Blockbuster trades that went bad for both teams

[BruinLVGA]

I remember when this guy was as top player in the RHI

I remember when this guy was the top scorer in Switzerland’s NLA in 05-06 (65 points in 44 regular season games), then also had 26 points in 17 playoffs games and ultimately won the Swiss championship with HC Lugano. This season singlehandedly earned him another 4 seasons in the NHL (2006-07 to 2009-10).
Did I mention he played pro hockey till the age of 43 (his last season in the Italian team of Bolzano, 2016-17), by the way?

 

[kvladimir]

Not quite a "blockbuster" but Tatar for 1+2+3, which was ridiculous, ended up with Tatar getting benched in the playoffs then signing somewhere else and Holland blowing the 2+3 on a couple players with no Wikipedia pages while the 1st ended up being... *drum roll* ...Filip Zadina.

......... man, if VGK had actually given up the 6th overall pick in that draft for Tatar, more than a few people would have probably lost their jobs. It was actually the 30th overall and Joe Veleno

Thanks, now I'm having haunting visions of Quinn Hughes as a Knight

 

[DitchMarner]

Doug Gilmour did okay as a Devil but the team only won a single playoff round in his two runs. Toronto got a decent return on paper. Steve Sullivan and Jason Smith would each play 1,000+ NHL games plus a decent prospect in Alyn McCauley. Sullivan was waived in 1999 to open up a roster spot for Dmitri Khristich and would break out with Chicago. Smith would be traded for a couple picks.

Waiving Sullivan was such an idiotic move. Khristich sucked for TOR.

At least TOR got that nice 2002 playoff showing out of Alyn McCauley.

 

[shadow1]

Old but painful one:

To Calgary: Chris Drury (80 GP), Stephane Yelle (339 GP)
To Colorado: Dean McAmmond (41 GP), Derek Morris (144 GP), Jeff Shantz (74 GP)

Trade happened before the 2003 season, the key pieces were gone by the 2004 TDL. Calgary got scraps (Reinprecht, Warrener) for Drury, Colorado got even worse (Gratton, Vaananen, 2nd) for Morris (and lost Keith Ballard in the process ).

 

[Soundgarden]

Subban for Weber?

Subban hit early decline and Weber was injured half the time.

Disagree. Both teams went to the finals, and Nashville got their first Presidents Trophy with Subban playing a major role plus we traded him before he really started to decline.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I feel like the Seth Jones trade did not work out real well for either team.

It ends up being Jones and Nolan Allan for Boqvist, Bean, Jiricek and Cole Sillinger

Hawks are looking to trade Jones now. Allan has some potential as a bottom pairing guy. Sillinger has been alright for the Jackets and the other three are gone.

Generally who gets the best player in a trade ends up winning the trade. So Columbus loses by trading a top-pairing Dman who they couldn't re-sign. The Hawks lose because Bowman mistakenly thought the Hawks still had a contention window when they certainly did not. So the futures sent to the Jackets ended up not panning out at all and Jones hasn't kept the Hawks out of the gutter let alone made them a regular playoff team.

The Hawks will probably lose an upcoming Jones to Dallas deal as well because they're the ones now giving up the best player and getting a likely futures-based package. They'll get the benefit of not having his cap hit on the books when he declines in the next few years however.

 

[Brodeur]

Waiving Sullivan was such an idiotic move. Khristich sucked for TOR.

At least TOR got that nice 2002 playoff showing out of Alyn McCauley.

I always wondered if Pat Quinn the GM undermined Pat Quinn the coach in Toronto. He made a bunch of trades early into the 1999-00 season:

October 1: Fredrik Modin to Tampa for Cory Cross -- I suppose Cross was desired to be the big stay at home D for that era. Toronto had gotten Jonas Hoglund that summer so Modin was deemed expendable?

October 8: Sylvain Cote to Chicago for a 2nd -- With Cross on the blue line, Cote was the odd man out. Cote had been a 21 minute D for the Leafs the previous season. Vaguely recall reading that Cote had a rough 1999 playoff.

October 20: 2nd rounder to Boston for Dmitri Khristich -- I had forgotten that Boston turned down Khristich's arbitration number which was unprecedented at the time. Boston retained the right to match if anybody signed Khristich for less than 80% of his 2.8 mil arb award (2.24 mil). This caused Khristich to remain unsigned all summer and several weeks into the season.

Leafs apparently didn't have the budget to just pay Khristich over 2.24 mil outright, so they traded a 2nd for him so they could sign him to a backloaded deal. And then Sullivan was waived to make room for Khristich.

Easier with hindsight, but would be interesting to know how they would have done in 2000 with Modin/Sullivan/Cote instead of Khristich/Cross.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Mantha for Vrana+.

The + in this trade is one of the top goalie prospects in the world right now….?

Not quite a "blockbuster" but Tatar for 1+2+3, which was ridiculous, ended up with Tatar getting benched in the playoffs then signing somewhere else and Holland blowing the 2+3 on a couple players with no Wikipedia pages while the 1st ended up being... *drum roll* ...Filip Zadina.

The 1st was Joe Veleno… which is just barely better

 

[TheNewEra]

a different one then what has been mentioned

nash to new york for anisimov, dubinsky, erixon and a 2013 first

Nash had 1.5 good seasons in NY, and his playoff numbers in NY were meh (0.52 ppg) and he was making 7.8 per year (back when the cap was significantly lower)

anisimov was alright at best in columbus had one decent season
dubinsky's style of play made him a favorite but he really only had one good year
erixon is no longer in the league
draft pick was kerby rychel who isnt in the league either

 

[Section 104]

Thomas Vanek from Buffalo to the Islanders. Islanders might actually have lucked out Vanek declined their $49 million 7 years deal.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

The 1st was Joe Veleno… which is just barely better

That is literally what I meant to type, I am an idiot

But you're right. Barely better, if at all

 

[God]

By no means did either team end up "bad", but the Phaneuf trade was a massive blockbuster at the time and both teams didn't rise above mediocrity with the players they got.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Old but painful one:

To Calgary: Chris Drury (80 GP), Stephane Yelle (339 GP)
To Colorado: Dean McAmmond (41 GP), Derek Morris (144 GP), Jeff Shantz (74 GP)

Trade happened before the 2003 season, the key pieces were gone by the 2004 TDL. Calgary got scraps (Reinprecht, Warrener) for Drury, Colorado got even worse (Gratton, Vaananen, 2nd) for Morris (and lost Keith Ballard in the process ).

Stephane Yelle was a good Flame though. Helped the Flames make the Finals

 

[amnesiac]

Subban for Weber?

Subban hit early decline and Weber was injured half the time.

yet each were the 1D when they got the their respective Cup Finals

 

[Halakitlikethat]

Laine for Dubois fits the bill but WPG got a good return at least.

Kassian for Hodgson.

Smyth to Isles

Kassian for Hodgson is a good one. I remember thinking the Canucks were on glue when they made this deal. I was living in Vancouver at the time.

 

[canuckslover10]

Subban for Weber?

Subban hit early decline and Weber was injured half the time.

Both teams went to the finals due to this trade??

 

[rockymtnoyster]

Aside from NJ making the finals , the Kovalchuk trade didnt work out too well.

 

[Voight]

Subban for Weber?

Subban hit early decline and Weber was injured half the time.

Both teams made the finals with those two playing key roles.

 

[LaP]

Subban for Weber.

 

[LaP]

Trading Subban for Weber definitely didn't turn out poorly for Montreal.

He was an outstanding addition to to the team and played a huge role in leading that Canadiens team to the Stanley Cup Final.

The only reason it did not turn out poorly is because Subban had a very short career. Weber played about 200 games for Montreal and the only thing that "saved" this trade is the COVID play-in and weak Canadian division.

 

[ponder719]

Eric Lindros to the Rangers for Jan Hlaváč, Pavel Brendl, Kim Johnsson, and a 3rd that became Štefan Ružička.

For NY: Lindros was already not the same by the time he got to New York, and while he put up OK numbers on an individual basis, they never even made the playoffs while he was there.

For PHI: Johnsson was the best piece for the Flyers, and he was a tolerable mid-tier defenseman, but never made a huge impact. Brendl was memetically bad, and his sole value was being part of the trade that brought Sami Kapanen to Philly. Hlaváč was around for a cup of coffee before we sent him off to bring in Donald Brashear. Ružička played a handful of games over parts of three years before disappearing from the NHL.

 

[Rebels57]

Flyers traded top goalie prospect Maxime Ouellet, a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to Washington for Adam Oates at the 2002 Deadline. Oates only played in 14 regular season and 5 playoff games for the Flyers. Ouellet was a bust for Washington and they whiffed on all 3 picks.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

a different one then what has been mentioned

nash to new york for anisimov, dubinsky, erixon and a 2013 first

Nash had 1.5 good seasons in NY, and his playoff numbers in NY were meh (0.52 ppg) and he was making 7.8 per year (back when the cap was significantly lower)

anisimov was alright at best in columbus had one decent season
dubinsky's style of play made him a favorite but he really only had one good year
erixon is no longer in the league
draft pick was kerby rychel who isnt in the league either

Columbus turned Anisimov into Saad. They then turned Saad into Panarin. Columbus cleaned the f*** up.

 

[Brodeur]

Not sure if this qualifies as a blockbuster trade, but during the 1997 offseason Calgary traded Gary Roberts and Trevor Kidd to Carolina for Andrew Cassels and J.S. Giguere.

Roberts had briefly retired in 1996-97 due to neck injuries but decided to was healthy enough to make a comeback. I didn't know until reading it now that he requested a trade to an East Coast team to reduce the travel and Calgary wanted to accommodate him. Kidd was just 25, but I forget if he was a disappointment at that point after a couple years of starting.

Roberts did well in Carolina for three seasons before signing with his hometown Leafs. Kidd had one good season in Carolina then lost the starting spot to Arturs Irbe. Carolina opted to protect Irbe instead of Kidd for the 1999 Expansion Draft and lost him to Atlanta who then traded Kidd to Florida.

Cassels would only be in Calgary for a couple seasons. Another thing I didn't realize until now was that Cassels qualified for early Group V free agency (if a 10 year veteran made below the league average). Apparently Calgary lowballed him with a 1 year offer in 1998, but his agent accepted the offer with the educated guess that it would be below the league average. Cassels would then sign with Vancouver in 1999. Meanwhile Giguere wasn't established by the 2000 Expansion Draft and Calgary decided to only protect one goalie (incumbent starter Fred Brathwaite). Rather than lose Giguere for nothing, they traded him to Anaheim for a 2nd rounder.

 

[Brodeur]

Maybe in the moment it was a more notable deal. In August 1997, Tampa Bay had a shaky ownership situation and Chris Gratton was an RFA. Gratton just turned 22 and had the pedigree of being a recent 3rd overall pick. In 1996-97 he had a breakout 30 goal season. Gratton's agent informed Tampa GM Phil Esposito that they would explore the offer sheet market since contract talks had stalled.

Esposito was close to a trade with Chicago when he received a faxed copy of Gratton's signed offer sheet with Philadelphia. Rules prohibited Esposito from matching and trading Gratton immediately. Esposito told the league that the fax was smudged and then tried to submit the Chicago deal. It ended up going before an arbitrator who ruled that the original fax was valid. Esposito would later admit that he knew the fax excuse had a snowball's chance in hell but there was no harm in trying.

Gratton's offer sheet included a 9 million dollar signing bonus which Tampa did not have. Unable to match, Philadelphia sent their next four first round picks as the CBA mandated compensation. Esposito was in a tough spot as he had some success qualifying for the playoffs in 1996 and he didn't want to wait for future draft picks since he figured his job might be on the line when they got new ownership. So he negotiated a deal to send the picks back to Philadelphia for immediate help (Mikael Renberg and Karl Dykhuis). In his autobiography, Esposito makes a dubious claim that he had deal in place to get Rod Brind'Amour too but that Philly's ownership went over his head to finish the trade.

Technically it was two different transactions:

PHI: C Chris Gratton
TBL: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 1st rounders

PHI: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 1st rounders
TBL: RW Mikael Renberg, LD Karl Dykhuis

Gratton and Renberg both had their production drop in their new situations. 16 months later the two teams would essentially reverse the trade. But then Gratton/Renberg never produced like they had before.