What is the single worst decision your team ever made?

[Paulinbc]

Neely trade.

Ouch.

I see Ive already posted in this thread. Like a year and a half ago. Time to kill it.

 

[Funk21]

Shanny and Dubas Era.

Given one of the best players in the modern areas not to mention Marner and Nylander…..

They messed it up with never addressing their D, signing JT, trading Kadri, the slew of bad contracts and trading away pick after pick….

 

[Osakahaus]

There's about twenty or so things I can say for the Islanders but I will probably say one that probably gets forgotten more often than not

NOT trading away Scatchard for Jason Allison.

 

[Rorschach]

Trading for Dubois I think upset the entire team chemistry. Trading Dubois I think reset the team in the right direction. Funny that this could make me a fan of more than one team.

I can see what you're saying, sort of, but would respectively disagree. As a Kings fan, Dubois did too little and wasn't disruptive enough. If he made a big bang and the lineup had to shift around to accommodate him and he became a presence in the locker room due to his on ice effectiveness, we would just deal with it, not deal him away.

He was a big nothing-burger and on top of that, the FO traded/dumped so much talent as cap dumps and got so little back, just to make room to give him an insane salary.

 

[V13]

Mario Tremblay not pulling out Patrick Roy against Detroit. This was the catalyst of a chain of events that ultimately set the franchise back for 25+ years

 

[canuckster19]

Neely trade.

Ouch.

I see Ive already posted in this thread. Like a year and a half ago. Time to kill it.

Agreed

Neely trade is far from the worst decision, one could have said that back in the early 90s but too much other s--- has happened since then.

One that flies under the radar for me is not extending Willie Mitchell in 2010, he was a loyal Canuck, having him over Ballard in the 2011 playoffs would have likely been the difference IMO , Hawks in 4-5 instead of 7, Predators in 4-5 instead of 6, no doubt in my mind we would have won handily over Boston.

Then the Kings don't have him in 2012, I wouldn't be surprised at all if we repeated.

 

[Claxton]

Rangers quickly off the top of my head:

Zubov trade
Jessiman pick
McIlrath instead of Tarasenko
.
.
.
Buchnevich for Blais

 

[La Bamba]

The Reinhart trade set the Oilers back a couple of years. If they drafted Barzal, they likely would've made the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. The franchise did recover with the signing of Zach Hyman but this trade scratched a couple of years of Cup contention off of McDavid's career.

Repeatedly playing a burnt out rookie Skinner over a rested and hot Campbell in the 2023 playoffs. I'm thankful for the Canucks for whooping the Oilers mercilessly early in the 23/24 season causing Woodcroft to be fired.

In the McDavid era, these are the 2 biggest blunders that I'm still mad about lol

 

[BlackAdam]

Recently... Signing Ryan Reaves to a 3 year contract

 

[Hisch13r]

Not making the Gomez for Datsyuk trade happen. Letting the defense deteriorate with all 3 of Nieds, Rafalski, Martin walking for nothing.

 

[heilongjetsfan]

-Pissing off Dustin Byfuglien so he retired after we had already lost 3 starting defensemen including the rest of our RHD

-Cutting a deal with Vegas to protect Toby Enstrom when we could have just drafted Nick Suzuki instead

 

[Oil Spill]

Milan Lucic

 

[New User Name]

Not signing Bobby Orr before Boston swooped in and did.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

One that doesn't get mentioned as much is pressuring Wayne Gretzky to sign prior to consulting his family in 1996. The way it's told things were on track for Wayne to become a Canuck before then CEO Stan McCammon pressured him for an answer after a long day of negotiations rather than giving him a day or 2.

I know Wayne was near the end of his career then, but we would've avoided the disastrous Messier-era & had the greatest player ever play for our team.

 

[StrompTroller]

Buffalo-existing.

 

[DapperCam]

For the Sabres I would say selling to Rigas. He was a crook, which led to ownership instability and the team almost leaving. We were saved by penny pinching Golisano (for whom I will always be grateful). But also led to the Pegula purchase and 10 years of ineptitude.

If a better owner than Rigas is found in the first place, we probably avoid all that mess.

 

[DomBarr]

It isn't the worst, but one of the ones that still sticks out to me since I've been old enough to be an adult fan was the Phaneuf trade. The fact we traded him in a time in the NHL when defensemen like him were still very effective and hadn't been rendered obsolete yet, for that package just for the sake of trading him still blows my mind. We didn't even get good depth up front from the deal. We got a solid bottom 6 centre out of the deal in Stajan and a bunch of spare parts for a top 3 defender in his prime.

we can actually just clarify that the worst decision the Flames have ever made is making ANY trade with the Leafs

 

[LuckyDay]

View attachment 904109

hard to argue with numbers but keep in mind

It was a stacked roster and Naslund gained a reputation for disappearing after good start and having to get sent down to the minors and not being allowed to play in playoff games. His points in his final year reflected playing with Jagr and Lemieux due to Trottier's retirement and injuries. Remember McSorley got 40 goals one year by playing on Gretzky's wing so it's hard not to see the same situation happening here. I have to think Pittsburgh tried to leverage that to get what they could.

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Not reading this whole thread but for Buffalo I'll say embezzlement. The team went from a young Cup contender to "maybe they relocate" in the blink of an eye, which led to a lot of uncertainty for years afterwards.

 

[stewy04]

Lou was the reason.. mortgaged the future to bring in the likes of Michael Ryder and Damien Brunner

I think Lou has been bad for a long time. Islanders may make playoffs but they are meh as hell