Trades that almost happened but fell down

albertGQ

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Jul 1, 2005
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When the Flames traded Nieuwendyk to the Stars, they origionally wanted Todd Harvey, but the Stars would not budge. So the Flames had to "settle" for some unproven kid named Jarome Iginla
 

kootenayfan

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Not sure of all the details, but Pat Quinn had a deal in place to bring Gretzky to Vancouver just before he went to LA..maybe someone else can remember?
 

Rather Gingerly 1*

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Not sure of all the details, but Pat Quinn had a deal in place to bring Gretzky to Vancouver just before he went to LA..maybe someone else can remember?

I doubt Edmonton would trade him to a rival like Vancouver. Canucks tried to sign Gretzky when he was a UFA in '96. That is probably what you are thinking of
 

CrazyCanucks

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I doubt Edmonton would trade him to a rival like Vancouver. Canucks tried to sign Gretzky when he was a UFA in '96. That is probably what you are thinking of

Why wouldn't they try to trade him to a rival? I think a team in the Smythe did get him in the end, named the Kings
Actually The Nucks, and the Kings were in the running for Gretzky, as were the Jets in 88
 

blamebettman*

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Calgary almost traded Hull to Buffalo in 87-88, Buffalo didn't want to part with Ray Sheppard though who calgary demanded be put into the package. forget the other players involved
 
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Avs had a deal on the table with Boston to acquire McLaren and Lapointe. the Avs would have traded Tanguay and Skoula for the two from Boston, however Boston demands Vrbata over Tanguay. The Avs are still high on Vrbata and nix the trade. Later that season they trade Vrbata for Battaglia.

Would have given Colorado quite the blueline. A healthy Morris, McLaren, Blake, Foote, that's a very good top 4.
 

12# Peter Bondra

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Avs had a deal on the table with Boston to acquire McLaren and Lapointe. the Avs would have traded Tanguay and Skoula for the two from Boston, however Boston demands Vrbata over Tanguay. The Avs are still high on Vrbata and nix the trade. Later that season they trade Vrbata for Battaglia.

Would have given Colorado quite the blueline. A healthy Morris, McLaren, Blake, Foote, that's a very good top 4.
In retrospect that would have been a good trade but we wouldnt have gotten Kono for Battaglia.
 

Burnside_1

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Avs had a deal on the table with Boston to acquire McLaren and Lapointe. the Avs would have traded Tanguay and Skoula for the two from Boston, however Boston demands Vrbata over Tanguay. The Avs are still high on Vrbata and nix the trade. Later that season they trade Vrbata for Battaglia.

Would have given Colorado quite the blueline. A healthy Morris, McLaren, Blake, Foote, that's a very good top 4.

It's weird they offered Tanguay to boston, because I know that Lacroix Offered him along with Aebisher for Theo the summer after the lock-out.
 

Matty Sundin

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Jul 18, 2006
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Didn't Lecavalier almost end up in Toronto a couple years ago. I think the deal was Kaberle + 1st round slection in 2002(Which of would of been Steen) and someone else.
 

MiamiScreamingEagles

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Not sure of all the details, but Pat Quinn had a deal in place to bring Gretzky to Vancouver just before he went to LA..maybe someone else can remember?

Here is an article that mentions it in brief:

http://www.canoe.ca/Gretzky/gretzky_janet_speaks.html

The following story is how it really happened, said Janet Jones.
"The day after the Stanley Cup, Pocklington told Wayne about an offer from Vancouver. Nelson Skalbania called. Wayne said to Pocklington, `I can't believe you coming up to me with this the day after we won the Cup.'
"It was obvious Peter did not have Wayne's backing and he backed out of the Vancouver deal.
"Before the wedding, Wayne had heard to many rumors about being traded and sold - Vancouver, Detroit, Los Angeles. He was hearing them from everywhere. `I brought my car to Edmonton and we had every intention of living the rest of our lives in Edmonton...'
 

TomWaits

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Feb 27, 2002
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Glen Sather mentioned about having a deal in place to trade Paul Coffey to Buffalo in the early 80's for an older washed up defensemen but Coffey went out and scored two goals that night and the deal was nixed.
 
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Rather Gingerly 1*

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Here is an article that mentions it in brief:

http://www.canoe.ca/Gretzky/gretzky_janet_speaks.html

The following story is how it really happened, said Janet Jones.
"The day after the Stanley Cup, Pocklington told Wayne about an offer from Vancouver. Nelson Skalbania called. Wayne said to Pocklington, `I can't believe you coming up to me with this the day after we won the Cup.'
"It was obvious Peter did not have Wayne's backing and he backed out of the Vancouver deal.
"Before the wedding, Wayne had heard to many rumors about being traded and sold - Vancouver, Detroit, Los Angeles. He was hearing them from everywhere. `I brought my car to Edmonton and we had every intention of living the rest of our lives in Edmonton...'


Edmonton would never have traded Gret to Vancouver
 

Fish on The Sand

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The original Patrick Roy trade was supposed to bring Owen Nolan in Montreal and involve some other guys I don't remember.

By the way, all that's left from that trade was Niklas Sundstrom and he left.

actually, Matthieu Biron can be linked to that trade. That is if you count Traverse's minor league stint. Alexei Yemelin is also a result of that trade. The trade that brought Sundstrom to habland was Hacket for Sundstrom and a 3rd(2004). That 3rd turned into Yemelin. The Thibeault trade brought Weinrich and Hacket to town, and Weinrich was shipped for Traverse. Who later left for nothing, but was brought back and then turned into Biron. So Montreal traded Patrick Roy and Mike Keane for Alexei Yemelin and Matthieu Biron.
 
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Fish on The Sand

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Speaking of Bure, another Habs deal was Bure and Hedican for Recchi and Malakhov in 1999 but Brian Burke wanted Koivu, which killed the deal.

Other Canadiens centered ones included Pat Lafontaine for Shayne Corson and Claude Lemieux back in the late 80s as well as Yzerman for Mathieu Schneider and others around '94.

Probably the best thing Houle ever did as a gm.
 

Kimi

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Jun 24, 2004
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I am a huge, huge Gretzky fan (so not slaggin him) but did he not orchestrate his trade to L.A., was it not at least partially his idea ?
From what I know, there were deals on the table from a few teams the the GM would take in move him. They asked #99 where he'd like to go, and it was between LA and Detroit. He picked the Kings.
 

kmad

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Jun 16, 2003
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Not sure of all the details, but Pat Quinn had a deal in place to bring Gretzky to Vancouver just before he went to LA..maybe someone else can remember?

I think that was in 1996 as a free agent... there's no way Vancouver had the assets in 1988 to trade for Gretzky.

Vancouver and New York were both trying to sign Gretzky. He was actually leaning towards Vancouver, but then Quinn phoned Gretzky at 3AM and that turned him off. He signed with New York soon after. Vancouver signed Messier away from New York in retaliation... and that turned out great.
 

mrhockey193195

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Nov 14, 2006
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One that I remember was right before Palffy was traded to LA (and this was when he was a legitimate superstar, top 10 offensive player in the league), the anchors on sportscenter ended their show by saying "and we have recieved reports that the NY rangers have traded for Ziggy Palffy, shipping Todd Harvey and Nicklas Sundstrom to the islanders"

I was so excited, as a ranger fan, only to figure out 5 days later that it went down the shoot.
 

Muttley*

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From what I know, there were deals on the table from a few teams the the GM would take in move him. They asked #99 where he'd like to go, and it was between LA and Detroit. He picked the Kings.

Janet Jones-Gretzky's minor acting career was big a part of the reason why Wayne had chosen to play and live in LA.
 

The_Human_Atombomb

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One that I remember was right before Palffy was traded to LA (and this was when he was a legitimate superstar, top 10 offensive player in the league), the anchors on sportscenter ended their show by saying "and we have recieved reports that the NY rangers have traded for Ziggy Palffy, shipping Todd Harvey and Nicklas Sundstrom to the islanders"

I was so excited, as a ranger fan, only to figure out 5 days later that it went down the shoot.

I remember hearing about this deal. Wasn't it nixed by the NHL because the main asset going to the Isles was a large sum of money?
 

Badger Bob

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Other Canadiens centered ones included Pat Lafontaine for Shayne Corson and Claude Lemieux back in the late 80s

For some reason or others, the Islanders were bound and determined to move Lafontaine. If you search around enough, there had to have been at least a half dozen rumors involving Patty. One was (not sure if it was one-for-one or package) of Lafontaine to Calgary for Joe Nieuwendyk.

as well as Yzerman for Mathieu Schneider and others around '94.

Massive hose job to Detroit on that one.

Some others:

Marc Savard from Calgary to Detroit for Mathieu Dandenault.

Oleg Saprykin to Toronto for Nik Antropov. Antropov got hurt and the deal was scotched.

Jarrett Stoll was going to Toronto for a 2nd rounder to Calgary, but the fax didn't arrive to league HQ before the deadline. Thus, Stoll re-entered the draft. (Calgary, incidentally, was contemplating drafting him again.)

Just curious as to why this thread isn't on the Trade Rumors board?

When the Flames traded Nieuwendyk to the Stars, they origionally wanted Todd Harvey, but the Stars would not budge. So the Flames had to "settle" for some unproven kid named Jarome Iginla

All true, except Iginla wasn't exactly "unproven." He was, after all, a first (albeit late) round selection.
 

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