Every draft provides a whole host of busts, but some are much more spectacular and painful than others.

I've been covering junior hockey and NHL draft selections for decades, and I can't say why a vaunted prospect busts and another seemingly less talented one prospers, but the one thing that every bust comes with is a backstory.

Here's a list of my "favorite" busts from 1994 through 2004. I'm going to hold the busts to an awfully high (or should it be low?) standard: the picks all fell in the top 12 of a draft and the players must have played fewer than a full season's worth of games in the NHL.

Caveats: I'm reluctant to declare anyone who suffered an injury that cut his career short a bust -- that stuff is unfortunate and impossible to anticipate. A bust also need a we-should-have-known-better aspect to it.

I'm starting in 1994 for symbolic reasons. The year before featured the player whose name became synonymous with bust: Alexandre Daigle. Daigle was selected first overall by Ottawa from Victoriaville of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, ahead of Chris Pronger and Paul Kariya, among others.

Though he never lived up to his billing and certainly provided almost no returns on a $12.5 million contract, it's hard to call a guy who played in 616 NHL games a complete bust. He scored 20 goals a couple of times, once at age 21 with an awful Ottawa team and later in his career with offensively-challenged Minnesota. In the end, Daigle was too good and too accomplished to be a bust. He was a big disappointment, yes, but not a bust.

But Daigle does provide an example of what to look for in players who bust. In his case, he simply didn't like hockey that much. He liked it enough to play it sometimes, but not enough to hang out with his teammates. He's probably the only player in recent history who would leave the arena after a practice to go socializing at a nearby college campus. He had enough talent to actually overcome his reluctance sometimes -- enough to catch your eye, but no will to grow as a player.

Let's keep going.

1994

Jason Bonsignore, C, fourth overall by Edmonton from Niagara Falls (Ontario Hockey League)

79 career NHL games, 3 G, 13 A

Weaknesses: attitude, hockey sense

I wrote about Bonsignore in my book on scouting, "Future Greats and Heartbreaks." In a nutshell, he was a talented player who was more interested in go-kart racing than hockey. I kid you not.

The game was easy for him up to the junior level -- so easy that he never had to work at. If he were simply lazy, that wouldn't have been so bad; maybe someone could have lit a fire under him. But the fact was that Bonsignore was in love with himself, even styling himself as the next Mario Lemieux (who could have sued for defamation).

A warning sign: When Newmarket traded Bonsignore to Niagara Falls for nothing much during the draft year, the play of his former team picked up and the mood in the dressing room brightened. Then-Edmonton Oilers GM Glen Sather told his staff it had to get a player and make a safe choice with the No. 4 pick. Oops. At least at No. 6 the Oilers snagged Ryan Smyth.

Bonsignore was last seen with Fresno and Trenton in the East Coast league in 2007-08. When I left messages for him a couple of years back, he owned a go-kart track -- but he did not return calls.

1995

Terry Ryan, LW, eight overall by Montreal from Tri-City (Western Hockey League)

Eight career NHL games, no points, 36 PIM, out of hockey

Weakness: skating

Ryan at the very least should have had a bit of a career as a fourth-liner. He was a gritty, tough guy with some decent hands. But No. 8 in the draft? Ahead of Jarome Iginla? That's a bust.

Here's the thing: Iginla's numbers weren't better than Ryan's. Iginla had 33 goals that season with a championship Kamloops team while Ryan had 50 with the Americans. Ryan, though, was a weak skater.

I remember watching one drill in a Canadiens' practice in which wingers would get a flying start at their own blueline to skate 150 feet to the goal while a defenseman had to go from a dead stop at center ice. The defensemen were at a complete disadvantage and the forwards poured by them, sometimes untouched -- with the exception of Ryan, who was basically stapled on the boards on every trip.

I asked Canadiens defenseman Lyle Odelein about Ryan, then 20, after practice. His scouting report was pithy: "Can't play," he said.

I suggested that maybe Ryan's skating would improve as he got older and stronger. "CAN'T PLAY," Odelein said again.

They say that players make the best scouts. In this case, Odelein saw what the Canadiens scouts missed.

Perhaps the Canadiens should have known that something wasn't quite right when Ryan was called up from the Western League and he drove with a friend across the continent to report. (For Canadian readers can insert their Newfie joke here.)

Teemu Riihjarvi, LW, 12th overall by San Jose from Espoo (Finland)

No career NHL games

Weakness: Unknown

Hard to blame Riihjarvi, a towering kid at 6-foot-6 who was No. 9 on Central Scouting Service's list of European skaters and projected as a second-rounder. He was as surprised as everybody on the draft floor when San Jose called his name.

In 1995, Chuck Grillo, the guy in charge of the draft for the Sharks, declared '95 "the year of the Finns." It must have come to him in a dream, because it had no foundation in reality. Grillo drafted five Finns in all, including future NHL goaltenders Vesa Toskala in the fourth round and Miikka Kiprusoff in the fifth.

The worst of the Finns was Riihjarvi. He never scored more than eight goals in a Finnish league season and was outmatched in the Swedish elite league. He was last seen playing for the Blues in the Finnish league in 2006.

1996

Alexander Volchkov, RW, fourth overall by Washington from Barrie (OHL)

Three career NHL games, out of hockey

Weakness: Attitude

It's a story famous in scouting circles. At the fitness testing for the '96 draft eligibles, Volchkov spit out the bit in the VO2 testing. It wasn't a case of the Russian not understanding what he had to do in the test. It was strictly, "No thanks. I don't think I'll bother."

Volchkov had looked good on the ice that season in Barrie -- 36 goals and 27 assists in 47 games. He played for Russia at the world juniors and looked strong playing with Sergei Samsonov and Aleksey Morozov. But Volchkov was happy to be as good as he was and wasn't interested in being a whole lot better, especially after signing with the Capitals.

Washington's scouts figured Volchkov was a player who physically matured early and was able to excel with something less than total effort. He was a pretty engaging kid from what I remember of him in Barrie and with the Russian juniors, but happy-go-lucky isn't an asset when you get on the ice.

Volchkov had some moderate success in the American Hockey League at age 22, picking up 11 goals and 15 assists in 35 games in Portland. But when he signed with Washington and cashed the first check, he had achieved all that he was interested in. He was last seen with Krylja in the Russian league in 2002-03.

1997

Daniel Tkaczuk, C, sixth overall by Calgary from Barrie (OHL)

19 career NHL games, 4 G, 7 A

Weakness: Character

The second consecutive major draft bust out of Barrie and, for more reasons than that, Tkaczuk was a funny case -- unless you were the GM who drafted him (Al Coates).

Tkaczuk was third on NHL Central Scouting's list of North American skaters, behind only Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau and ahead of Sergei Samsonov, Eric Brewer, Dan Cleary and, way down the list at No. 17, Brenden Morrow. Tkaczuk had a pretty glorious run in junior hockey, including a couple of trips to the world juniors, although he admittedly didn't do very much at those tournaments in terms of hockey production.

Though scouts liked his game a lot, there was nothing in particular about Tkaczuk that stood out. No weaknesses, but no strengths either. The difference-maker was supposed to his character. He attended Upper Canada College, sort of the Canadian Andover, the most righteous Canadian prep school, and he was billed as a young leader among men. As it turned out though, character was the one problem in his package. He didn't get along with management or his teammates, eventually running out of people to alienate. But Central and the Calgary scouts fell for the act at the time.

Tkaczuk was the front end of a double crap-out for Calgary. The next year they had the sixth overall again and took Rico Fata, a no-character guy from London, another OHL team. Fata had one on-ice skill, speed, but nothing else. Fata doesn't quite qualify for this bust list because he played 230 games in the NHL.

A career minor-leaguer, give Tkaczuk some credit just for hanging in the sport. Last season he played a total of 12 AHL games for three teams and spent most of the winter with the Charlotte Checkers of the East Coast league.

Notable: It was a pretty lousy draft year overall. From picks No. 14 to No. 26, 10 draftees ended up playing fewer than 80 career NHL games and five didn't even reach double figures.

1999

Pavel Brendl, LW/RW, fourth overall by NYR from Calgary (WHL)

78 career NHL games, 11 G, 11 A

Weaknesses: Allergic to work, not allergic to hot dogs

The Rangers actually traded up to get their shot at a Czech kid who scored 73 goals in 68 games with the championship team in the Dub. He was a likable enough kid who seemed to have an abundant amount of talent and an eccentric fondness for hot dogs. Unfortunately, he had less of a fondness for training.

Neither hurt him in junior, but both did in the NHL. He was neither strong enough nor fit enough to excel at the next stage and his scoring touch vaporized when he got a dose of contact in the pros. Like Volchkov, Brendl thought of his first contract not as a first step but a final destination. He last played in the NHL with Phoenix for a couple of games in the first season after the lockout. After that it was off to Europe. He was last seen playing for Nizhny Novgorod in the Kontinental Hockey League, scoring 52 goals in 107 games over the last two seasons.

2000

Lars Jonsson, D, seventh by Boston from Leksand (Sweden)

Eight career NHL games, 2 A

Weakness: Lacked talent

It's hard to blame Jonsson for his failure -- even he didn't imagine that he'd go seventh overall. When the pick was announced, scouts on the draft floor tried to find him on their lists; most of them couldn't.

He was 11th in Europe on Central Scouting's list (behind Anton Volchenkov, who went much later in the first round to Ottawa) and NHL scouts thought that was too high. With Central's ranking, Jonsson should have been the seventh pick in the second round. It's one of those cases when the scouts, in trying to make their projections, see something that isn't there.

Five of the top 12 picks that season didn't play a full NHL season, including two Russian forwards drafted by Chicago's then-GM Mike Smith: Mikhail Yakubov (two goals in 53 games) and Pavel Vorobiev (10 G in 57 games).

2002

Petr Taticek, C, ninth by Florida from Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)

Three career NHL games, no points

Weakness: Skating

Florida traded up to get Taticek, who was seventh-ranked by Central Scouting among North American skaters. Said Florida's head scout at the time (whose name is being withheld as a courtesy):

"He's got great hockey sense, is very aware offensively and defensively and takes pride in every facet of the game. Lots of kids have to learn the defensive part. He knows it. But he's very smart and hard-working and wants to be the best."

Florida imagined that Taticek would develop into a second-line center and faceoff specialist, if not a first-liner. But a lot of scouts second-guessed the high ranking by Central and Florida's pick. The weakest part of his game wasn't anything you'd wish on a center, namely, um, skating. (Notice that the scout never mentioned skating as part of Taticek's package.) He was in a "finesse" mould, which was OK for him in the junior ranks but a deadly way to approach the game if you can't skate out of the way of heavy traffic.

2003

Hugh Jessiman, RW, 12th by NYR from Dartmouth (NCAA)

No career NHL games

Weaknesses: Lack of progress, attitude

Here's what Hugh Jessiman said on the occasion of his drafting: "It's not set in stone that I'll be playing in the NHL, but it's incredible just to be noticed like this."

It certainly wasn't set in stone that he'd play in the NHL because he still hasn't.

This was a colossal miss by the Rangers. The 2003 draft was one of the best and deepest of all time. So how did Jessiman end up going ahead of Dustin Brown (No. 2 on CSS' list), Ryan Getzlaf (No. 5) and Zach Parise (No. 9)?

Some scouts are suckers for size -- the Flyers were that way for years. In this case, the Rangers were suckered by the Dartmouth freshman's size: 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds.

Maybe Jessiman could have had an impact in the NHL circa 2003, where size and strength meant a lot more than it does in the more free-flowing post-lockout game. Jessiman is still hanging in; he turned pro after his junior year at Dartmouth and has moved up from the East Coast league to the A. But he has definitely plateaued with two 20-goal seasons in Milwaukee the past couple of years.

One scout put Jessiman's lack of progress down to attitude: "He was always too laid back to make the most of his opportunity. He always lacked fire."

2004

Al Montoya, G, sixth by NYR from Michigan (NCAA)

Five career NHL games, 3-1, 2.08 GAA, .925 SV%

Weakness: Bad goals

Glen Sather predictably hyped the pick: "He's got personality and sizzle and we think he's great."

Montoya was coming off being the No. 1 for the U.S. team that won its first world junior championship. He had a chance to be a pretty good story, becoming the first Cuban-born player in the NHL when Phoenix called him up for his lone shot at the next level two seasons ago. But sizzle turned to fizzle.

Montoya's rap has been that he lets in bad goals and allows those bad goals to shatter his confidence. In hindsight, Montoya didn't help himself when he didn't sign with the Rangers right after the draft. Spending the lockout year in the AHL would have been a better for his development than returning to Michigan and taking another trip to the world juniors. He would have made out better financially as well.

He's still plugging away with San Antonio in the AHL, but it's not clear that he'll ever get another call up.

2004

Alexandre Picard, LW, eighth by Columbus from Lewiston (QMJHL)

67 career NHL games, 2 A

Weakness: Skating

You need proof that a junior coach can only see the good in one of his players who is drafted? Enter Ed Harding, who was the Lewiston coach back in 2004.

"He's a very strong and powerful skater," Harding said of Picard. "The thing the scouts really liked is he drives to the net from either wing. He's not afraid to stand in front and take a beating."

Well, Picard did get to the net with Lewiston -- he had a couple of 40-goal seasons in the Q. But he just wasn't the strong and powerful skater that Harding imagined.

"He's a poor skater and has this bent over style of skating," one pro scout said. "A couple of games into his stint in Columbus, you could see he just didn't skate well enough to stick, never mind have any impact."

That's not to stick it to the Columbus scouts. Central had Picard all wrong too, ranking him third on the list of North American skaters, ahead of -- among others -- Wojtek Wolski at No. 5, Drew Stafford at No. 7, Dave Bolland at No. 8 and Mike Green at No. 9. After he struggled to become a 20-goal scorer in the AHL, the Blue Jackets wrote off Pickard. He was last spotted with the Rampage in San Antonio, yes, alongside Al Montoya, his spiritual hermano.