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Best change of scenery stories?

Monsieur Verdoux

Monsieur Verdoux

Registered User
Dec 6, 2016
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Finland
What are the best change of scenery stories about players we thought were completely washed up and who have revived their careers after being traded to another team?

Pierre-Luc Dubois have had pretty good season, just like Darcy Kuemper. Any other examples from recent years?

This question came to my mind when I read trade proposals about Seth Jones and some other players.
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Hall wasn't washed up, but his performance in his last two years in Edmonton were definitely dropping and for them, a cause for concern.

After he went to NJD, his lottery luck helped NJD win 1OA several times. He also won the Hart at one point for his performance there.

Since his trade from NJD to the Yotes, he has fallen right back into the same level he was before he left Edmonton.
 
Patrick Sharp

Drafted in the 3rd round by the Flyers in 2001
Doesn't do much in his limited time there over 3 seasons:
66 games - 10 goals

Traded at age 24 to Chicago in December of 2005

-becomes an All-Star and Selke candidate
-key part of 3 cup wins
-fan favorite
-Seasons with 40, 38, 38, and 37 goals
 
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Carter Verhaeghe. Drafted by Toronto and then later on traded with 4 other minor league guys to the Isles (for Michael Grabner). Isles traded him to Tampa for Kristers Gudlevskis in a swap of minor leaguers. 2 more seasons in the AHL until Tampa finally brings him up and now he’s a mutant for Florida.
 
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Phil Kessel wasn't exactly washed up, but he was getting chewed up and spit out by the Toronto media throughout his career in Toronto. He was gaining a reputation as a high-level talent with a bad attitude. Being traded to a smaller market in Pittsburgh with less expectations and 3 superstars ahead of him in the pecking order really allowed him to flourish without all the pressure on his back.

We all know what happened after that.
 
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How about Joffrey Lupul? Injured lots and slowing down with Anaheim in 2010. Gets traded to Toronto as purely a cap dump, with little to no expectation that he'd contribute much. He was an all-star the following year, ending the season over a point-per-game.

Sergei Samsonov is an example of bad and good change of scenery. He was productive with the Bruins and Oilers. Then came the bad change of scenery. He was lousy in MTL, and then so bad with Chicago that he went 24 games without a goal and then was demoted to the AHL. Then came the good change of scenery. He got dumped to Carolina and was immediately an impact guy again, scoring 32 points in 38 games and stayed a productive guy for 3 more years.
 
Rodgerwilco said:
Phil Kessel wasn't exactly washed up, but he was getting chewed up and spit out by the Toronto media throughout his career in Toronto. He was gaining a reputation as a high-level talent with a bad attitude. Being traded to a smaller market in Pittsburgh with less expectations and 3 superstars ahead of him in the pecking order really allowed him to flourish without all the pressure on his back.

We all know what happened after that.
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Reason for his glow up was leaving the bolded for greener pastures.
 
miscs75 said:
Carter Verhaeghe. Drafted by Toronto and then later on traded with 4 other minor league guys to the Isles (for Michael Grabner). Isles traded him to Tampa for Kristers Gudlevskis in a swap of minor leaguers. 2 more seasons in the AHL until Tampa finally brings him up and now he’s a mutant for Florida.
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I seem to identify Marchessault to be in the same vein as Verhaeghe. Marchessault was league minimum guy bouncing around for a while. He took off after being taken by Vegas.

I wonder if there's a few more stories that OP is looking for, for guys taken in the VGK expansion draft.
 
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Devan Dubnyk!

Dubnyk was slowly getting worse for years in Edmonton. Then he bounced around a bit even hitting the AHL and looked like he was out of the league.

He gets traded to a desperate Wild team and starts 38 consecutive games going 27–9–2, making the playoffs when it seemed impossible. That year Dubnyk was 3rd in Vezina voting, 4th in Hart voting, and won a Masterton! He went on to be a workhorse goalie for Minny for the next 4 years, was a 3 time all-star, and started more games than almost anyone league wide while posting great numbers.

You won't find many bigger swings than going from AHL cast off to Vezina and Hart votes after a change of scenery.
 
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Monsieur Verdoux said:
What are the best change of scenery stories about players we thought were completely washed up and who have revived their careers after being traded to another team?

Pierre-Luc Dubois have had pretty good season, just like Darcy Kuemper. Any other examples from recent years?

This question came to my mind when I read trade proposals about Seth Jones and some other players.
Click to expand...
Eric Staal in Minnesota has to be up there. Although Carolina traded him to NYR as a pending UFA, and Staal signed with Minnesota that summer.
 
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Iggys Dome said:
Bennett was basically a 4th liner in Calgary. Gets traded to Florida and he becomes a beast 2nd line centre for them in back to back finals runs winning a cup.
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I think the amount of people saying he was washed basically had the entire hockey world sweep this fact under the rug when he became an impact player for Florida. His ability to turn in up in the playoffs was still noted back then however
 
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Zach Bogosian. I'm not sure if there was a signle Sabres fan who didn't celebrate his departure, and a few moments later he was a very well liked player in Tampa's Cup winning team.
 
Derick Brassard and Anton Stralman.

They arrived on the Rangers around the same-ish time. Stralman revived his career and made millions of dollars. Brassard became a Rangers cult hero.
 
Andrew Ladd and Tuomo Ruutu both got careers on track after being traded for each other

Ladd went to Chicago and became key support cog in a Cup winner then spent years as key part of Thrashers/Jets franchise

Ruutu revived his career in Carolina and was part of a deep playoff run to ECF there

Both had careers end on down note though

Ruutu again had injuries derail his career finishing it out as 4th liner in NJ then out of NHL at age 33 while Ladd was FA bust for Isles and then spent his final in NHL with forgettable season in Arizona
 
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Tolvanen after all the expectations from Nashville faithful and Finland alike were far from met. Not a world beater but decent. Mikael Granlund too just to add as he is now on the Stars after a comeback of sorts at the Sharks from his poor time in Nashville.
 
Rodgerwilco said:
Phil Kessel wasn't exactly washed up, but he was getting chewed up and spit out by the Toronto media throughout his career in Toronto. He was gaining a reputation as a high-level talent with a bad attitude. Being traded to a smaller market in Pittsburgh with less expectations and 3 superstars ahead of him in the pecking order really allowed him to flourish without all the pressure on his back.

We all know what happened after that.
Click to expand...
False. This narrative needs to die, it's so god damn annoying.

Toronto loved the shit out of Phil Kessel, apart from that dumbass Steve Simmons everyone here loved him. He had 3 consecutive years of 80+ points, going PPG in that span and was a top 5 scoring winger.

It was literally fans of every single other team, telling us how much Kessel sucks, that he's fat and eats hot dogs, that he's 1 dimensional.

There was even a poll done on HF, Hossa vs Kessel, Hossa won in a landslide. 1 week later Kessel was traded, same poll was re-done, Kessel won in a landslide.
 
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Figgy44 said:
I seem to identify Marchessault to be in the same vein as Verhaeghe. Marchessault was league minimum guy bouncing around for a while. He took off after being taken by Vegas.

I wonder if there's a few more stories that OP is looking for, for guys taken in the VGK expansion draft.
Click to expand...
Would Tanner Jeannot fall into this after fumbling around the minors for a few seasons?
 
AvroArrow said:
False. This narrative needs to die, it's so god damn annoying.

Toronto loved the shit out of Phil Kessel, apart from that dumbass Steve Simmons everyone here loved him. He had 3 consecutive years of 80+ points, going PPG in that span and was a top 5 scoring winger.

It was literally fans of every single other team, telling us how much Kessel sucks, that he's fat and eats hot dogs, that he's 1 dimensional.

There was even a poll done on HF, Hossa vs Kessel, Hossa won in a landslide. 1 week later Kessel was traded, same poll was re-done, Kessel won in a landslide.
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Kessel very publicly feuded with the Toronto media regularly and had a very bad relationship with them. Before and during his last season in Toronto he was openly lamenting the media treatment of players in Toronto, especially his teammate Dion Phaneuf. He was put under a microscope and was clearly not happy with the treatment he and his teammates got in Toronto. You could see it in his body language and interviews.

When he won his 3rd cup with Vegas in 2023 he literally called out the Toronto media.... Of course fans piggy-backed with the hot dog memes and whatever, but the media pretty obviously had negatively affected him quite a lot for him to be calling them out 8 years after he's even been in Toronto.
 
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