Used to play soccer with Carson’s son when I was a kid. Super nice family. Jimmy didn’t talk much, he kinda stayed off to the side during the games. I don’t think many people knew who he was. I had his Whalers card and asked him to sign it. He gave it back signed and gave me a signed Wings card also. I was super stoked lol
To answer the question of what happened... he was very candid after he retired, saying that he just lost interest in the game part way through his career. This was corroborated by teammates who talked about how he became very interested in finance/investment stuff and was studying on plane rides and road trips. He had enough talent to play a full career, whereas today I don't think you can last in the NHL without being massively driven. All I can say is, it was a great time in Kings history when Robitaille, Carson, and Steve Duchesne came in as rookies, living with Marcel Dionne and one of his neighbors.
I also read that he did not fit in with the Oiler's dressing room. Like you said, he was interested in finance and read the Wall Street Journal. The other guys were typical young guys who liked to party. So there was tension there, and that can't be healthy mentally. It's why he asked for a trade. My tinfoil hat theory is that experience dampened his drive. But just as he was maybe finding it again in Detroit, he got trade away and that probably killed it.
@@SunSwipePrime Plus coming back to LA and not being a Barry Melrose type player. You could see he still had his touch in the 93 run, but wasn't really put into the 2C position behind Gretz. And then quickly offloaded again. That's the spot where they really lost the thread on what kind of team they were.
have you ever done a video on Tony Hand? I've always found his story fascinating. He's the Gretzky of British hockey. he had 200+ point seasons playing in only 30-40 games a year.
nice video, Jimmy Carson was a beast, it’s crazy how some guys just lose it. I think Rob Brown would make a nice video. What a talent he was. He absolutely dominated the minors and had a few really good seasons but just lost it.
I've heard Brown was notoriously lazy. He had that season (88-89') in Pittsburgh on Lemieux's wing where he put up 49 goals I think it was. But didn't do much outside of that year.
Carson was taken #2 overall in the 1986 draft by LA. The #1 pick that year was... Joe Murphy. The Wings could have avoided that bad trade if they had just taken the Michigan kid #1 in the first place.
@@matthewdaley746 Interesting fact: When the Wings played the Flyers in the 1997 finals, Coffey was on the ice as a D for Philly with every Wing goal scored against them. Murray was so fed up, he had Coffey behind the bench in a suit for the clincher in game 4 when the Wings won the Cup. Doubt he was injured. Great offense for many years, but his D in his zone went down the drain.
His first two years in LA, I went to many games, and there maybe 8,000 people there! I remember one week I went to a Lakers game, and it was sold out, then the kings game had about 8000 people couple days later! I think a combination of things led to his downfall. He didn’t have that drive because he was interested in other things. He also didn’t get as much power-play time as before. I also think he didn’t adapt to the faster pace game of the 90s. He’s a decent skater but he’ll never won the fastest skater competition.
Great video. Carson had a lot of potential, I honestly have no idea what happened. Maybe it was case where he didn't put the work in and were just riding on his talent. By the time he was a Whaler during the hockey card boom here i Europe he was done. When someone got him in a pack, the usual response was "Who the heck is that? -It's Carson, he's crap".
Gotta be honest, I completely forgot Carson was a Canuck during the '94 Cup run, I mostly only remember him as a Red Wing and during the King's '93 Cup Finals against Montreal.
I remember being perplexed by Jimmy Carson's career running out of fuel. I didn't understand what happened to him. I kept waiting and waiting for him to rebound. But it just never happened. And before too long, he was done as an impact player and was gone from the league. What happened to his skill set? Was it just injuries? He had some injuries I know. But your skill set...especially in your twenties...should not just disappear with injuries unless, say, you're a player who depends on raw speed as your dominant X-factor. All these years later, I still don't get what happened to Carson.
A lot of pressure basically being the guy the Oilers traded Gretzky for. Plus, he held out the season after...got dealt to the Wings and was decent. Built a nice finance career post-hockey.
to me it is a case of the business side of hockey killing a players interest. LA trading him when he was a very high pick and he was definitely producing likely added to the decline.
@@Thynqikan At that time, there was significantly less pressure playing in LA with the Lakers and Dodgers. The Kings were weren't a big draw. Then going to the polar opposite in Edmonton.
I was 12 yrs old when Carson entered the NHL and I was a hockey nut. If you asked me, before watching this video, how many points Carson ended up with, I would have sworn that he had 1000 games and 1000 points and close to 500 goals. Funny thing, the wonderment of a child.
Though i was a BIG Oiler fan (still am) at the time ..(the 80's) i was a Carson fan ..though mostly via hockey cards,,,,THN and whatever scoring clips and highlights i could catch ,,,,,living in Atlantic Canada in the 80's (even with TSN) KIngs games where RARE on tv in the old 21 team NHL days ....i do remember saying around 87 i would REALLY like to see the Oilers get Carson (careful what you wish for lol) though i was thinking maybe for Paul Coffey (who the Oilers actually got a good long term player for) i heard one of the reasons Carson HATED going to Edmonton (besides having to "replace" Gretzky) was that McNall basically promised him he would be a King for life(hmm sounds like another familiar team owner to the Northeast ) and he had just bought a home in L.A. with that in mind ....i think the only Canadian teams he would have been ok playing for were probably Montreal (were he played his Jr, Hockey and maybe Toronto (where curiously i think would have kept up his goal pace more like he did in L;A: cause he would have gotten TONS of ice time ) yeah i was let down by Carson not working out in Edmonton ..and it was actually after that first round loss to the Kings in 89 where i REALLY felt he was not going to be around long term ,,,,and that this was not a player to carry a team in the playoffs especially ...its funny because i read story somewhere once that Messier would would glare at Carson in the locker room as if to say "We gave up Wayne for YOU!!?? lol) ..but for Oilers fans it worked out (though not as good as if Gretzky never leaves lol) ...the Carson trade to the Wings in 89 (imo) saved the Oilers season in the playoffs ,,,that trade and maybe one the most underrated trades Sather ever made ...getting Ranford from Boston for Moog .a couple seasons prior ..though Moog was still really good in 89/90 i dont see him saving the Oilers down 3to 1 vs Winnipeg in 90
He has to deal with the pressure of having been traded for Gretzky, then gets buried in Detroit under Yzerman, Federko, and then Fedorov. That's rough.
likely a loss of confidence due to insane levels of pressure. being apart of a high profile trade and being expected to replace WAYNE GRETZKY, and coming up short, is a punch in the gut. if he wouldve stayed in LA, I bet he wouldve been a hall of famer.
Teams tended to be comfortable trading away Carson, because he was never the key player on a line who drives play. He had the talent and skill to finish, but never really tilted the ice, so teams felt that his play could be replaced.
How about Gino Odjick? Remember the Goon Show he put on vs St. Louis trying to fight Anderson but ended up fighting everyone else except Anderson who was hiding behind the refs? That was funny.
That trade is stupid for Kings side to trade Coffey for Carson. Only try to get fill the hole for good second line behind Wayne. Well didnt work out...
As A GM the ONLY other players at the time i would have given a serious thought about trading for Gretzky in 88 ,,,its short list ..Mario , Yzerman or Hawerchuck ,,nobody else would really be a serious choice outside of crazy cant refuse package of multiple players ....granted Sather's hand was kinda forced on it ...IF it was Sather's choice alone Wayne stays OR(if Wayne really wants out) he gets a MUCH better trade then Carson deal (imo)
He was the center piece of that trade between the kings and oilers known as the “Gretzky deal”. To me it’ll always be the “Jimmy Carson deal”. He could actually raise the puck.
That was my thought. The Oilers improved greatly when they traded him, which is impressive considering that it is hard to get value when someone is requesting a trade. Those components were so significant to that 1990 Cup, even the headcase that was Klima.
@Robin S it was the 80s, literally everyone did coke, including whiny tit Carson. Carson didn’t want to be there from day 1 and let it be known. Of course the rest of the team would “bully” a toxic muppet like Carson.
Maybe he simply lost interest in hockey, when he was confronted by the fact that he wasn’t Wayne Gretzky and that he could never satisfy the fans in that matter. He was about 100 points short of matching Gretzky’s numbers. lol - Anyway, I wonder if he had been more interested in hockey, had he not been confronted with a unsurmountable barrier.. replacing the great one.
It would have been interesting to compare his career alongside Luc Robitaille. Both started at the same time in LA, and we're on alomost identical career trajectories the first two years. Then Robitaille keeps going up, while Carson goes off in the opposite direction. Really makes you wonder if there were off ice problems behind the scenes. You go from 50 goal scorer as a teenager to a useless plug by age 24, something doesn't add up. Edit: Just read below that the problem was loss of interest. That will do it, I guess. Probably should have just retired after that one year in Edmonton.
I sell hockey cards of r l;iving- well sports cards in general - but O can tell all about these players .... Carson was great - he was a top pick for a reason - he scored 50 on a couple of times ..... Man I have been loving these career video's .... Do Bernie Nicholls next - how is he NOT in the HOF ... Rob Brown would be a very interesting "Career of" video considering he was a psycho that no one wanted to deal with.....
Used to play soccer with Carson’s son when I was a kid. Super nice family. Jimmy didn’t talk much, he kinda stayed off to the side during the games. I don’t think many people knew who he was. I had his Whalers card and asked him to sign it. He gave it back signed and gave me a signed Wings card also. I was super stoked lol
To answer the question of what happened... he was very candid after he retired, saying that he just lost interest in the game part way through his career. This was corroborated by teammates who talked about how he became very interested in finance/investment stuff and was studying on plane rides and road trips. He had enough talent to play a full career, whereas today I don't think you can last in the NHL without being massively driven. All I can say is, it was a great time in Kings history when Robitaille, Carson, and Steve Duchesne came in as rookies, living with Marcel Dionne and one of his neighbors.
I also read that he did not fit in with the Oiler's dressing room. Like you said, he was interested in finance and read the Wall Street Journal. The other guys were typical young guys who liked to party. So there was tension there, and that can't be healthy mentally. It's why he asked for a trade. My tinfoil hat theory is that experience dampened his drive. But just as he was maybe finding it again in Detroit, he got trade away and that probably killed it.
Interesting... Thx for the story ✅
@@SunSwipePrime Plus coming back to LA and not being a Barry Melrose type player. You could see he still had his touch in the 93 run, but wasn't really put into the 2C position behind Gretz. And then quickly offloaded again. That's the spot where they really lost the thread on what kind of team they were.
He played like it.
I heard he was constantly booed in Edmonton. Any truth to that?
I have that game worn All Star Jimmy Carson jersey!!! Didn’t know it was his only All Star game he played in
Yes!!! No joke, I searched for this after watching the Robitaille video yesterday🍻
Make a careervid of Borje Salming please :)
I would love to see you do a video on Kevin Hatcher and Al Iafrate
That would be great!
have you ever done a video on Tony Hand? I've always found his story fascinating. He's the Gretzky of British hockey. he had 200+ point seasons playing in only 30-40 games a year.
What luck, I was thinking of Carson 2 days ago and thought he would be good for these series. Love the sweater and cap.
His first three years were amazing. Always curious to know how his career would have went if he never got traded for Wayne
He should have stayed in the 80's.
💀
Worst day of his career was January 1, 1990.
@@marc-andrefleury4285 blachawks legend Marc-Andre Fleury
I always thought it must've been cumulative little injuries that chipped away at his ability
Thanks again man!
nice video, Jimmy Carson was a beast, it’s crazy how some guys just lose it.
I think Rob Brown would make a nice video. What a talent he was. He absolutely dominated the minors and had a few really good seasons but just lost it.
I've heard Brown was notoriously lazy. He had that season (88-89') in Pittsburgh on Lemieux's wing where he put up 49 goals I think it was. But didn't do much outside of that year.
@@johnthomas5314 yeah then he rolled back to the minors and would toss up 150. The. Come back up
I remember that some Oiler fans where touting this guy as the second coming of Gretzky or Dion. Boy did he trail off very fast in his career.
Carson was taken #2 overall in the 1986 draft by LA. The #1 pick that year was... Joe Murphy. The Wings could have avoided that bad trade if they had just taken the Michigan kid #1 in the first place.
Right. I remember many locals upset devallano drafted Joe first..
Like Montreal not drafting Denis Savard 1981.
Love these career vids great video!
I've heard his name a lot, but I've never looked at his stats, so this is nice.
I think it was a case of not being the greatest in his own end. So, when the scoring went inconsistent, teams had to give up on him.
If Detroit doesn’t trade him, then Scotty can’t scapegoat Coffey and we might not get Shanahan. 🤪
@@matthewdaley746 Interesting fact: When the Wings played the Flyers in the 1997 finals, Coffey was on the ice as a D for Philly with every Wing goal scored against them. Murray was so fed up, he had Coffey behind the bench in a suit for the clincher in game 4 when the Wings won the Cup. Doubt he was injured. Great offense for many years, but his D in his zone went down the drain.
@@sawchucksaves1867 Yup. Paul had a quote that you don't have to worry about defense if you have the puck or something to that affect.
His first two years in LA, I went to many games, and there maybe 8,000 people there! I remember one week I went to a Lakers game, and it was sold out, then the kings game had about 8000 people couple days later!
I think a combination of things led to his downfall. He didn’t have that drive because he was interested in other things. He also didn’t get as much power-play time as before. I also think he didn’t adapt to the faster pace game of the 90s. He’s a decent skater but he’ll never won the fastest skater competition.
Scored 10 Assisted 7 in Vancouver. Good vid, a real firework out of the box.
He gave the impression, especially with his trade demands in Edmonton of perhaps being difficult. That has to have an impact on production.
Old school Kings jerseys were the best!
I remember being at a Canucks game back in 94', I was probably only 9 but all I remember was one dude heckling Carson the entire game.
Great video. Carson had a lot of potential, I honestly have no idea what happened. Maybe it was case where he didn't put the work in and were just riding on his talent. By the time he was a Whaler during the hockey card boom here i Europe he was done. When someone got him in a pack, the usual response was "Who the heck is that? -It's Carson, he's crap".
ive waited for this one
Gotta be honest, I completely forgot Carson was a Canuck during the '94 Cup run, I mostly only remember him as a Red Wing and during the King's '93 Cup Finals against Montreal.
You need to do videos like this for guys like Kovalchuk, Phaneuf, Alex Semin, Ryan Kesler etc
I remember being perplexed by Jimmy Carson's career running out of fuel. I didn't understand what happened to him. I kept waiting and waiting for him to rebound. But it just never happened. And before too long, he was done as an impact player and was gone from the league. What happened to his skill set? Was it just injuries? He had some injuries I know. But your skill set...especially in your twenties...should not just disappear with injuries unless, say, you're a player who depends on raw speed as your dominant X-factor. All these years later, I still don't get what happened to Carson.
A lot of pressure basically being the guy the Oilers traded Gretzky for. Plus, he held out the season after...got dealt to the Wings and was decent. Built a nice finance career post-hockey.
to me it is a case of the business side of hockey killing a players interest. LA trading him when he was a very high pick and he was definitely producing likely added to the decline.
@@Thynqikan At that time, there was significantly less pressure playing in LA with the Lakers and Dodgers. The Kings were weren't a big draw. Then going to the polar opposite in Edmonton.
One of history's nearly men. Several sliding doors moments where his career might've been very different.
I was 12 yrs old when Carson entered the NHL and I was a hockey nut. If you asked me, before watching this video, how many points Carson ended up with, I would have sworn that he had 1000 games and 1000 points and close to 500 goals. Funny thing, the wonderment of a child.
Hmmm...#2 overall, demands trade trade (big haul in return), never quite the same player after....wonder where I have heard this story before?
NHL? 😉
Jack "stinky" Eichel?
Though i was a BIG Oiler fan (still am) at the time ..(the 80's) i was a Carson fan ..though mostly via hockey cards,,,,THN and whatever scoring clips and highlights i could catch ,,,,,living in Atlantic Canada in the 80's (even with TSN) KIngs games where RARE on tv in the old 21 team NHL days ....i do remember saying around 87 i would REALLY like to see the Oilers get Carson (careful what you wish for lol) though i was thinking maybe for Paul Coffey (who the Oilers actually got a good long term player for) i heard one of the reasons Carson HATED going to Edmonton (besides having to "replace" Gretzky) was that McNall basically promised him he would be a King for life(hmm sounds like another familiar team owner to the Northeast ) and he had just bought a home in L.A. with that in mind ....i think the only Canadian teams he would have been ok playing for were probably Montreal (were he played his Jr, Hockey and maybe Toronto (where curiously i think would have kept up his goal pace more like he did in L;A: cause he would have gotten TONS of ice time ) yeah i was let down by Carson not working out in Edmonton ..and it was actually after that first round loss to the Kings in 89 where i REALLY felt he was not going to be around long term ,,,,and that this was not a player to carry a team in the playoffs especially ...its funny because i read story somewhere once that Messier would would glare at Carson in the locker room as if to say "We gave up Wayne for YOU!!?? lol) ..but for Oilers fans it worked out (though not as good as if Gretzky never leaves lol) ...the Carson trade to the Wings in 89 (imo) saved the Oilers season in the playoffs ,,,that trade and maybe one the most underrated trades Sather ever made ...getting Ranford from Boston for Moog .a couple seasons prior ..though Moog was still really good in 89/90 i dont see him saving the Oilers down 3to 1 vs Winnipeg in 90
He has to deal with the pressure of having been traded for Gretzky, then gets buried in Detroit under Yzerman, Federko, and then Fedorov. That's rough.
Joel Ward career video please
likely a loss of confidence due to insane levels of pressure. being apart of a high profile trade and being expected to replace WAYNE GRETZKY, and coming up short, is a punch in the gut.
if he wouldve stayed in LA, I bet he wouldve been a hall of famer.
Jimmy Carson was my favorite King when I was young 👍😎
Teams tended to be comfortable trading away Carson, because he was never the key player on a line who drives play. He had the talent and skill to finish, but never really tilted the ice, so teams felt that his play could be replaced.
How about Gino Odjick? Remember the Goon Show he put on vs St. Louis trying to fight Anderson but ended up fighting everyone else except Anderson who was hiding behind the refs? That was funny.
Glenn?
Definitely a great, but also unfortunate career.
That trade is stupid for Kings side to trade Coffey for Carson. Only try to get fill the hole for good second line behind Wayne. Well didnt work out...
As A GM the ONLY other players at the time i would have given a serious thought about trading for Gretzky in 88 ,,,its short list ..Mario , Yzerman or Hawerchuck ,,nobody else would really be a serious choice outside of crazy cant refuse package of multiple players ....granted Sather's hand was kinda forced on it ...IF it was Sather's choice alone Wayne stays OR(if Wayne really wants out) he gets a MUCH better trade then Carson deal (imo)
Is that future former Sabre Dixon Ward?
Carson scored more goals before his 21st birthday than he did after. Out of the league by age 28 after having one of the greatest starts to a career.
Was there any talks about Detroit drafting Carson instead of Joe Murphy first overall?
It would have made too much sense. Hometown kid who wanted to play for them...
@@badm0t0rf1ng3r Like Montreal not drafting Denis Savard.
@@SverigeiSverige I'm just glad that Montreal didn't choose Marcel Dionne.
I really read this as "The Career of Johnny Carson" first.
Lol
Carson as a rookie also played with Marcel Dionne and Luc Robitaille, so that will help your numbers.
Doesn't hurt, but you don't score 55 goals just because you're playing with talented players.
Adam Graves was arguably the best player in that trade between Edmonton and Detroit.
He was the center piece of that trade between the kings and oilers known as the “Gretzky deal”. To me it’ll always be the “Jimmy Carson deal”. He could actually raise the puck.
Sweet hat where do I get one of those
He was a whiny little crybaby while in Edmonton. Wasn’t sad that he left.
That was my thought. The Oilers improved greatly when they traded him, which is impressive considering that it is hard to get value when someone is requesting a trade. Those components were so significant to that 1990 Cup, even the headcase that was Klima.
More like he was interested in finance and reading and the coke hound bullies in the team spearheaded by Messier didn't like that.
@Robin S it was the 80s, literally everyone did coke, including whiny tit Carson.
Carson didn’t want to be there from day 1 and let it be known. Of course the rest of the team would “bully” a toxic muppet like Carson.
Maybe he simply lost interest in hockey, when he was confronted by the fact that he wasn’t Wayne Gretzky and that he could never satisfy the fans in that matter. He was about 100 points short of matching Gretzky’s numbers. lol - Anyway, I wonder if he had been more interested in hockey, had he not been confronted with a unsurmountable barrier.. replacing the great one.
It would have been interesting to compare his career alongside Luc Robitaille. Both started at the same time in LA, and we're on alomost identical career trajectories the first two years. Then Robitaille keeps going up, while Carson goes off in the opposite direction. Really makes you wonder if there were off ice problems behind the scenes. You go from 50 goal scorer as a teenager to a useless plug by age 24, something doesn't add up. Edit: Just read below that the problem was loss of interest. That will do it, I guess. Probably should have just retired after that one year in Edmonton.
Yes, seems to be a mystery...
Doe Luc was a late pick in 84, two years older.
Hey could you do a Matt Hendricks video soon ? Thanks amd be well!
I sell hockey cards of r l;iving- well sports cards in general - but O can tell all about these players .... Carson was great - he was a top pick for a reason - he scored 50 on a couple of times ..... Man I have been loving these career video's .... Do Bernie Nicholls next - how is he NOT in the HOF ... Rob Brown would be a very interesting "Career of" video considering he was a psycho that no one wanted to deal with.....
Psycho? Rob played well with Mario.
Carson started playing against the trap before everyone else...?
Carson played for the Canucks in 93/94??? I don’t think I ever knew that! Weird…..
I never new Carson got traded back to kings
Lots of natural talent low motor. Hard work beasts talent when, talent dosent work hard
WHO?