Biggest trades - Best trades - Worst trades

[Dr.Sens(e)]

As we await what is likely the final week before starting the HFNHL season, I though we could fill the gap by discussing some of our trades of past few years. Time to tout, brag and fess up about those deals you gleam about, those you wish you had back and the ones you still don't know how they will turn out...

For St. Louis...

Biggest Trade
With Boston, sent Lasislav Nagy, Jochen Hecht and Michael Nylander for Joe Thornton, Landon Wilson and a 2nd (David Leneveu). The pick ended up being a bit of a steal, but not as lopsided as some people made this out to be.

Honourable mention: With Tampa Bay, sent Pierre Turgeon, Michael Handzus and prospect Konstantin Kalmikov, for Vincent Lecavalier. (Jury is still out on this one, but it has least started to turn back in my direction)

Best Trades

In the early days with Calgary, sent Geoff Courtnall and a 5th, for Michael Nylander and a 4th. Courtnall retired the next year, and Nylander became a regular scoring line forward for a few years, before the main forward in the Thornton deal (he was rated the same as Thornton at the time).

Honourable mention: With Dallas a year ago, sent Ben Eager and Marcus Ragnarsson and the Blues 7th rounder, for the Stars 2nd in 2004 (Adam Pineault) and their 1st in 2005 (likely a lottery pick - possibly a very high lottery pick). Jury is still out on this one, but if the Stars lottery pick ends up being top 3...or the lottery winner...

Worst Trades

With Chicago, sent Jamal Mayers and prospect Ian White to Chicago for Josh Green.

Honourable mention: With Boston, sent Martin Skoula and the Blues 1st in 2003 (later traded to Florida and used to select Mike Richards) for Rostislav Klesla. Let's just say Klesla better turn out to be better than Skoula...

Click to read more...

 

[Dryden]

thanks for Mayers and White....whomever the GM was who did the deal with you I'd like to shake his hand

 

[Hossa]

Well, this won't be as easy for me as it was for Nick. First of all, I haven't been around very long, and haven't really done many deals where I'm getting a big time player, more just youngsters. I also don't have the memory to remember a lot of my deals anyways, unlike Mr. Quain. I'll give it my best shot though.

Biggest trade

Well, I dealt Zigmund Palffy and Al MacInnis (and later Sean Burke) to Anaheim when I first got the team. I recieved in those deals a collection of players, including Pavel Vorobiev, Alexander Polushin, and a first round pick. It was largely a salary dump, and while I probably didn't get the value I deserved, I did get some good youngsters. The first round pick was later dealt for two later picks that became Anthony Stewart and Patrick Eaves. Matt may know the exact details of that deal. To the best of my memory, I think I got Vorobiev, that first round pick and a host of other lesser players for Palffy and MacInnis, and Polushin and other stuff for Burke. Vorobiev became Meszaros and that first rounder Stewart and Eaves. Bad deal that I kind of rectified later.

Best Trades

There are a number that come to mind, and none are clearly the best. Certainly, the dealing of Vorobiev and a pick for Meszaros at least year's draft looks great. As does getting Stewart and Eaves for dropping down a few spots in the 2003 draft. I'll submit two others though.

Ilya Bryzgalov and a 4th round pick for Luc Robitaille and a 3rd round pick. (I think)

Bryzgalov's a stud young goalie, and I signed Robitaille this summer for a lot less money, only two years later.

Noah Welch and a draft pick for Marc-Andre Bernier and Shean Donovan.

Donovan's a solid player that had a career year, but Welch has the potential to be a very good blueliner.

Worst Trades

Those deals with Anaheim qualify here as well.

I'll also submit my dealing of Pavel Bure (in another salary dump) to Buffalo for Mikko Koivu, Steve McCarthy and Rick Berry. Koivu has been swapped for Jeff Taffe, McCarthy is still around and Berry left for a mid round pick. Considering Bure is a vegetable now, it looks ok, but at the time, I didn't get full value, and Josh, being the snake he is, dealt Bure a few weeks later for even more too.

I also dealt Nick Boynton straight up for Maxime Ouellet. As much as I think it could end up being fair, I need a guy like Boynton more than a guy like Ouellet at the moment. Ouellet's my goalie of the future, but so is Bryzgalov, and Boynton would look good with Rachunek and Tanabe, and later Meszaros and Welch.

I'll probably end up editting this later as things come to me.

 

[HFNHL Commish]

Interesting thread!

For the Ducks...

Biggest trade:

With Vancouver...sent Pavel Vorobiev, Ahren Nittel, Alex Karpovtsev, Radek Martinek, Bruno St. Jacques, and my 2003 1st (which Carolina later acquired and used to draft Hugh Jessiman) to the Canucks in exchange for Ziggy Palffy, Al MacInnis, and $50,000. At the time (September 2002), this trade cut my prospect depth in half, and practically doubled my payroll. I hated losing Vorobiev, who was an elite prospect at that juncture, but without this trade I NEVER would've made the Stanley Cup finals last season.

Best trade:

With New Jersey...sent Jeff Friesen, Scott Young, Patrice Brisebois, Yuri Butsayev, and a 7th to the Devils in exchange for Eric Daze, Brian Rolston, John Madden, Brian Rafalski and a 2nd that became Mike Cammalleri. This trade, made at the deadline in April 2001, formed what remains the core of my roster. At the time, the Devils were pushing for a playoff spot, so I think that this trade ended up as a win-win. Time has skewed things in my favor, however.

Worst trade:

With Calgary...sent Milan Hejduk and Jonas Andersson to the Flames in exchange for Jeff Friesen, Yuri Butsayev and $200,000. Not a bad trade at the time (August 2000), as Hejduk and Friesen were both highly-touted, young stars. Friesen had a great contract, and I liked his intangibles. Hejduk had a lousy contract, and I viewed him as one-dimensional. Hejduk is still one-dimensional, but he has become a perennial 40-goal scorer.

Sidenote: I later re-acquired Friesen in a pretty decent deal with Toronto.

 

[Tampa GM]

Dont remember the trade but I once had a player called Brad Richards. I believe I traded Richards while he was still in the juniors however. I wish I could take that trade back.

I also regret the big signing I did with Pierre Turgeon and Mark Recchi. That made them almost impossible to trade and I lost alot of money.

Cant actually remember any good trade I have done these past years.

 

[Ohio Jones]

I'm sort of in an odd situation, having had three-year tenures with two different organizations. I'll try and pick the best and worst of each.

Biggest:
This might be an early trade as Washington with New Jersey, in the HFNHL's first season, which saw Gonchar and Bondra going to Jersey for Niedermayer, Sykora and Randy McKay. McKay was a solid grinder, but Sykora was still a bit of a dark horse at the time - he blossomed soon after I traded for him. The key to the trade, however, was Niedermayer, who to this day forms the backbone of Washington's defence corps. It didn't hurt that I shaved off almost 3 million in salary on the trade. That said, Bondra continued playing far longer than I'd thought he would, and Gonchar developed into the league's top scoring threat from the blueline.

Best:
This has to have been the Jackets' trade with Dallas towards the end of the 2002/03 season, sending Boyd Devereaux and... well, frankly, there was some other stuff, but none of it all that meaningful, in return for which we received Mark Bell. Now, Bell's first taste of the NHL had not been quite the spectacular success that some had hoped, so pehaps his stock was down, but I have to like how it's developed since, to the point where Bell is a young fixture as the power forward on Columbus' second line, only one season later.

Worst:
Hmmm... this could easily be Washington's trade of Brendan Witt to St. Louis for a second-round pick. It was made heading into the draft, knowing that I wasn't going to have room to protect Witt from waivers (I was all about puck-movers then, and didn't fully appreciate what Witt brought to the table, much to my later chagrin), and there was a lot of good stuff in the offing in that year's draft. Unfortunately, I believe I drafted Tukka Makela or Brad Ralph with the pick, neither of whom turned into anything. Ugh.

Worst - Honourable mention: this isn't actually a trade, but rather the signing of Carney and Brisebois with 5 million signing bonuses in the same year. On the plus side it solidified my blueline and was instrumental in my Jackets posting a 29-point improvement year-over-year, and finally reaching the post-season this year. However, my revenues have not kept pace, so that to this day I have never really recovered from the financial body-blow of giving away $10 million, to the point where now I have to hope for a home stand to start the season, and couldn't afford any endorsement deals. That said, I took a risk and ended up digging this hole for myself, so I'm prepared to dig myself out. No handouts for this GM! : :

 

[spintheblackcircle]

I like my trade of Sean Burke for Martin St Louis AND Dan Cloutier. Oh, and I got a 5th rounder too, I think.

I think that's what it was.

As far as biggest...trading the #4 pick, Rick Nash for Marco Sturm, Greg DeVries and a 2nd rounder (Jakup Klepis) was a biggie for me. Nash is a stud, but Sturm and DeVries were needed to help a really bad team. Klepis still can become a top 6 guy as well. Love Rick Nash, though

 

[Pandastyle]

Biggest trade:

It was with Ottawa, I sent JS Giguere and Adam Deadmarsh, and in return I got Karel Rachunek (who I recently traded for Tom Preissing and Mike Zigomanis), Ales Hemsky, and Jani Rita. I might be forgetting something about the trade, but I personally think Ottawa won it....I was a little caught up in the Ales Hemsky excitement at the time (still kinda am) and got a little anxious to get a deal done.

Best trades:

It has to be one of these 2....

1) I sent Ziggy Palffy to Vancouver for Martin Havlat and a 1st (which turned into Alexander Steen)

2) I traded Al MacInnis to I don't remember and got Paul Mara, Barrett Jackman, and Artem Chernov (at the time I was optimistic about him =) ).



Worst trade:

Easy....early on in my tenure I let Doug rob me of Phillippe Boucher for Hnat Domenichelli. Damn you Doug! =) If you notice, I haven't dealt with Doug since.

 

[Dempsey]

I did most of my dealing in the first few weeks of the league's existance and then kept the same basic team in tact. The only original Kings I chose to keep for a long time were Blake, G. Murray, Jokinen and Storr.

I dealt Russ Courtnall from my Kings to the TB Lightning for Darcy Tucker.

In two seperate deals with Edmonton I gave up Fiset, Stumpel and I believe Smolinski and got Bertuzzi, Salo and Grier.

I got Andrei Markov as a throw-in in a deal with Montreal, but can't remember the deal. Markov was still in Russia at the time. I also got Maxim Balmochnykh thrown into the deal that got me Steve Rucchin and thought I had another gem but that obviously didn't work out.

My worst trades were dealing top picks and prospects for some old timers over the last two years, and then not having them pan out during playoff time.

Mike McEwan
LA Kings

 

[kasper11]

I don't remember all my trades, but here are two from the past couple of seasons:

Worst: Ribeiro for Dimitrakos, right before Ribeiro had his breakout season.

Best: NJ, Tor 1 2005, 2 4th rounders for Alexander Semin, Tor 1 2004 (which I knew would be Horton) and a second. The other picks turned out to be Radulov and Schwarz, two good players, but I still think I got the two best players and a second rounder to boot.

I also know that about a month after I joined, I let Gionta slip through in the waiver draft, which is definately bad.

 

[Mandaou]

Flyer Trades

A little long winded but I like this thread. I hope to launch my HFNHL Flyer's website before the end of Feb, which will include a section with all the trades the Flyer's ever made.

I need help from Billy on our trade in 2001 involving Yashin and Leclair. Aside from that trade I think I have all the details on the 44 trades I made since joining the league in 1999.

FAVOURITE TRADES

My first trade. The players involved have done a good job for both clubs but I love this trade because I was able to acquire two of my favourite players in 2000.

To Phoenix: Damond Langkow and 3rd round pick in 2000
To Philly: Mike Fisher and Sami Salo (Traded Salo in Dec05 for Zuyzun, Suglabov and 4th rd pick.)

Honourable Mention: Acquisition of Tom Barrasso and Matthew Barnaby for the 2003 season. With Hasek surprise retirement the team was left with little or no choice for a starting goalie for the 2003 season. Barrasso passed his prime had an exceptional HFNHL season and helped my team into the playoffs. Barnaby is still one of my favourites from the day I saw him play in Hull along Daigle when they were teammates in Victoriaville. Barnaby was clearly the better player that night. Too bad Sens scouts were not in attendance. Had to trade him last year due to financial constraints.

To NYI: Randy McKay, 5th Round Pick
To Philly: Tom Barrasso, Mathew Barnaby (traded for a 3rd & 6th in 2004)


BIGGEST TRADES

Not officially a three-way trade but really occurred that way. Tough trade to make because Ohlund is an exceptional player but I could not afford him.

To Ottawa: Mattius Ohlund
To Florida: Eric Brewer, 3rd and 7th round picks
To Philly: Jeff Carter, Pascal Leclaire, 1st Rd 2004 (Boris Valibik), 2 5th round picks

Honourable Mention: In dire need to dump salaries in 2002 the Flyers began to shake things up with this memorable trade:

To Dallas: Peter Bondra, Brandon Bell, Petr Hubacek, Jason Beckett
To Philly: Mika Noronen, Tim Gleason, Mikael Grosek, Steve Gainey, 2 2nd round picks that I used to select Barry Tallackson (NJD) and Brock Rudenski (EDM).

Until the beginning of last year this trade looked like a loser but Gleason is showing LA why he was a first rounder and why after watching him at the prospect camp in Hull I thought he was just as good as Volchenkov. Noronen has struggled but I think he can be a late bloomer ala Hasek. Grosek was serviceable for a few years. Gainey a bust (too bad because Bob is one of my all-time favourites), Tallackson has a chance to be a #2 winger and Brock does not.


BEST TRADES

One of my best trades because I was able to dump Yashin’s contract, which I could not afford. My other motive is I didn’t want I guy like Yashin’s attitude on my team anymore. Yashin is a talented of a player as I’ve ever seen but too bad for everyone who loves hockey that he’s so selfish and lazy.

SJ went on to win the cup the year they made this trade so it was good for Billy as well and I’m sure Billy turned both guys over for some pretty good value.

BTW, I think Chris Chelios was the hardest player/prospect I have ever had to trade. Despite his recent actions in reference to the lockout, he is a warrior and one of the NHL’s all time greats. Wish I could have kept him.

Billy, hope I have the right players and picks involved but I’m sure you’ll let me know about it if I don’t.

To SJ: Alexi Yashin, Chris Chelios, 3rd round Pick
To Philly: Tim Connolly, Jordin Tootoo, 2 1st rounders, 2nd rd.

Connolly getting hurt really hurt this trade to start off with, however with my 2 1st rounders, I chose, Dan Fritsche and Brent Seabrooke two top prospects who performed extremely well at the 2004 WJC. Tootoo has the talent to be as productive and disruptive as Darcy Tucker.


Honourable Mention: Hurting for cash and in need to trade some higher priced talent I was lucky to find a suitor in the NYR. The Rangers were I believe leading the conference near the trading deadline in 2002 and were looking for a veteran all-star defenseman. I was able to acquire an up and coming young defenseman, an excellent prospect and a good veteran defenseman that I later traded as part of a package that landed me Perezhogin. One of those trades that was great for both teams at the time especially if NY went on to win the cup.

To NYR: Eric Desjardens, Rich Pilon, 3rd and 5th rounder
To Philly: Kim Johnsson, Fredrick Sojstrom, Eric Weinrich,


WORST TRADES

With Kris Draper needing a new contract within a year’s time and my financial troubles as they were (2003) I decided to trade another favourite player. I think I received some good value for Drapes but after I traded him he started scoring goals and then people finally noticed he was one of the leagues best defensive forwards as well, which at the time was not reflected in his HFNHL ratings.

To Detroit: Kris Draper, 3rd round pick
To Philly: Stephane Yelle, Martin Gerber, 4th round pick

Honourable Mention: Before this year’s waiver draft I needed to trade expose some good players to the waiver wire. I made a decision I needed to trade Waltz, Yelle or Connolly. I still have not given up on Connolly so I decided to trade either Waltz or Yelle. The best offer came from Detroit.

That’s the second time Drew was able to steal a really good player from me, but I had little choice as nobody stepped up to offer a lot better. Too bad Waltzy plays for Minnesota, if anyone watched the 2003 playoffs they got to see how good and valuable this guy is to Lemaire. BTW, I don’t know how his defensive rating could be under 80.

To Detroit: Wes Waltz
To Philly: 3rd and 5th round pick

 

[Hossa]

1) I sent Ziggy Palffy to Vancouver for Martin Havlat and a 1st (which turned into Alexander Steen)

Ya, I think I cried for about a week straight after hearing my predecessor made that trade.

 

[Chuzwazza]

so tough for me to remember my trades! There's just so many!

Worst deal was sending Slava kozlov, and prospects Marius Holtet and Alexei Skotov to Toronto for Adam Deadmarsh. Deadmarsh then went from recovering from a concussion to possibly calling quits. that said, he lead my team in goals, was second in points and made the all-star game last season...leading the Sabres charge into the playoffs for the 1st time in my 3 year tenure.

Felix potvin to Boston for Lee Goren probably stands out as the clear cut worst, but Steve Wright was still in charge of that team when i was AGM...before I shoved him out of the nest (into ottawa mind you) and then made the best deal i made with him...

the Best deal?

Getting Orpik, Ruutu and the #6 pick in 2002 for Grigorienko, Gagic, Komisarek and Zetterberg. Sounds pretty good until you realise that after a quick flip with NYI and TOR, I turned the #6 pick into Rick Nash. Good as Zetterberg is, and Grigorienko and Komisarek could be....I'd take nash, Ruutu and Orpik anyday.

 

[Ohio Jones]

Worst trade:

Easy....early on in my tenure I let Doug rob me of Phillippe Boucher for Hnat Domenichelli. Damn you Doug! =) If you notice, I haven't dealt with Doug since.

Hehe, forgot about that one... at the time, the players were rated comparably, and Boucher had languished for years in LA. Moving to Dallas with former LA Assitant Phil Tippet really woke up Boucher's play. I've always been a sucker for RH defencemen, and while the Jackets had plenty of utility forwards the likes of Domenichelli, I didn't have too many steady and affordable 5/6 defencemen. Happily, following the deal Boucher showed some of the potential that had made him a first round draft pick (just a decade too late!), and he developed into a bona fide top-four blueliner. Yay!

But it's not true that we haven't traded since, Andrew - after literally years of trying, I was finally able to pry Niklas Sundstrom away from you last season. Unfortunately for me, it was well after his NHL performance had reached its apogee and was steadily declining back to earth, so I got less player than I would have had we been able to strike a deal when I first approached you. Seem to recall I still paid a fair bit in assets to acquire him, though. Now he's an expensive 4th-liner with no intensity for my Jackets... but I still like him.

 

[Pandastyle]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Sundstrom deal....I was a big fan of his too, and I didn't want to give him up.

I think that's the deal in which I got Vladimir Orszagh...

 

[HFNHL Red Wings]

Such a tough thread given that in hindsight most of my trades have been either very good or very bad with little in between.

Biggest:
Skipping this one as most of those were in my first year (2000-2001 season) when I really turned my team upside down. Federov and Yzerman moved out in those seasons for packages of players/prospects and I can't remember the exact details of the players and teams involved. What I do know was that most of the so called "can't miss" prospects coming back in those deals turned out to be misses

Best Deals:
Best Deal was probably the first deal I made at the 2000 draft (had only been in the league a few weeks).

To Chicago: Darren McCarthy
To Detroit: Prospect Mike Van Ryn, CHI 2000 1st round pick (picked Brad Boyes), and Kevyn Adams

Ironically that deal set the table for one of my worst deals. Having traded McCarthy I had two open RW spots and I sent my DET 2000 1st round pick to somebody for a former quality but declining RW (for the life of me I can't remember who but he never had a decent season again) plus Adam Mair and a 5th rounder.

Honorable mention goes to a deal with Anaheim. Tomas Holmstrom was traded to Anaheim for prospects Ramzi Abid and Trent Hunter. It was a win-win in that Holmstrom provided reasonable usability to Anaheim for years whereas Hunter and Abid both took time to develop with the jury still being out on Abid. Regardless I like the deal.

Worst Deal:
Definitely the trading of Pavel Datsyuk.
I had him on my prospects list for about 2 years while he was still an unknown and generally nobody (including HF) really gave him much of a chance other than the old Calgary GM Martin Locher and myself so I held onto him. When he broke out on the NHL scene frankly I thought the pendulum had swung the other way (ie he was being over hyped) and figured this was the best time to trade him. In the end I sent him to Calgary (a different GM had replaced Locher by then) for Jan Hlavac who had just had a career year w/ the Rangers and a reasonable prospect in Brad Tapper, plus a pick.
Obviously in the end Datsyuk lived up to the hype while the the players I received went south on me fast.

BTW Claudio if those deals you did with me are one's you consider your worst than kudos to you b/c I still think they were fairly balanced deals. I always liked Gerber and didn't want to give him up while in the Walz deal I think a 3rd and 5th are quite good for a pending UFA that is only a 70OV. Geez I wish I could list those sort of deals as my worst