What is the single worst decision your team ever made?

[AfroThunder396]

Devils: Getting rid of Lou Lamoriello

Literally set the franchise back so many years. We proceeded to be a bottom dweller for the next 10 years with only 1 playoff appearance (and a first round loss at that). We lucked out by getting the first overall twice with Hischier and Hughes but the reality is that Lou continued his success with other franchises without missing the playoffs.

Lou's last 5 seasons in NJ:

11th in the East
6th in the East
11th in the East
10th in the East
13th in the East

We were already a chronic cellar dweller outside of the magic of 2012. He horrendously bungled the Kovalchuk saga and kept trading youth for band-aids to prolong a window that didn't exist.

Also hilarious to say the "Devils "lucked out by winning the lottery" when in Lou's first year as GM he won the draft lottery and was handed Auston Matthews.

What set the franchise back so many years was Lou's atrocious drafting and contracts which handcuffed the Devils long into Shero's and even Fitzgerald's regimes. The Devils are STILL paying Kovalchuk and STILL have Schneider's cap hit on the books.

 

[That Habs Fan]

Marc Bergevin

Searched for this reply before posting because it was going to be my reply.

Either that or Houle, same problems...absolutely no vision and just hired friends and spun wheels.

 

[Section 104]

Trading most of the team at the '94 deadline and in parts of '95 to get tougher.

They could have built a dynasty around Messier, Leetch, Zubov, Amonte, Weight, Gartner, and Kovalev, knowing Gretzky wanted to come here.

Everyone on that list but Leetch was by '98, mostly for bottom sixers and hitting.

The eternal debate on Broadway. Rangers did win a Stanley Cup with the players they traded for. But they traded away some pretty good players and might have won even more. Definitely would have a good rivalry with New Jersey.

The Islanders are not my team but since I live on the Island I’ll throw this one in for them that’s a little bit different. Besides the fact the Nassau Coliseum was on the small size (it might have been intended for the ABA Nets and a minor league team like the Long Island Ducks but the WHA happened), the Islanders ended up with a lease from hell. I think it was signed when Pickett, an absentee owner if there ever was one. But according to former Islanders employee Chris Botta they could have sold out every game, including the Stanley Cup finals and still lost money.

 

[Amorgus]

Panthers:

Hiring Bobby Clarke as their first GM

Florida wins '93 entry draft coin toss with Anaheim. Size-queen Clarke, having no interest in drafting Kariya, opts for No.5 overall in '93 (Special Nieds) and No. 1 overall in '94 (Jovo) instead of No.4 overall in '93 (Kariya) and No.2 overall in '94 (Tverdovsky/Bonk).

Minus the 5 minutes Pavel Bure played for Florida, the Panthers have been plagued by garbage offenses until 2 seasons ago.

Giving Bobby Clarke any say over anything once he stopped being a player is probably in the running for any franchise's worst moment, yet everyone on the Flyers still has to kiss his ring or get axed/traded.

 

[Section 104]

St Louis Blues in one day fired Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour and Cliff Fletcher. How many Stanley Cups between those guys…17?
Also traded two first round picks to Rangers for Gene Carr (couldn’t put the puck in the ocean if he was standing on the end of a pier as Bill “The Big Whistle” Chadwick) and Derek Sanderson (once a useful player who got a lot of press due to his outsize personality but declined rapidly with too much partying).

Of course the Oakland Seals which pretty much don’t exist trading Away the number one pick that became Guy LaFleur. Pretty much any of those 1960s-70s expansion teams that traded first round picks.

 

[GMR]

Going back a bit further, I think the Drury trade deserves consideration.

Chris Drury
Stephane Yelle

to division rival Calgary for

Derek Morris
Dean McAmmond
Jeff Shantz


I'd also throw the Tanguay trade in there too.

Tanguay coming off back to back PPG+ seasons

to Calgary for

Jordan Leopold
2nd

Yeah, I never understood that. Drury was coming into his own as a center. Forsberg had injury problems. Yelle was arguably the best 4th line center in the league. Trading away center depth wasn't a good idea.

Morris was in the Eric Brewer category of overhyped young Canadian defensemen.

That said, I doubt Colorado considered Calgary a "division rival" in 2002.

 

[GMR]

Top ones for me:

Wayne Huizenga selling the team to Cohen.
Trading the eventual 1st overall pick in the 98 draft that turned out to be Vincent Lecavalier

Honorable mentions:
Horton over Staal
Firing Gallant
Hiring Maurice.
Allowing Tallon to sign ex-Hawks to billion year deals

What about Bobrovsky's contract? That seemed like an overpayment for such an unclutch player.

Limiting it to ones I've experienced as a fan:

1) the Adam Oates trade

2) giving Dave Lewis the coaching job after Bowman retired

2) Not firing Holland when he refused to accept a promotion to make way for Yzerman as GM. It's like Kenny spent his remaining years screwing over the Red Wings for even asking. For example:

3) the Abdelkader contract. Had Yzerman not bought him out Abdelkader would still be on the team in the final year of his deal making $4.25 million. This is a player who has not been able to find a job in the NHL since 2020 when Yzerman bought him out.

It's easy to blame Hitler, but even Bowman wouldn't have overcome Giguere's giant pads in 2003 or Kiprusoff and that team full of plumbers in 2004.

 

[ShootIt]

What about Bobrovsky's contract? That seemed like an overpayment for such an unclutch player.

It's bad, no question about it. I will say at the time of signing it was an overpay/term was too much but at least I thought it was not going to be a hindrance early on cause at least he seemed to do well in Columbus and left on a good playoff note.

That being said, he's a good goalie that will have a lull of bad games then rebound for a good stretch. Not sure what causes him to be jekyll and hyde.

 

[CharlestownChiefsESC]

Trading most of the team at the '94 deadline and in parts of '95 to get tougher.

They could have built a dynasty around Messier, Leetch, Zubov, Amonte, Weight, Gartner, and Kovalev, knowing Gretzky wanted to come here.

Everyone on that list but Leetch was by '98, mostly for bottom sixers and hitting.

May 9 , 1992 thats why all of it happened. They dont blow that game they win in 92 and never need Keenan and Messier quiets down.

As far as Gretzky wanting to come to NY im not so sure about that. He spoke with many other teams in 96 before deciding on the Rangers. Plan A was stay out west(He spoke to San Jose and Anaheim but decided neither would work), Plan B Canada (Vanouver well we know what happened there, I highly doubt he wanted to go to Toronto) Plan C Rangers

 

[Khelandros]

Fleury.

Letting him go in the expansion draft for nothing. I said it at the time, but trading Murray was the play. Keep both through the deadline, win the Stanley Cup, get to the Summer/Expansion draft.

Penguins had Jarry in the minor system for a couple of years and he was being groomed to be the replacement for Fleury. Murray came in and had a pretty good rookie season, forcing his way onto the Penguins. But goalies are weird in that we have seen goalies force their way onto teams, even win trophies, but then fade out. Pretty much over the course of a couple of seasons.

If the Penguins had made the decision to do a sign and trade for Murray after the second Stanley Cup, the picks/players they would have received would have set them up for years to come. There would have been at minimum a 1st + 2nd +A Prospect coming back the other way.

Fleury could have kept the team going, because his game wasn't slipping. He was still a 1A goalie. They could have signed a cheap backup for him, which would allow Jarry to keep working in the AHL.

But, GMJR had that new young shiny goalie twinkle in his eye and that is the way he decided to play it.

 

[shadow1]

It's been almost 20 years, but...

Avalanche	Flames
LW Dean McAmmond D Derek Morris	C Chris Drury C Stephane Yelle

McAmmond was a bust and was back in Calgary the following season (2003-2004). Morris had a first good season but wasn't the same after cracking his orbital bone during a fight, and was also no longer with the Avalanche the following season (dealt at the 2003-2004 trade deadline).

Meanwhile, Drury was a borderline star player, and Yelle was the glue that held Colorado's third line together. The most tragic part is Morris was traded for pending free agent Chris Gratton, who was tasked with filling Yelle's vacant 3C spot but was a bust.

 

[Alex Jones]

Yeah, I never understood that. Drury was coming into his own as a center. Forsberg had injury problems. Yelle was arguably the best 4th line center in the league. Trading away center depth wasn't a good idea.

Morris was in the Eric Brewer category of overhyped young Canadian defensemen.

That said, I doubt Colorado considered Calgary a "division rival" in 2002.

Avs were desperate to find a young, high level defenseman in the early 2000's. Avs defense was aging quickly.

In 2002 when Drury was traded....

Ozolinsh was gone (talk about a TERRIBLE trade)
Aaron Miller was gone in the Blake deal.
Bourque was retired.
Foote was 30.
Blake was 32.
Avs had drafted Robyn Regehr but had moved him in the ill-fated Theo Fleury trade.

Organization still thought Skoula was the guy going forward, but they were desperate for another young defenseman. They first traded Drury for Morris, and then Tanguay for Leopold. Talk about two terrible moves.

For as much credit as Pierre Lacroix gets for his moves in the mid 90's, he sure did blow a lot of decisions in the late 90's to early 2000's. At lot of players walked out the door without much in return.

 

[Breakers]

Hiring Jim Benning

 

[beakerboy]

The hiring of Bob Nicholson. Not only did he hire Peter Chiarelli and Ken Holland back to back which is bad enough as is just for on ice reasons, he also turned out to be the single most despicable individual ever hired by the Oilers, being the guy at the top of the Hockey Canada sexual assault fund scandals. Also made it insufferable for fans attending live games due to the concession price hikes, see:
View attachment 658273

Tier 1 fans are okay with paying those prices though.

 

[Crabapple]

Obviously selling Gretzky.

But as for recent era... Oh God where to begin...

 

[I am toxic]

A land war in Asia is the only bigger mistake than employing Milbury.

 

[Vukotal Recall]

 

[Alex Jones]

It's been almost 20 years, but...

Avalanche	Flames
LW Dean McAmmond D Derek Morris	C Chris Drury C Stephane Yelle

McAmmond was a bust and was back in Calgary the following season (2003-2004). Morris had a first good season but wasn't the same after cracking his orbital bone during a fight, and was also no longer with the Avalanche the following season (dealt at the 2003-2004 trade deadline).

Meanwhile, Drury was a borderline star player, and Yelle was the glue that held Colorado's third line together. The most tragic part is Morris was traded for pending free agent Chris Gratton, who was tasked with filling Yelle's vacant 3C spot but was a bust.

This whole thing pisses me off.

In 98 the Avs restock with four firsts, those being Alex Tanguay, Martin Skoula, Robyn Regher and Scott Parker. Skoula and Regher both play the left side, but they are the teams future on defense. Regher gets moved in the Theo Fleury trade. This Avs want to refill with a young high end D and move Drury for Morris.

Looking back Morris-Skoula isn't a high level top pairing like the Avs wanted, but it's a pretty decent middle pairing for the 2000's. The problem is that the Avs couldn't leave good enough alone.

In 2003 the Avs trade the always useful Steve Reinprecht for Keith Ballard, which is actually a decent move in terms of player value. A defensive core of Morris-Skoula-Ballard isn't amazing, but its solid for the mid to late 2000's. Of course this isn't good enough and soon after Avs move Ballard and Morris for Chris Gratton, who played horrible and the left after like 20 games.

Avs end up giving away Skoula to bring back (lol) Kurt Sauer. Now really lacking in defenseman they give Scott Hannan a big deal (ugh) and move Tanguay to bring in Jordan Leopold.

For as much as Pierre Lacroix gets all the credit in the world for building the late 90's/early 2000's Avs teams, he sure did let a lot of good talent walk out the door for basically nothing...Ozolinsh, Tanguay, Drury, Ballard, Morris...

 

[FerrisRox]

The Montreal Canadiens selected Doug Wickenheiser with the first overall draft pick in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.

Had they picked Denis Savard instead, I believe they would have won more than one Stanley Cup in the 1980's.

With Denis Savard, they might have been able to disrupt the Islanders four-in-a-row run.

Savard was a 119 point scorer in 1981-82 and a 121 point scorer the following year. That would have been a formidable addition to the the early 80's Canadiens and Savard on the first line and and the Canadiens power play with Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur would not only have been deadly, but it would have likely extended the usefulness and productiveness of those Hall-of-Fame wingers.

Adding Savard's 131 point season in 1987-88 to what was already an impressive Canadiens team has a great chance of sending them to the Stanley Cup final that year instead of Boston and Savard's 82 points (in 58 games) in 1989, when the Canadiens lost to the Flames in the Final could very well have been a difference maker.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

It's easy to blame Hitler, but even Bowman wouldn't have overcome Giguere's giant pads in 2003 or Kiprusoff and that team full of plumbers in 2004.

You can definitely chalk a big chunk of it up to Giguere's giant pads and Babcock's defensive system, but Lewis was underwhelming in his other head coaching stints too. There's a reason he's never had another head coaching gig.

And yes I think Bowman likely would've gotten that 2003 team out of the first round at least.

 

[RabidOne]

Fergusen drafting Jimmy Mann when the next guy available was some guy named Goulet.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Hm nothing really coming to mind for me (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl fan)

 

[DamonDRW]

In my 30 years of following my beloved Red Wings I don't specifically remember anything THAT bad. There were bad trades, questionable moves, delayed rebuild but all these are understandable. Maybe 4 cups and 5 finals affect my impression but I patiently wait till we are relevant again.

Feel bad for other teams having way less luck and doing trades like Forsberg+ for Lindros or Fransis for peanuts.

 

[Hasbro]

Yeah, I never understood that. Drury was coming into his own as a center. Forsberg had injury problems. Yelle was arguably the best 4th line center in the league. Trading away center depth wasn't a good idea.

Morris was in the Eric Brewer category of overhyped young Canadian defensemen.

That said, I doubt Colorado considered Calgary a "division rival" in 2002.

Drury went to arbitration and Lacroix took that personally.

 

[TheOrangeDesk]

Hiring Bob Nicholson