also deserve a mention. And how islander fans went off-the-dial apeshit when John Tavares left. And of course over four decades and not one championship. All this should make for a very interesting video! Here, I’ll get you started: The New York Islanders have struggled for over four decades, with their last Stanley Cup victory in 1983 marking the end of a dynasty. Since then, the team has faced numerous challenges, including playoff misses and disappointing postseason exits, particularly in recent years under Lou Lamoriello's management. Critics highlight the organization's reluctance to adapt to modern NHL trends and a lack of depth in their prospect pool as significant barriers to success. The Islanders now find themselves at a crossroads, needing bold decisions to reshape their future.

[@berwick777]

No answer?

[@berwick777]

You get an F for journalistic integrity.

[@HecticHockey]

I can’t cover everything that has happened in the history of the game

[@Kmoten10]

Too be honest their were only a handful of good players from the 2000 draft, ironically the only other surefire lock hall of famer was a different goalie that went to the other new york team.

[@IsiahTomas]

Nah, but damn, it is crazy easy to jumble the mouth saying that last name.

[@BlakeCamreon]

DiPietro was playing on a horrible team with a horrible defence. Add to that his injury prone carousel and you have a really unlucky guy

[@WantonBaby]

Snow job Tender tendered Jury out in jury

[@IDKwhatmyhandleshouldbe55]

Honestly I think if he wasn’t riddled with he would be an elite goalie not a legend but elite and def not worth 1st overall pick

[@myblasterproductions]

Les gaw

[@NickNificent]

Isles brought Osgood in and went to back to back playoffs. tf u talkin about.

[@jxbane]

Is he still on an nhl payroll?

[@HecticHockey]

Yes

[@mikegeiler2347]

Guys who suffer career altering injuries are not busts

[@362chop]

Bust. Goalies? Waste of a first round pick.

[@booman3138]

He was a bust. He couldn't stay healthy and he didn't put up great stats most seasons.

[@MosierSocialSolutions]

Fleury is better than Brodeur. Change my mind

[@hogunthegrim5464]

There's a typo, bro. His name is Rickety DiPietro, not Rick DiPietro.

[@mondoseguendo6113]

His actual nickname was Humpty as in Humpty Dumpty

[@zackarybourbonnais1178]

He is unlucky

[@288theabe]

Total bust. Had an ego his body couldn’t cash (figuratively)

[@MosierSocialSolutions]

Goalies aren’t what they used to be. Goaltending in the nhl is boring no one exciting to watch in nets.

[@danielflynn8530]

No matter how good a goalie is you never sign a over 10 year contract it’s just flat out stupid. Snow will go down in history as the most stupid GM in history. Any hockey fan would have made a better GM.

[@sanborghini]

Luckiest man in the nhl

[@mondoseguendo6113]

As a NYR fan, I absolutely loved how his career turned out. As a NYC sports fan, absolutely love him on the radio. At first, he comes across as a douchebag, but the more you listen to him, he comes across as a pretty decent human being, definitely humbled by his experiences. He openly and honestly talks about how disappointing his career was. He also talks about the Pete Johnson fight and whatever happened there.

[@conrooks]

Brent Johnson gave Rick his greatest hockey highlight!

[@JBG1968]

That was funny as h@ll but you kinda had to feel bad for Rick there to . Johnson was a beast .

[@joshcateyes]

Did you even do your homework dude? Loungo was traded the same day as DiPietro, so they weren’t “lacking between the pipes” There was never a Kansas City Scouts in the central hockey league. And you’re not even pronouncing his name correctly.

[@ZZSmithReal]

Bust. Athletic but awful playing his angles.

[@daveyboy_]

I didn't under 7:36. Wtf