Big Phil
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2003
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I can't remember but when that trade was made where the Leafs playing where chances are they knew they would be giving up a top 5 pick or not? Plus was Luongo thought to have been a top 5 pick that the Leafs knew what they might be missing out on? The recent example that I know of is when Brian Burke made the Phil Kessel trade and trading those two 1st round picks that turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton, with the difference being that trade was made prior to the 2009-2010 season.
Yeah, I'd compare it to that one too. Kessel is a fine player, but was a terrible fit in Toronto with the pressure of being "the guy". No doubt Hamilton and especially Seguin more than make up for his value.
I would say that with the Islanders in 1996 the Leafs had to have a little more awareness. This was Cliff Fletcher of all people pulling this trigger. I get the feeling there was a lot of emotion in getting Clark back as a fan favourite - and there was - but he was his usual self when he got back, injured, missed a lot of time, etc. and he was let go a couple years later. The Islanders were on a very sharp decline at this point. They were among the worst teams in the NHL in 1995 and were on their way to that in 1996 as well. Not exactly the type of team you want to give up your 1st rounder to since they were bottom feeders. Fletcher should have had some awareness with that.
The problem with this is, if you are praising the Oilers for almost making the semi-final last year, partially on the strength of Adam Larsson shoring up the defense and Milan Lucic adding a veteran presence, you can't turn around and crap on the GM for those moves just because things haven't worked out this season. And we don't have to imagine what Hall and McDavid could do together, it actually did occur. The results were underwhelming.
Well I for one have always thought the Larsson trade was a farce. In fact, I thought it was a joke when I first read it because I couldn't imagine a GM being that incompetent. Plus, keep in mind you had a 45 game sample in 2016, because that is all McDavid played, and he was a rookie. Pretty hard to look and say "Well, we have this all figured out, they don't work." That's a small sample. Even if they didn't work on the same line together can you imagine them on separate lines and the 2nd line support having Hall? Either way, you figure it out because eventually two players that can skate like they can are only an asset. Remember Gretzky and Hull? They played like 30 games together and people thought they had it all figured out. Hull would have been the perfect fit for Gretzky, you just need to let it develop.
The Oilers had a good core when they had Hall and Eberle to go with Leo, McDavid and Nuge. That core wins you a Stanley Cup for sure. Now? With two of them gone it changes things especially when you see how well they are doing outside of Edmonton.