Biggest "Almost" Deals Through History?

Normand Lacombe

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The Leafs circled a Lindros deal a number of times. Along with this, they had worked on a deal at the end of his Flyers tenure. I don't remember the specifics unfortunately, so I'm not sure who backed out. I believe the Leafs had been allowed to talk to Lindros, and I think Antropov may have been part of the deal. I know Sundin wasn't involved. One wonders how Toronto would have done if they could roll out those two horses back to back during the playoffs.

From what I recall, Clarke wouldn’t do a trade unless Thomas Kaberle was part of Toronto’s package. The Leafs considered Kaberle untouchable and refused to discuss a trade involving him. Lindros was eventually dealt to the Rangers.
 
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Normand Lacombe

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Here is a news report of why the trade never happened.



Thanks. Now I do remember the trade was nearly final and Quinn and Clarke ripping each other. In hindsight, wonder how that trade would have worked out for both teams? Would Antropov have reached close to his potential in Philadelphia? Wasn't he considered an underachiever in Toronto? Justin Williams maybe doesn't get traded to Carolina for Markov in 2004 since Markov would have already been a Flyer.

From Toronto's perspective, Lindros wouldn't have been the same dominating force. Nonetheless, maybe Lindros has a career rejuvenation in his hometown and posts 80-90 points for a few years on a team that played an uptempo style in the dead puck era.
 
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LeafsNation75

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Thanks. Now I do remember the trade was nearly final and Quinn and Clarke ripping each other. In hindsight, wonder how that trade would have worked out for both teams? Would Antropov have reached close to his potential in Philadelphia? Wasn't he considered an underachiever in Toronto? Justin Williams maybe doesn't get traded to Carolina for Markov in 2004 since Markov would have already been a Flyer.

From Toronto's perspective, Lindros wouldn't have been the same dominating force. Nonetheless, maybe Lindros has a career rejuvenation in his hometown and posts 80-90 points for a few years on a team that played an uptempo style in the dead puck era.
Danny Markov was supposed to be included in the trade for Lindros so the Flyers would still have ended up with him.

As for Lindros himself I think he would have been better and maybe healthier compared to the 33 games he played with the Leafs during the 2005-2006 season after they signed him as a UFA, because his season ended early due to injury.
 
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LeafsNation75

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Thanks. Now I do remember the trade was nearly final and Quinn and Clarke ripping each other. In hindsight, wonder how that trade would have worked out for both teams? Would Antropov have reached close to his potential in Philadelphia? Wasn't he considered an underachiever in Toronto? Justin Williams maybe doesn't get traded to Carolina for Markov in 2004 since Markov would have already been a Flyer.

From Toronto's perspective, Lindros wouldn't have been the same dominating force. Nonetheless, maybe Lindros has a career rejuvenation in his hometown and posts 80-90 points for a few years on a team that played an uptempo style in the dead puck era.
I forgot to mention about Antropov I remember going to the Raptors/76ers playoff game in Toronto a few days after the Leafs were eliminated by the Devils in the playoffs. Anyway I bring that up since Antropov happened to be at that game and he was shown on the video screen above centre court and the fans started to boo him. I can't remember if they held him responsible for why the Leafs were eliminated or he happened to be there at the wrong time and it was frustration taken out on him.
 
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Spirit of McMullen

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Lou Lamoriello supposedly coveted Vincent Lecavalier and perhaps to trade for him during the 2001-2002 season. Devils & Lou were one of the many teams/GMs involved in Lecavalier trade rumors.

Rumor went past the usual Post & Daily News tabloids and was actually written about in the New York Times. Bobby Holik publicly said he didn't want to be a part of a trade as he was insisting on testing free agency in the off season. He would of course go on to sign that crazy 5-year/$45 million contract with the NYR that summer.

Article says the Lighting were interested in Jason Arnott, Scott Gomez, John Madden and Colin White in any deal

Lou ended up trading Jason Arnott for Joe Nieuwendyk at that season's trade deadline.


Sports of The Times; Jordan Béliveau Whispers Heard in Tampa
 

Ziggy Stardust

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Brett Hull was constantly discussed as a player the Kings had coveted to play with Gretzky, until Gretzky was dealt to St. Louis.

Apparently talks had gotten serious, but the Kings backed out when the Blues asked for Rob Blake.

Talks Broken Off on 'Dream' Trade of Sending Hull to Kings
The Kings have had trade talks about acquiring Brett Hull from the St. Louis Blues, Kings General Manager Sam McMaster acknowledged Monday, but he said those discussions have "reached an impasse."

"We haven't been able to agree on who we would give up," McMaster said. "There've been discussions since the draft but we've gotten nowhere. . . . There are no discussions right now."

Hull, who has led the NHL in goal-scoring three times, said recently that he would like a chance to play with Wayne Gretzky.

"That's my dream," Hull said.

The Blues would reportedly want King defenseman Rob Blake to be part of any deal.
 

Brodeur

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Brett Hull was constantly discussed as a player the Kings had coveted to play with Gretzky, until Gretzky was dealt to St. Louis.

Apparently talks had gotten serious, but the Kings backed out when the Blues asked for Rob Blake.

Talks Broken Off on 'Dream' Trade of Sending Hull to Kings

Blades' Coach a Real Son of a Gun : Roller Hockey: Bobby Hull Jr., who took the helm of the Los Angeles team this year, knows all about famous relatives.

For some reason that reminded me that Bobby Hull Jr. was coaching the Los Angeles Blades of the Roller Hockey International league at the same time.

Lou ended up trading Jason Arnott for Joe Nieuwendyk at that season's trade deadline.

It was interesting to read some articles from 1995 where the Devils wanted Nieuwendyk and were allegedly dangling Bill Guerin to Calgary. Eventually Guerin was dealt to Edmonton to get Arnott, and later Arnott for Nieuwendyk (and Langenbrunner).
 
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brachyrynchos

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Larry Brooks (NY Post 1/26/19) reported an almost deal between the Rangers and Edmonton at the 2016 Draft. The deal centered around Ryan McDonagh and the Oilers' 1st rd pick (4th overall). Rangers were said to be interested in drafting Clayton Keller. Edmonton later went on to make the Larsson-Hall trade.NY also had discussions with Colorado involving McDonagh and MacKinnon and/or Landeskog.
 

Lil Sebastian Cossa

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That's interesting. If that a**h*** Pocklington had told Sather that he was thinking of selling Gretzky as a piece of meat the following year, Sather might have traded Coffey for Oates, Probert, and whomever, and Edmonton would have been strong at center a year later (Oates with Kurri and Tikkanen, or Simpson, would have been lights out).

Yeah, Pocklington was a stupid piece of shit. He and Sather had the highest value asset in the history of the league and he essentially took it to one team and revived an offer that was made three years previously.
 

JianYang

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Corson and Claude Lemieux for Lafontaine was almost a deal apparently.

I never heard of this before. I wonder if there is anything out there supporting this.

Corson and lemieux were both eventually traded in the early 90s by the habs, so it makes some sense. Both these guys had some issues. Claude lemieux was not well like by some teammates, I think..... And corson had some off ice issues.

I would have taken the turgeon deal, as the isles did over this. These are two very different deals though.
 

Habsfan18

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Not sure how close it was to getting done, but there was a lot of noise involving Rick Tocchet to Detroit in late January 1992, about a month before the eventual Tocchet for Recchi blockbuster with Pittsburgh. Some possible names mentioned were Jimmy Carson, Gerard Gallant and Shawn Burr and prospects such as Keith Primeau, Mike Sillinger and Martin Lapointe.

From the January 22nd edition of The Philadelphia Daily News:

02B8E51F-0E28-489C-BAB8-68B86B28E84D.jpeg


Here was a piece in the following day’s edition of Philadelphia Daily News:

Tocchet to Detroit? - Newspapers.com

And here the rumour was mentioned in the January 23rd edition of The Daily Journal in New Jersey:

1A1E464F-ED44-4B62-A437-266739E245A1.jpeg
 
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Habsfan18

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Some interesting rumors in 1990, from Gregg Drinnan’s “Taking Note” column in The Leader-Post out of Regina:

Montreal trades Shayne Corson, Petr Svoboda and Mathieu Schneider to Los Angeles for Luc Robitaille and Steve Duchesne

Washington trades Dino Ciccarelli to Boston for Craig Janney

Quebec trades Tony Hrkac, Claude Loiselle and Paul Gillis to Vancouver for Doug Lidster, Jim Sandlak, and a 2nd round pick.

No idea what the sources where and if they were actually legitimate rumors.
 

crobro

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Not sure if it's been mentioned but in the early 80s, according to the Lions of Winter book, there was talk of a Guy Lafleur/Gilbert Perreault blockbuster.

what I recall was Edmonton really tried trading for Guy Lafleur but Savard nixed it for personal reasons

at or around the same time there was a Perrault for a Glenn Anderson rumour

seems Sather really wanted to reunite the 1981 Canada cup line
 

Brodeur

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I stumbled on Nikolai Khabibulin's hockeydb page recently and I had totally forgotten that he held out for all of 1999-00 and most of 2000-01 due to a contract dispute with Phoenix. I remembered the NY Post reporting that there was a blockbuster deal between the Coyotes/Rangers which fell apart due to Theo Fleury's ongoing substance abuse problems: https://nypost.com/2001/03/02/rangers-missed-out-on-blockbuster-deal/

While Theo Fleury tends to getting well, the Rangers are left to contend with the ramifications of their pending trade with the Coyotes having been nullified by the winger’s re-entry into the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse program.

The Post reported yesterday that Glen Sather and Wayne Gretzky had been on the verge of asking Fleury to waive his no-trade clause in order that he be included in a deal for Nikolai Khabibulin and Keith Tkachuk. It is believed that in exchange for his agreement, Fleury’s 2002-2003 club option year for $7 million – he’s due $6.5M next season – would have been guaranteed, with the Rangers assuming at least half the sum of the remainder of his contract.

Now, The Post has learned from two well-placed sources that the since-cancelled deal was to have involved seven players, with Fleury, Pavel Brendl, Mike York and Kim Johnsson ticketed for Phoenix in exchange for goaltender Khabibulin, power-winger Tkachuk and checking center Travis Green, who will be owed a $1.8M qualifier on July 1 and whom the Blueshirts would have accepted to accommodate Phoenix’ fiscal needs.

We’re told that Sather phoned Coyote GM Cliff Fletcher to tell him the deal was no longer possible almost immediately upon learning of Fleury’s placement into rehab. It’s actually the second time this year Sather thought he had a deal for Khabibulin and Tkachuk only to see it nullified. In October, Sather’s attempt to deal with then-Phoenix GM Bobby Smith and send Brendl, Fleury, Jamie Lundmark and Mike Richter to the desert was vetoed by Gary Bettman when Gretzky, not yet in power, voiced his objections.

That article was from March 2, 2001. Khabibulin and Tkachuk would be dealt separately soon after:

- March 5, 2001: Khabibulin and Stanislav Neckar to Tampa for Paul Mara, Mike Johnson, Ruslan Zainullin, and a 2001 2nd round pick (Matthew Spiller)
- March 13, 2001: Tkachuk to St. Louis for Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Jeff Taffe, and a 2002 1st round pick (Ben Eager)

Khabibulin would backstop Tampa to the 2004 Cup. Tkachuk had a bunch of good years in St. Louis. The Rangers would use those assets to get Eric Lindros and Tom Poti.



And I always associate Paul Mara with being the defender on Ovechkin's famous falling goal. In a parallel world where the Rangers get Tkachuk/Khabibulin, it's a different Coyote defender against Ovechkin and maybe that sequence doesn't happen.
 

Cyclones21

Easily Triggered
I am sorry I looked for a link but it died. If you guys listen to the Hockey News podcast with Mike Keenan, he confirms that he asked Denis Potvin to join the 93-94 Rangers.

I think Islanders and Ranger fans would agree on how odd this would be, it would be like someone telling me that Bryan Trottier would coach the Rangers one day. Anyway, I apologize if this was mentioned. I tried to skim through and I saw that when anyone mentioned the Carolina/Federov offer sheet, they were flamed.

Yesterday, Stan Fischler, sent out a bunch of tweets saying that in 1994 the Rangers offered former Islanders captain Denis Potvin a contract.

Fischler’s tweets were:

Thanks to pal Phil Czochanski, we have the “inside” on Potvin nearly becoming a Ranger. Phil got it straight from Denis. It happened in 1994
Phil says,”Denis had been retired for 5 seasons” when Rangers made the offer: “They offered him a $5 mil bonus for a Cup win; and $2 mil for the rest of that season and $5 mil for the following season.”
Phil, who worked with Denis on Panthers telecasts asked Potvin why he turned down the Rangers offer. “Denis told me that he was flattered,” says Phil, “but worried about injuries, not being on top of his game.
“Denis wondered about the reception he’d get from Rangers fans in his first game at MSG; and his reception from Isles fans at Nassau….
“Potvin rejected the offer because he was happy with his life at that point. He was flattered but politely declined.” Still, hard to imagine
According to George Vescey in the New York Times, Mike Keenan was unhappy with his team prior to the 1994 trade deadline and made a comment saying that he wished he had Denis Potvin on his team. Potvin retired after the 1987-88 season and was a broadcaster with the Panthers at the time.

Vescey writes “Potvin was flattered. Potvin was also smart. He said thanks but no thanks. The damage, however, was done. The players and the fans could see that Mike Keenan was so uncomfortable with his team that he would banter the name of the suave, slap shot-firing, ankle-snapping, hope-breaking symbol of that half-a-century-plus of frustration.”
 

Soundgarden

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I stumbled on Nikolai Khabibulin's hockeydb page recently and I had totally forgotten that he held out for all of 1999-00 and most of 2000-01 due to a contract dispute with Phoenix. I remembered the NY Post reporting that there was a blockbuster deal between the Coyotes/Rangers which fell apart due to Theo Fleury's ongoing substance abuse problems: https://nypost.com/2001/03/02/rangers-missed-out-on-blockbuster-deal/



That article was from March 2, 2001. Khabibulin and Tkachuk would be dealt separately soon after:

- March 5, 2001: Khabibulin and Stanislav Neckar to Tampa for Paul Mara, Mike Johnson, Ruslan Zainullin, and a 2001 2nd round pick (Matthew Spiller)
- March 13, 2001: Tkachuk to St. Louis for Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Jeff Taffe, and a 2002 1st round pick (Ben Eager)

Khabibulin would backstop Tampa to the 2004 Cup. Tkachuk had a bunch of good years in St. Louis. The Rangers would use those assets to get Eric Lindros and Tom Poti.

I know there were multiple factors in play but having Khabibulin, Tkachuk and Roenick at or around their primes in those early years could have really helped stabilize the team in the area, losing them all so close together and not replacing them really set them back.
 

Brodeur

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With the 20th anniversary of the 2000 Cup coming up in a couple days, I was reliving some of those memories with old videos and articles from the time. I found a couple of interesting rumored deals, not sure how close they were to being completed but interesting since I either forgot or was just unaware at the time. Although even back then, NYPost rumors weren't particularly reliable.

February 1999: Mark Messier to the Devils? - Devils Won't Trade For Messier

Quoting unidentified sources, the Post said the Canucks probably would get centers Denis Pederson and Brendan Morrison plus a second-round draft pick for Messier, a 22-year NHL veteran who recently appeared in his 14th All-Star game.

Messier, who has a no-trade clause, is in the final guaranteed year of his deal, with the Canucks having the option to either re-sign him to two more years for $12 million, or buy out the remainder of the contract for $2 million.

March 1999: Devils fall short on acquiring Vincent Damphousse and Boris Mironov - https://nypost.com/1999/03/21/did-anyone-say-deal-devils-sleepwalk-as-rumors-swirl/

Although he narrowly escaped a change of scenery to Edmonton yesterday, defenseman Sheldon Souray may now be headed to Montreal in a deal for rent-a-players Vincent Damphousse and Stephane Quintal.

Damphousse would instead be traded to San Jose for 1st, 2nd, and 5th round picks. Another article from the Post mentions that the Devils had interest in Vladimir Malahkov as well. So it's interesting to think that the Malakhov for Souray deal might have been talked about for a full year in advance of it actually happening in March 2000.

It is believed the Devils were about to obtain Mironov yesterday for a package of three players, probably including Souray, Denis Pederson and a prospect, and that Chicago struck while more than a half-dozen teams were being given a last chance to raise their bid before the hammer fell.

Mironov was in the midst of back-to-back 40+ point campaigns. Lyle Odelein was the only RHD on the roster at the time, so Mironov would have made sense for us. We'd sign Brian Rafalski as an undrafted free agent in the following summer.

January 2000: Alexei Yashin to Devils? - https://nypost.com/2000/01/27/with-boss-bucks-on-horizon-devils-become-major-players-for-yashin/

The deal being rumored, and categorically denied by straight-shooter Johnston, claims the Devils would send Brendan Morrison, Denis Pederson and Sheldon Souray, probably along with a draft pick, to the Senators for Yashin, who has held out all season in an attempt to renegotiate his contract.

February 2000: Messier to Devils again? - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/messier-going-1.226064

The New York Post says the New Jersey Devils are offering young forwards Brendan Morrison and Denis Pederson, plus a high draft pick in return.

But if Messier is headed to the Devils, Canucks General Manager Brian Burke says it's news to him.

Burke says he hasn't talked to the Devils about the 39-year-old Messier.

A month later, Morrison/Pederson would be traded to Vancouver but instead for Alexander Mogilny.
 

LeafsNation75

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Jan 15, 2010
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Leafs balked at trading for Pronger in 2003.

Why the Maple Leafs abandoned Chris Pronger trade talks - Sportsnet.ca

Would've got Steen/Kaberle a future 1st back.
Toronto balked at trading for Pronger right before he was traded to Anaheim because JFJ didn't want to give up Alex Steen, so it wasn't in 2003.

Pronger was on Spitten Chiclets and said the Leafs offered Matt Stajan, Tomas Kaberle and 2 first round picks. However the Oilers wanted Steen instead of Stajan.



Plus in 2003 Pat Quinn was the Leafs GM when he traded 2 picks for Phil Housley, so it wasn't JFJ as Gord Stellick says in the Sportsnet link you posted.
 
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brachyrynchos

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Before taking Vancouver's offer, Messier was courted by a few teams.
The Rangers offered a 1yr/$4M deal which left Messier a bit insulted. Detroit was rumored to be one of the teams interested, offering a 3yr/$15M deal.
Messier met with the Capitals who made him the most lucrative offer..3yrs/$21M.
Other teams said to be interested in Messier were the Isles, Chicago, Edmonton, and Montreal. Habs Vice President Bernard Brisset: "we're considering making an offer and right now we are analyzing the whole thing. Obviously, this would not be a small contract. ..."

NY Times 6/24/97 Frank Litsky 'In Competition for Messier the Rangers raise their offer'.
NY Times 7/31/97 James Diamos 'In signing Messier, Canucks' paid off'.
 

crobro

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The Canucks were offered Jeremy Roenick and Quebec offered Joe Sakic in 2 potential deadline trades in 89-90

the Canucks held onto Trevor Linden unfortunetly
 

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