Quite shocking:
For those who are too young to remember, the Canucks acquired defenders Kurvers and Gerald Diduck (from TOR and MTL respectively) on the same day during the 1990-91 season. They traded Brian Bradley for Kurvers (Bradley would later break out and become the first offensive star of the Tampa Bay Lightning). Kurvers was the more offensive guy, and Diduck the more defensive.
Kurvers actually put up a lot of points in his partial season with the Canucks (27 points in 32 games) but I sort of remember fans or maybe the team itself not loving him, a proud hockey tradition of dumping on offensive blueliners. After the season, the Canucks, North Stars and Islanders completed a three-way deal that sent Kurvers to the Isles, Craig Ludwig to the North Stars and Dave Babych (whom Minnesota had claimed from Hartford as part of the weird San Jose expansion process) to the Canucks.
Babych and Diduck would then form a partnership that lasted through the 1994 run.
i used to get kurvers mixed up with lidster, and other times with diduck. i think with diduck because diduck used to be an islander and kurvers became one after he left, and lidster because they were our offensive d, along with lumme, who was more noticeable.
for a guy with a ten year career and an all-star game appearance, kurvers was pretty unlucky.
he was a regular on the 1986 habs in the regular season. he was in a cohort of young dmen behind robinson, ludwig, and rick green, with chelios, mike lalor, and 18 year old, didn't speak any english yet petr svoboda. but then when chelios got hurt midyear, they brought up gaston gingras from the minors and when chelios got back, gingras kept his spot and it was kurvers who fell out of the lineup. so gingras and svoboda rotated as the 7th d in the playoffs and kurvers didn't play at all in the cup run.
then, as the expendable guy, he's traded to buffalo at the beginning of the next season, then flipped to new jersey, where he seems to blossom. he was a major part of their '88 run to game seven of the wales finals, then has a really good regular season in '89, but then the numbers game again. the devils got hall of famer fetisov and eventually also kasatonov in the 1990 regular season, and they decide to keep bruce driver and ken danyeko as the core pieces and kurvers gets traded to toronto for a first rounder that infamously almost ended up being lindros and turned out to be scott niedermayer.
then he comes here in a trade for brian bradley, leaves a year later in a three way that gets us babych, and we immediately win the smythe two years in a row, then go to the finals. toronto also becomes good right after he leaves, going to back to back campbell's finals.
and then in new york, he's part of this three-headed offensive d core with jeff norton and uwe krupp. but in 1993, they get three rookies, kasparaitis and scott lachance, the #5 and 4 picks in the last two drafts, and captain of the soviet team vladimir malakhov, with iirc malakhov taking over the PP and rendering kurvers superfluous. he was there for that miracle run to the wales finals, but only as a part time player. (fun fact: kurvers was briefly sent down to the AHL in december of that season, which brought rookie travis green up to the NHL for good.)
then kurvers sticks around the island for another year, goes to anaheim, and that's it for him in the NHL.
that said, a ten year career as a regular NHL dman, with 400 points, an all-star game, a major contribution to a cinderella run, and (probably) a cup ring is no joke. RIP
