Sports Card Bust #14, 15, & 16: Tri (три) Alexandres

My newest additions to my Sports Card Bust PC are three athletes who have three things in common. They all played hockey, they all have first names that sound the same, and they all are huge sports card busts.

I'll start with the most recent and save the best for last. In 2001, the Tampa Bay Lightning drafted Alexander Svitov with the 3rd overall pick in the NHL draft. Svitov played in 179 games during his 3 year NHL career. As a center, he posted career NHL totals of 13 goals and 24 assists for a whopping 37 points. He's presently playing in his hometown in Russia for Avangard Omsk.

Next up, we have Alexandre Volchkov. Before the Washington Capitals selected one of the best Alex's in the game (Mr. Ovechkin), they drafted one of the worst picks in the history of the NHL. Some of you may have never heard of Mr. Volchkov, but that's because he played in only 3 NHL games. His incredible talent wasn't enough to overcome his attitude issues. He played several seasons in the OHL, IHL, and AHL before heading back to finish his career in Russia. He retired from hockey after the 2002-03 season.

This morning I searched Google and typed in "biggest NHL draft busts" and clicked on the first 5 results. All of the search results were Top 10 NHL draft busts. The final Alexandre was the #1 draft bust on three of the five lists and #2 on another. If you're wondering, he was ranked the 5th biggest draft bust by Sports Illustrated's Tom Layberger.

Have you figured out which Alexandre it is? It's not Mr. Mogilny, nope he was a draft day stud (89th pick in the 1988 NHL draft = 4 all-star game appearances, 473 goals, & 1,032 points over a 16 year career).

It's Alexandre Daigle, Ottawa's 1st pick of the 1993 NHL draft. Normally, I might not add a player like Daigle to this list since he played 10 seasons in the NHL and tallied over 300 points. However, it's hard to argue the fact that so many people have labeled him the greatest NHL draft bust of all-time.

So there you have it... three Alex's that weren't so great. Thanks for reading and stay tuned. I have a few more busts arriving any day now.