Remember the anticipation that blew into Chicago months before Teuvo Teravainen arrived? It did a mean imitation of a loitering tornado.
The Blackhawks had used the 18th overall pick of the 2012 draft to take Teravainen, a Finn who was still three months shy of his 18th birthday. It meant that, this being the Windy City, he was considered a sure thing, Patrick Kane’s soul mate and the next peach-fuzzed face of the franchise. We don’t eat our young here; we fete them to death before they’ve stepped foot in town.
So when the Hawks brought up Teravainen from the minors for three games at the end of the 2013-14 regular season, you would have thought he was a young Stan Mikita, judging by fan reaction. Or a young Felix Pie with the Cubs. Pie turned out to be the next Corey Patterson, who turned out to be the next … well, you get the idea.
Teravainen was a good player who occasionally flashed potential and puck-handling ability, but he never lived up to the hype. How could he have? He and Bryan Bickell were traded to Carolina last week for draft picks, and it reminded me of all the young athletes who have come to town and not been close to what fans and media had built them up to be.
We’re not alone in our rush to coronate people who still carry milk money. Plenty of other cities salivate over the merest possibility of potential, but we seem to be guiltier than most. It was one thing to hope Gordon Beckham became a star for the White Sox. It was another to make him one before his first at-bat.
Teravainen was very good in the playoffs during his rookie year but not so good in the 2016 postseason. He still can be very good, given time and that dwindling natural resource, patience. We’ve never had a lot of it here. And once Kris Bryant came along, forget it.
