Seemingly Small Moves That Ended Up Having Major Consequences

Trafalgar Sadge Law

Registered User
Nov 8, 2007
11,538
6,946
What are some good/bad moves that started off as a generic small move that ended up being extremely profitable or costly to a team despite it being unimpactful at first glance?

For instance, during the 2022 trade deadline, the Oilers traded a 2nd round draft pick for Brett Kulak, seemingly a generic draft pick for defense depth move a lot of teams make. That 2nd round pick has since become a Calder trophy contender in Lane Hutson, which by itself has changed the entire outlook of the Habs future and turned it into one of the worst trades of the past few years. The Oilers would go on to re-sign Brett Kulak to block a vastly superior player in Philip Broberg from getting ice time because of Ken Holland's outdated "give benefit of the doubt to veterans to show respect" and "over-ripen prospect development" ideology. This gross mishandling of Broberg ultimately culminated in one of the most impactful for the Blues, disastrous for the Oilers events this past offseason via the Broberg-Holloway double offer sheet. Brett Kulak would also be the player who was responsible for both goals against in Game 7 against the Panthers. It has slowly percolated from a slight overpayment for a bottom pairing dman to, without exaggeration, one of the most franchise crippling, value bleeding moves of the 21st century.
 
What are some good/bad moves that started off as a generic small move that ended up being extremely profitable or costly to a team despite it being unimpactful at first glance?

For instance, during the 2022 trade deadline, the Oilers traded a 2nd round draft pick for Brett Kulak, seemingly a generic draft pick for defense depth move a lot of teams make. That 2nd round pick has since become a Calder trophy contender in Lane Hutson, which by itself has changed the entire outlook of the Habs future and turned it into one of the worst trades of the past few years. The Oilers would go on to re-sign Brett Kulak to block a vastly superior player in Philip Broberg from getting ice time because of Ken Holland's outdated "give benefit of the doubt to veterans to show respect" and "over-ripen prospect development" ideology. This gross mishandling of Broberg ultimately culminated in one of the most impactful for the Blues, disastrous for the Oilers events this past offseason via the Broberg-Holloway double offer sheet. Brett Kulak would also be the player who was responsible for both goals against in Game 7 against the Panthers. It has slowly percolated from a slight overpayment for a bottom pairing dman to, without exaggeration, one of the most franchise crippling, value bleeding moves of the 21st century.
Damn I had no idea that pick turned out to be Hutson
 
Pretty interesting idea for a topic, no idea why you choose this horrible example though.

For one, a draft pick is just that, a draft pick. It's not a player, it's not even the rights to a player yet. That Montreal ended up picking Hutson with that pick is thus entirely irrelevant. There is no reason to assume that Edmonton would have drafted Hutson with that pick. Not to mention that for every Hutson drafted in the second round, there are dozens of players who never amount to anything. Not that it really matters, because trading a future piece for something that might help you win now is the whole point of contenders trading at the deadline. You take the risk (not that a 2nd rounder is a risk to begin with) of losing out on something that could help you in the future to have a better chance at winning now. And if you end up winning a Cup, it doesn't matter one bit what you gave up, because you won the very thing you wanted to win. Now, Edmonton didn't succeed in that, but so did plenty of others who tried as well. If they are an example for anything, it's that having franchise players doesn't equal an automatic Cup-win.

Brett Kulak has delivered exactly as expected, and has regularly upped his game in the playoffs by quite a bit. He was easily worth the 2nd rounder (a pick, not Hutson, no matter how much you pretend otherwise) that was being traded for him. Being somewhat responsible for goals against one one game doesn't change anything about that. Players have bad games, it happens, regardless of point in time. Patrick Roy is famed for his playoff performances, yet that didn't stop him from sinking his team in the conference finals with his "statue of liberty" mistake and following 0-7 drubbing in the next game.

Kulak was very much worth his contract extension. On top of that, Broberg was neither better than Kulak (much less vastly superior) at any point of their time on the team together, nor did Kulak block Broberg from playing, otherwise you hardly would have seen Broberg in the last playoffs, no?

In no way, shape or from did Kulak prevent the Oilers from playing Broberg, or from re-signing him. As evidenced by the fact that the team cleared enough cap-space to spend millions on UFA-wingers last summer.
Management clearly botched things with Broberg, and Holloway as well for that matter But that has nothing whatsoever to do with Kulak. There was nothing bad about getting him, nor about keeping him. It was not remotely close to being "value bleeding" and it sure as heck couldn't be further from "franchise crippling". So no, your post is very much not "without exaggeration", it is indeed the exact opposite of that. It is about as exaggerated as it gets and completely detached from reality.

And looking at your over the top ranting, if the Oilers hadn't traded that pick for a defenseman they clearly needed, you probably would have whined about how management failed to do its utmost to improve the roster and thus wasted years of McDavid's and Draisaitl's prime.
 
Yeah that example is great because it was a seemingly nothing special trade that had great implications for the Habs, but it doesn't reflect poorly on the Oilers that a good player was chosen with the pick and doesn't qualify as the kind of trade that can be considered among the worst of the past few years. It was a 2nd rounder. You need to trade picks to get things done.
 
The Kulak example is riddled with false equivalencies, half-truths and hyperbole.

However, the premise of the thread is interesting. I will submit the example that appeared most obvious to me when clicking on the thread.

Waiver pickup Gustav Forsling. I don't think I need to explain further.
 
A lot of the moves that Vegas made leading up to their expansion draft, from what I recall, seemed pretty inconsequential at the time they were made. In the end of it, some of the ones that turned out with the player being a pretty big impact player for the Knights is that Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore, and William Karlsson ended up popping off after the Knights were paid compensation as an incentive to select them in the expansion draft.
 
Pretty interesting idea for a topic, no idea why you choose this horrible example though.

For one, a draft pick is just that, a draft pick. It's not a player, it's not even the rights to a player yet. That Montreal ended up picking Hutson with that pick is thus entirely irrelevant. There is no reason to assume that Edmonton would have drafted Hutson with that pick. Not to mention that for every Hutson drafted in the second round, there are dozens of players who never amount to anything. Not that it really matters, because trading a future piece for something that might help you win now is the whole point of contenders trading at the deadline. You take the risk (not that a 2nd rounder is a risk to begin with) of losing out on something that could help you in the future to have a better chance at winning now. And if you end up winning a Cup, it doesn't matter one bit what you gave up, because you won the very thing you wanted to win. Now, Edmonton didn't succeed in that, but so did plenty of others who tried as well. If they are an example for anything, it's that having franchise players doesn't equal an automatic Cup-win.

Brett Kulak has delivered exactly as expected, and has regularly upped his game in the playoffs by quite a bit. He was easily worth the 2nd rounder (a pick, not Hutson, no matter how much you pretend otherwise) that was being traded for him. Being somewhat responsible for goals against one one game doesn't change anything about that. Players have bad games, it happens, regardless of point in time. Patrick Roy is famed for his playoff performances, yet that didn't stop him from sinking his team in the conference finals with his "statue of liberty" mistake and following 0-7 drubbing in the next game.

Kulak was very much worth his contract extension. On top of that, Broberg was neither better than Kulak (much less vastly superior) at any point of their time on the team together, nor did Kulak block Broberg from playing, otherwise you hardly would have seen Broberg in the last playoffs, no?

In no way, shape or from did Kulak prevent the Oilers from playing Broberg, or from re-signing him. As evidenced by the fact that the team cleared enough cap-space to spend millions on UFA-wingers last summer.
Management clearly botched things with Broberg, and Holloway as well for that matter But that has nothing whatsoever to do with Kulak. There was nothing bad about getting him, nor about keeping him. It was not remotely close to being "value bleeding" and it sure as heck couldn't be further from "franchise crippling". So no, your post is very much not "without exaggeration", it is indeed the exact opposite of that. It is about as exaggerated as it gets and completely detached from reality.

And looking at your over the top ranting, if the Oilers hadn't traded that pick for a defenseman they clearly needed, you probably would have whined about how management failed to do its utmost to improve the roster and thus wasted years of McDavid's and Draisaitl's prime.
Pretty much perfectly said here bud. I hate when people play the “this pick turned into this player, so the team who traded the pick basically traded that player”. Not to mention the weird narrative about Broberg.

It’s a lazy hindsight narrative that’s akin to doing a “connect the dots” where you just connect whatever dots you want.
 
Tom Wilson beating the shit out of Jamie Oleksiak in 2018 pretty much single-handedly changed the Penguins' entire roster-building philosophy and all but closed the door on another cup for Crosby.
Uhhh what???? Please explain what you mean by this lol
 
There have been articles around the subject, so there’s better than what I’m typing for you if you want to go learn all the details:

Steen to stl meets your criteria.

He was not the primary trade demand in the initial transaction, then stuff happens, he becomes a core of our group, he wins a cup and now is about to be our gm.

Here is a top 10 video of steen moments
 
Uhhh what???? Please explain what you mean by this lol
The Penguins -- despite winning back-to-back cups based on having speed throughout the lineup -- just decided around this point that they had a Tom Wilson problem and made multiple moves to get "tougher" at the expense of what had made them so successful. I'm exaggerating a little that it was this specific fight that caused it, but not that much!



Did he not break the Rangers also!?
That is also correct
 
The Preds trading Ekholm. It was the beginning of their defense being dismantled.

It was like knifing a rubber life raft! You get an initial gust, but the slow trickle that follows is what sinks your boat.
 
The Penguins -- despite winning back-to-back cups based on having speed throughout the lineup -- just decided around this point that they had a Tom Wilson problem and made multiple moves to get "tougher" at the expense of what had made them so successful. I'm exaggerating a little that it was this specific fight that caused it, but not that much!
That’s a bonkers take to put Wilson on a pedestal. You’re exaggerating quite a lot.

Which specific moves do you think that Tom Wilson forced the Penguins into?

Notable Transactions made in the next couple years following this fight:
- Traded away Oleksiak (their biggest and toughest player)

- Acquired Bjugstad and McCann, neither tough players.

-Acquired Gudbranson, pretty much the only tough player they’ve acquired since then lol

- Acquired John Marino, average sized defender not known for toughness.

-Re-acquired Conor Sheary and traded for Evan Rodrigues, neither tough players.
 
Last edited:
Yzerman starting the rebuild in Tampa near the trading deadline in 2012, sending Steve Downie to Colorado for Kyle Quincy, who was in turn flipped to Detroit for a 1st round pick, which ended up being used to draft Vasilevskiy.
 

Ad

Ad