Choosing the wrong option

[TOGuy14]

When the Leafs traded for Rask the Bruins wanted either Pogge or Rask.

JFJ thought Pogge was a stud because of the WJHC so he let Rask go...

 

[OldMilIce]

When the Leafs traded for Rask the Bruins wanted either Pogge or Rask.

JFJ thought Pogge was a stud because of the WJHC so he let Rask go...

Sure it looks awful now, but Pogge really did look like a stud coming out of that tournament. Its a shame how it worked out for him at the end of the day. Judging between two prospects is always tough, some of these decisions are trading known stars for spare parts.

 

[Pi]

Biggest loser in Andersen trade was Calgary. He played in their division...how do you not think he was better than Elliott? Did they even attempt to get him?

 

[Canada4Gold]

Keeping Pogge and trading Rask

 

[Canada4Gold]

When the Leafs traded for Rask the Bruins wanted either Pogge or Rask.

JFJ thought Pogge was a stud because of the WJHC so he let Rask go...

The sad part is Rask was just about as good in that tournament and actually was named as the best goalie and the goalie on the tournament all star team(they sometimes differ as different people pick them)

 

[Broad Street Elite]

The Forsberg addition to the Lindros deal will be tough for the Flyers to top, but I will add an Honorable Mention:

Signing Bryz for $51 million instead of going with the previous seasons rookie sensation, Sergei Bobrovsky

 

[Stephen]

When the Leafs traded for Rask the Bruins wanted either Pogge or Rask.

JFJ thought Pogge was a stud because of the WJHC so he let Rask go...

Don't think the Bruins ever wanted Pogge. Heard they wanted Rask because their Finnish/European scout liked Rask having scouted their own guy Toivonen in Finland.

In any case the Leafs were idiotic for not understanding the difference between the two.

 

[Captain Bowie]

Schneider vs. Luongo.

Somehow we chose 'neither'.

 

[chunkylover53]

Biggest loser in Andersen trade was Calgary. He played in their division...how do you not think he was better than Elliott? Did they even attempt to get him?

Toronto offered Pitt's 1st and a mid 2nd. I don't think think they could realistically beat that deal. Elliott had a better year and did not need to be signed immediately so they could see how he did. They never did get to choose between, because Toronto likely offered a deal Calgary couldn't realistically do better.

On topic, the ones that come to mind were pogge over rask, and redden over chara. Oh and Chicago's Bickell over anyone.

 

[redfzn]

In hindsight it was terrible, but there were reasons. Redden was not worse than Character and Character was miffed at the management for the Hussain situation.
Edit: epic autocorrect mistake.

Yooo lmao wtf?

 

[Pyrophorus]

Sure it looks awful now, but Pogge really did look like a stud coming out of that tournament. Its a shame how it worked out for him at the end of the day. Judging between two prospects is always tough, some of these decisions are trading known stars for spare parts.

Some guy was adamant that, at the time, Rask was far superior to Pogge, and every GM knew it.

 

[Rebels57]

The biggest, and probably only, dissapointment in Hextalls era as GM in Philadelphia was one of his first moves; trading Scott Hartnell to Columbus for R.J. Umberger and a 4th round pick.

The only saving grace will be if that 4th round pick, Mikhail Vorobyov, continues his development trajectory to being a potential middle 6 Center down the line. He is currently playing 1C on Russian's U20 WJC team and has 5 assists already heading into todays game wit USA. If he busts, the trade will be looked back on truly awful.

Schneider vs. Luongo.

Somehow we chose 'neither'.

 

[Maukkis]

Schneider vs. Luongo.

Somehow we chose 'neither'.

It's almost a form of art to only have good options and still come out as a loser.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

It's almost a form of art to only have good options and still come out as a loser.

To be fair, you can't really make the wrong decision between the two if you never make the decision to begin with. Just move on from the whole situation and pretend it never happened.

 

[leburn98]

The issue I have with these 'What if?' threads is that no two situations are alike. A Rask developing behind a prime Thomas on a team lead by Zdeno Chara as the Bruins is not the same as developing on the hot mess that was the Leafs.

The same could be said for Seguin and the Kessel trade. Seguin was quite sheltered playing behind the likes of Bergeron and Lucic. The Leafs did not have that same benefit. Also, going from being sheltered on the Bruins (and eventually playing for the Dallas Stars), to Toronto where Seguin would have been declared the new savior of the Leafs are two completely different situations. Would Seguin excel in a hockey hot bed like Toronto, while constantly being thrown in the spotlight? Would he handle the pressure of the media whom has the tendency to overblow every minuscule detail? Let's just say the pressure to play in Dallas is a little different than it is in Toronto . Factor in the difference of personnel, coaching etc. and there is no guarantee that in an alternate world, Seguin on the Leafs would be the PPG player he is now.

As a Leafs fan, these are two trades in particular that many continue to discuss today. The point I'm making (or trying to make) is that there are too many variables to definitively say that X player would be the same player on Y team.

 

[6 Karlsson 5]

Choosing Derrick Pouliot with the 8th overall pick instead of either Filip Forsberg or Jacob Trouba. It's not even a hindsight complaint; Shero made a weird selection even back then.

That is the risk you take if you go off the board ( I don't think DP was that off the board, was he ? ) you either look like a complete dumbass or a complete genius.

 

[Nizdizzle]

With the Leafs management of past years this could end up being a pretty long list but these stand out for me...

- Pogge over Rask as many have said
- Trading Steen/Colaiacivo for Stempniak
- Kessel for what became Seguin/Hamilton
- Letting Stralman walk

 

[alko]

DiPietro and Luongo

Milbury saw a new diamond in the dust, so he offered a real diamond in the hand. Florida won.

 

[Joe Sakic]

Refusing to pay ROR 7.5M a year when he is worth every penny.

Instead we sign Iginla at 5.3M / yr

and

Soderberg at 4.75M / yr

Our core could currently be:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
xxx - ROR - Duchene

Zadorov - EJ
xxx - Barrie

In the pipeline:
Bigras
Jost

 

[BruinsBtn]

Trading Thornton instead of not signing savard to save cap space?

What?

You can't be talking about Joe and Marc here

 

[LarKing]

Refusing to pay ROR 7.5M a year when he is worth every penny.

Instead we sign Iginla at 5.3M / yr

and

Soderberg at 4.75M / yr

Our core could currently be:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
xxx - ROR - Duchene

Zadorov - EJ
xxx - Barrie

In the pipeline:
Bigras
Jost

Except not really because Zadorov was part of the return for the ROR deal, no?

 

[SmellOfVictory]

Most recently for the Flames, waiving Byron while not waiving Bouma or Raymond. Aside from that I can't recall any big issues with keeping the wrong player until we get back to keeping Olli Jokinen over Mike Cammalleri in 09 (or rather, pricing Cammalleri off the team by trading for Jokinen in the first place).

 

[Captain Timo]

Except not really because Zadorov was part of the return for the ROR deal, no?

And the Avs likely wouldn't have been as bad last year, thus Jost likely wouldn't be there either.

 

[Sensinitis]

I still smile whenever I think that Ottawa let Chara go in lieu of Redden. Not only that, but they signed that blundering oaf ( in comparison to Chara) to a massive contract which they eventually unloaded

Man was it ever great to be a Leafs fan in the late 90s - early 2000s. Not only did they beat up on the Sens, but those maroons went and did that!

Talk about a low bar for greatness.

Schneider vs. Luongo.

Somehow we chose 'neither'.

 

[LeafFever]

Redden over Chara.