Spite D - John Carlson
I don’t have an actual issue with John Carlson, other than he should’ve been a Flyer. At the 2008 draft, the Flyers struck gold with RJ Umberger abusing Carey Price and got Columbus to trade us a first round pick, where we took Luca Sbisa (whose handling I had vigorously taken issue with but I lauded the pick). The Flyers were desperate for top-end defensemen, there would’ve been no problem taking another one, however Paul Holmgren decided a better plan was trading the pick that could’ve been Carlson for Steve Eminger (and a 3rd round pick who we didn’t bother to sign), who was never good as the Caps weren’t expected to give a qualifying offer to him. This was mainly because Holmgren was petrified of operating within the open market, consistently making trades for players prior to free agency, many of them I’ll-advised. Just remember stuff like this when people tell you he was a good GM when there were a bunch of moves he didn’t need to make that would’ve made him a very good GM, such as allowing a division rival to end up with a player that they’ve been looking for for themselves for as long as most of us have been alive.