New York Rangers forgotten players A-Z: The D’s

Alexandre Daigle LW

That’s right. Alexandre Daigle, the first overall pick of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, briefly played for the New York Rangers. During the 1999 off-season, the Blueshirts acquired Daigle from the Tampa Bay Lightning in hopes that he would find his once massive potential. In his lone season with the Rangers, he scored eight goals and recorded 26 points in 58 games. He also played 16 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack and had 19 points.

From here, he would be out of the league for two seasons, as he lost his passion for the game and teams were not interested in his services. Yet, he did return for the 2002-03 season when he joined the Penguins. After a seven-point campaign there in 33 games, he played his last two NHL seasons with the Minnesota Wild.

Daigle is often regarded as a bust, especially with seeing as how the Senators drafted him over Hall of Famers like Chris Pronger and Paul Kariya. The Quebec Nordiques also reportedly offered Peter Forsberg, Owen Nolan, Ron Hextall and a handful of picks at the draft for the first overall pick, but Ottawa rejected because Daigle was supposed to be the league’s next superstar.

Daigle did have some success in the league, though. He had three seasons with at least 20 goals, as well as three 51-point campaigns. He never was able to become that star everyone predicted he would, but he had moments of solid production. In 616 career games with the Senators, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Rangers, Penguins and Wild, Daigle had 129 goals, 198 assists and 327 points.