We’ve gone over round 1 of the worst trades in NHL history; let’s go over some more that changed the face of many franchises.
Penguins trade Markus Naslund to Vancouver for Alex Stojanov. What was Pittsburgh thinking, I mean really? Did you want to get rid of Naslund that badly, it’s not like the Pens need more toughness. Naslund ended up with 395 career goals, Stojanov on the other hand had 2 goals.
Tampa Bay traded Brad Richards to Dallas for a package that included Mike Smith, Jeff Halpern and Jussi Jokinen. Jokinen scored 6 goals in 66 games with the Lightning, Halpern played just over two seasons, Smith never panned out to be the number one goalie in Tampa. By far the most shocking think about this trade was the package Tampa refused to take from Vancouver. The Canucks offered a package that would have included Corey Schnieder and Luc Bordon + more. Imagine Richards in Vancouver with the Sedins and Kesler.
Jimmy Carson was the key component for the Edmonton Oilers in the Wayne Gretzky trade. One year later Carson was traded to his hometown Detroit Red Wings. The Oilers acquired Joe Murphy, Adam Graves, Peter Klima, these three were a key component in the Oilers winning the 1990 Stanley Cup. Carson was never the same player after the trade, scoring 30 goals 1 time as a Wing.
Likely the most lopsided trade of all time is when Brett Hull and Steve Bozek moved to St.Louis for Rob Ramage and goaltender Rick Wamsley. Hull of course went onto to be a 700 goal scorer, and one of the best right wingers in NHL History. When it’s all said and done think about the teams and some of the moves they made, it set them back 5-10 years in some cases. Imagine how powerful the Calgary Flames could have been in the late 80’s with Hull and Doug Gilmour, it’s not farfetched to say they would have won more than one Stanley Cup.
Most of these trades either wrecked or setup these respected teams for years some of them even decades, some led to misery some led to Stanley Cups.
The non-Richards trade could be of note, but the trade to Dallas was not a bad one Halpern brought some grit/defence and leadership, Smith is a fine back-up and Jussi scored some shoot-out goals for them. They also dumped a salary they could not keep.
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