Did they not watch his playoff games in Vancouver?
Can't stink in the playoffs if you don't make the playoffs! But yeah, I can't remember too many Kings fans being excited about that trade.
Couple more off the top of my head: Felix Potvin as an Islander? Vesa Toskala in Toronto? CuJo in Detroit?
Maybe a more minor one, but I stumbled on this Trevor Kidd story while reading up on the 1999-00 season. Kidd was traded to Carolina (J.S. Giguere went to Calgary) and he had a solid first season with the Hurricanes. But in 1998-99, he was outplayed by Arturs Irbe. For the Expansion Draft, Carolina decided to protect Irbe over Kidd. Atlanta chose Kidd and immediately traded him to Florida.
Kidd has a fantastic start to the 1999-00 season with the Panthers. The team decides to shed a little payroll by trading former starter Sean Burke in November 1999 for cheaper goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov.
A few weeks later, Kidd injures his shoulder during a meaningless skills competition that the NHL mandated that teams do in order to promote the upcoming All Star game. Kidd is out least 10 weeks. Florida has some shaky goaltending in the following games and the team goes out and acquires Mike Vernon.
Kidd comes back in late February but struggles and Vernon is the starter for the playoffs. For the 2000 Expansion Draft, Florida protects Kidd and loses Vernon. So it looks like Kidd would start the next season as the starter again.
But then the Islanders decide to draft Rick DiPietro #1 at the 2000 Draft and put Roberto Luongo on the market. Florida gets Luongo who outplays Kidd.
More than likely Kidd's career trajectory would have been the same, but it is interesting to think of the butterfly effect if Kidd hadn't been injured in a skills competition.