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What is a random trade that you still think about?

AnInjuredJasonZucker said:
The Jason Arnott trade chain.

Arnott-->Guerin-->Carter-->Dvorak
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Speaking of Jason Arnott, I still have some PTSD from the 2002 trade deadline. I was a couple months away from graduating college and had decided that I'd have a blank jersey customized with Arnott as a gift to myself. The trade deadline wrapped up without much fan fare and I was in a computer lab for a group project. Then somebody sent me a message that Arnott had been dealt and I assumed that was a prank since the deadline was presumably over.

But that's when I learned that trades could be announced after the deadline was passed. In a pre-Twitter (heck not everybody had cell phones) world, info about the trade was sketchy. When I saw confirmation of the deal, it was a total stomach punch: Arnott + fan favorite Randy McKay + 1st round pick for Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner.

I respected Nieuwendyk but he was 35 and I wasn't sure how much gas he had left. I really didn't like Langenbrunner as he hardly seemed like the solution to our scoring woes after letting Alexander Mogilny depart. And then young naive me was upset about losing the 1st rounder since I incorrectly assumed it'd be a blue chip prospect.

In particular I remember thinking in the moment that Langenbrunner was invisible in the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. It was many years later before I learned that Langenbrunner had been hurt in the WCF and only dressed in one games of the SCF.

With Arnott gone, I was going to get that jersey customized with Petr Sykora but he'd be traded before I had the chance to put in the order. So I "settled" for Patrik Elias. I did get that Arnott jersey like 15 years later.

As for the Devils, that trade tree also is running to this day. From drafting Bill Guerin in 1989:

Guerin (+Zelepukin) for Arnott (+Muir)
Arnott (+McKay+1st) for Langenbrunner+Nieuwendyk
Langenbrunner for 3rd (Blake Coleman)
Coleman for Nolan Foote + 1st (Shakir Mukhamadullin)
Mukhamadullin (+1st+Johnsson+Zetterlund+Okhotiuk+cond.2nd) for Timo Meier
 
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McRpro said:
1994 - The Oilers trade Dave Manson, who Sather had recently said wasn't living up to his million dollar contract for: Rookie Boris Mironov, who made the all-rookie team, Mats Lindgren, who at the time was a highly regarded prospect along with a first round pick that ended up 4th overall. My young self thought this trade would be a massive fleecing by the Oilers. Unfortunately Mats Lindgren didn't become the player he was expected to be and the 4th overall pick was used to select Jason Bonsignore.
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Oof, that's a swing and a miss. Was this with the Jets?
 
The Craig Rivet for Josh Gorges and first trade

I liked Gorges as a player and for some reason the trade stuck with me.

I always forget the first that became Pacioretty though (now Suzuki!)
 
2013, Iginla instead of Jagr. I feel like Iggy would have gotten his cup instead of being bounced in the first round.
 
Strome for Spooner.

Was just weird situation. Here you have this 26 year old with some offensive capability, but was hardly given a shot with McDavid to show what he can do.

Then he finally was settling into a 3C role getting lots of chances offensively and they make a lateral at best on paper trade for Spooner.

Was just one among the many panic moves Chia made that didn't have to be made.
 
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The one I got into a rabbit hole with was the #2 pick of the 1993 Draft. Many layers to that onion. Let me see if I can describe that in a concise manner......

San Jose's owner fired GM Jack Ferreira after its inaugural season (1991-92). Instead of appointing a replacement, he essentially named two co-GMs Dean Lombardi and Chuck Grillo. For the next few seasons, they often did not agree on decisions. Going into that draft, their scouting room was split. Some scouts wanted Chris Pronger, others wanted Paul Kariya, but Grillo wanted Viktor Kozlov.

Eventually they let Grillo have his way, but Lombardi figured they could trade down and still get Kozlov. So they began to auction the pick with three primary suitors who all wanted Pronger (Whalers, Rangers, Nordiques).

New York offered 8th overall+ but that pick was too late as Kozlov was probably going #6 or #7. Quebec initially offered Mike Ricci, #10, plus other later picks but still too late to guarantee Kozlov. Quebec then offered the same package to Tampa for #3 with the hope of then flip flopping with San Jose, but Tampa declined.

Allegedly, San Jose and Quebec were supposed to meet up the night before the draft to discuss a trade face to face but the Nordiques brass no-showed. The next morning, Lombardi agreed to swap #2 to Hartford for #6, #45, #58, and veteran winger Sergei Makarov. San Jose had unsuccessfully offer sheeted Makarov the previous summer but were now happy to reunite him with Igor Larionov. Also to get the deal over the finish line, Hartford GM Brian Burke had to include a conditional 1994 1st rounder if Kozlov wasn't available at #6 (more on that later).

Also the morning of the draft, Quebec made a very late offer of an unsigned Peter Forsberg straight up for the pick. After the draft, Lombardi steamed to the press about how chaotic it was dealing with Quebec (we were only a year removed from the Lindros trade debacle). The implication being that San Jose would have done the trade contingent on getting Forsberg signed. But since Quebec gave them no time to negotiate with Forsberg ahead of time, they couldn't risk doing the deal.

In that CBA, unsigned European prospects could get offer sheeted a couple years after being drafted. In 1992, Calgary offer sheeted Teemu Selanne and Winnipeg begrudgingly matched. There was an expectation that Forsberg could land a ridiculous offer sheet. The original team had the right to match but would receive no compensation if they didn't.

San Jose didn't like the thought of losing Forsberg for nothing or matching a bloated offer sheet that would paint them into a corner financially. So they went with Hartford's offer.

Everything was dandy for Brian Burke until Florida GM Bobby Clarke suddenly approached him on the draft floor and said he was taking Kozlov at #5. To this day, Burke is still upset about the conditional pick being leaked. Instead of calling Clarke's bluff, Burke gave him a 1994 2nd rounder to not take Kozlov. As I understand it, Florida was taking Rob Niedermayer regardless. But you can imagine Burke's reaction to being extorted out of an extra pick.

But it's fun to imagine how the next 15 years would have been different with Chris Pronger on Quebec/Colorado and Peter Forsberg on San Jose. With no Forsberg, perhaps Mats Sundin stays and gets a couple Cups?
 
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I sometimes remember that Jason Botterill traded a 2018 6th for a 2019 6th rounder that was guaranteed to be lower in the draft. Also that he got a mediocre, 11th or 12th place team into cap penalty territory when he traded for Wayne Simmonds and Dominik Kahun. Those really sum up his tenure as the Sabres GM. Guy was, for the most part, a ****ing idiot.
 
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Great thread. I think of a lot of them. But here are two I will bring up.

The Gilmour trade.

Traded from Toronto Maple Leafs with Dave Ellett and conditional draft pick to New Jersey Devils for rights to Alyn McCauley, Jason Smith and Steve Sullivan.

I was very young at the time and didn't understand why the trade happened or the concept of it. The next day I wanted to look up the names of the new players in the stats section of the sports section and didn't understand why I couldn't find "Solomon".

Also, when the Leafs claimed Wade Belak off waivers. At that time they were in hot pursuit of trading for Rob Blake, or at least that was the hot name in the rumours.

Sportsnet had a segment that was like, Breaking news, Leafs got Blake!.......... If you re-arrange the letters. Blake -> Belak. I was so excited and then was like wait, what?
 
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kirby11 said:
I sometimes remember that Jason Botterill traded a 2018 6th for a 2019 6th rounder that was guaranteed to be lower in the draft. Also that he got a mediocre, 11th or 12th place team into cap penalty territory when he traded for Wayne Simmonds and Dominik Kahun. Those really sum up his tenure as the Sabres GM. Guy was, for the most part, a ****ing idiot.
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Interesting, especially considering a trade a few picks later.

Buffalo dealt 2018 6th (#156) to Toronto for a 2019 6th (ended up #177)
Detroit dealt 2018 6th (#159) to Columbus for a 2019 5th (ended up #143)
 
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Cody Franson, Matthew Lombardi to Toronto for Brett Lebda (bought out), Robert Slaney (never made the NHL), and a Conditional 4th round pick (Conditions not met)

I know the Weber and Rinne extensions came shortly after but the dumping of Franson for literally nothing was always fascinating to me.
 
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Brodeur said:
Interesting, especially considering a trade a few picks later.

Buffalo dealt 2018 6th (#156) to Toronto for a 2019 6th (ended up #177)
Detroit dealt 2018 6th (#159) to Columbus for a 2019 5th (ended up #143)
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Very similar to how he traded Scandella for a 4th (I think to MTL) and they promptly flipped him elsewhere for a 2nd.
 
Judas Tavares said:
Great thread. I think of a lot of them. But here are two I will bring up.

Traded from Toronto Maple Leafs with Dave Ellett and conditional draft pick to New Jersey Devils for rights to Alyn McCauley, Jason Smith and Steve Sullivan.

I was very young at the time and didn't understand why the trade happened or the concept of it. The next day I wanted to look up the names of the new players in the stats section of the sports section and didn't understand why I couldn't find "Solomon".

Also, when the Leafs claimed Wade Belak off waivers. At that time they were in hot pursuit of trading for Rob Blake, or at least that was the hot name in the rumours.

Sportsnet had a segment that was like, Breaking news, Leafs got Blake!.......... If you re-arrange the letters. Blake -> Belak. I was so excited and then was like wait, what?
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Did you do a typo here? Don't you want to mention Doug Gilmour?
 
A few Devils trades.

NJ gets Neil Broten from Dallas for Corey Millen
NJ gets Cory Schneider from Vancouver for a 1st round pick (Bo Horvat)
NJ gets Alex Mogilny from Vancouver for Brendan Morrison + Denis Pederson
NJ gets Shawn Chambers + Danton Cole from Tampa Bay for Alex Semak + Ben Hankinson
 
Hoverhand said:
Cody Franson, Matthew Lombardi to Toronto for Brett Lebda (bought out), Robert Slaney (never made the NHL), and a Conditional 4th round pick (Conditions not met)

I know the Weber and Rinne extensions came shortly after but the dumping of Franson for literally nothing was always fascinating to me.
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I think the main motivation for Nashville was unloading Lombardi's contract. He had 2 years left at 3.5 mil AAV. He had missed most of the previous season with a concussion and Nashville wasn't sure what condition he was in going forward. Franson was the cost of opening up cap space.

Nashville giving up its 2015 1st to rent Franson was a little bit more strange to me. Their RD was already crowded with Weber-Jones-Ellis (plus Josi). Didn't seem like a team who needed a D like Franson.
 
kirby11 said:
Very similar to how he traded Scandella for a 4th (I think to MTL) and they promptly flipped him elsewhere for a 2nd.
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Yeah he played 20 games for the Habs and then was moved for a 2nd and a 4th, the 4th being conditional on re-signing him and they did
 
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