Washington Capitals Trade History: Best and Worst Trades of All-Time

Ajax1995

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Dec 9, 2002
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Interference? Turgeon scores, skates to the boards celebrating and Hunter decks him a good 3 seconds after the goal. It was probably the most sore loser thing I’ve ever seen in professional sports.

There is no way you can be intellectually honest and rationalize that.
 
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maacoshark

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Jul 22, 2017
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It must have really burned your britches to see him brought back as a head coach. Somewhere along the way some set an unreal expectation on players, that they all play like saints. Hockey is a violent game and we see a lot of ****ed up stuff happen. Jugs cut with skates, cross checks in the face, spears to the nuts, pucks to the face, dangling fingers, teeth on the ice, you name it we have seen it. My first game in person saw Tiger Williams crosscheck and break his stick on the back of Randy Holts neck.

I suspect PT had a separated shoulder previously and Dale just popped it out again. Call it the Eric Fehr Factor. We have seen unsuspecting players get demolished which are called a deuce for interference, pretty much every year. Some get even away with it #Steckel. I know, how bare I bring up his name.

I bare, because I am a nudist.
I remember seeing Tiger play in junior. He was a maniac then too. Remember one game he ended up in the stands fighting.
 

maacoshark

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Jul 22, 2017
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Lighten up. I'm not the one getting wound up.
 

maacoshark

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Jul 22, 2017
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Another Cap’s player maacoshark dislikes? Shocking. Best Captain this franchise ever had.
So what if I dislike him. I disliked him before he played here. And like I said he grew on me until the Turgeon incident. I can't believe people defend Hunter on that play. He turned over the puck to Turgeon who then scored and well after the goal Hunter took him out. How do you defend his action.
BTW there were other Caps I didnt care for either. I didnt like Mike Ribeiro at all.
 

Chokingdogs

Registered User
Apr 18, 2006
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Best -
Langway
Hunter
Dino

All were watershed moment trades, each one made the team that much better, and added a piece ( or pieces) of something that they were sorely lacking prior to. What was given up in them, regardless of what they did after ( I'm looking squarely at the Murphy sniffers here ), is irrelevant.

Honorable mention to the Ridley/Miller and Calle ones.

The Hunter hate is befuddling, the guy was a warrior, brought it every night. Yes, he crossed the line, but he was weaned on the NHL in a different era and time. As time has passed since then, combined with sweeping changes to the rules, penalties, and officiating of the game as it currently stands.....he seems to have become even more villainous. In the eyes of some at least.
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
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It doesn't matter when you were "weaned" on the NHL, what he did was egregiously dirty. There was no point in NHL history where taking a cheap shot at a player like that when play wasn't even going on was acceptable. It was one of the ultimate dirtbag moves in NHL history. He deserves to be a villain for that. Overlooking it because he was a warrior in our color sweaters is blatant homerism.
 
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Chokingdogs

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Apr 18, 2006
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Dave Brown's X check to Sandstroms neck/jaw and Mcsorley's two hander to Brashear's melon were exponentially worse than Hunter's shove to Turdgeon. Hell, Dale's leaping elbow to Gord Murphy's head, stapling it to the glass scrambling his brain, was way worse and yet I never see that get mentioned.

It does Matter when a player played, and how they played, to ignore that is shortsighted and naive. I used to grin when Stewart or Koharksi were reffing because I knew what was going to happen, the same cannot be said now because the game has changed.

Dale Hunter wouldn't, couldn't, play in the NHL currently or the past 10 to 15 years. OTOH, Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin could, but if they played 30 years ago, the way they do now, they'd be getting their faces routinely caved in, especially Malkin.

If one chooses to dislike Hunter that's their choice, but like him or not, it doesn't change the fact his addition to the team was way more beneficial than it was a detriment.
 

CapitalsCupReality

It’s Go Time!!
Feb 27, 2002
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I’m happy Hunter is the villain for it. Get off your high horse.

Skill-wise, Hunter absolutely could be a middle-6 forward today, but he could never do the level of dirty stuff that was more common 30 years ago. if not for a few episodes, probably a HOF’er.
 

Chokingdogs

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Apr 18, 2006
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I’m happy Hunter is the villain for it. Get off your high horse.

Skill-wise, Hunter absolutely could be a middle-6 forward today, but he could never do the level of dirty stuff that was more common 30 years ago. if not for a few episodes, probably a HOF’er.

That's kinda what meant, probably should have worded it better. If he played today, like he did in 1988, he wouldn't last very long, the DOPS would make sure of that....lol

Broad brush stroke here - Hunter was sandpaper wrapped C4 dropped into a bunch of Ken dolls, and as a result some of those Ken dolls turned into GI Joes.

Another solid trade I kinda forgot about was Tinordi. Getting him for that purse swinging Hatcher was a steal.
 
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RandyHolt

Keep truckin'
Nov 3, 2006
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Dale is a legend. Blowing a fuse and throwing a shoulder check at an unknowing player mid goal celebration doesn't change who he was. Which was a playoff warrior that finally got us out of the division. That warrior side I mention, includes an impressive playoff OT goal resume. That's what separates him from the rest of the villains. He was a big game player and his drive to do well in big games was so extreme, that failure is what likely drove him to do what he did.

That, or he really hated Pierre for some reason.
 
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marcel snapshot

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Dale's post-goal poleaxing of Turgeon was totally inexcusable and he was severely punished for it, as he should have been. Two things about it: first, the Turgeon goal made it 5-1, and if I remember correctly (and apparently I do Flyers History - Philadelphia Flyer Game Summary ) the Caps scored two goals to close the gap to 5-3 with like 4 minutes to play. So there's that.

Second, the incident - however reprehensible - underscored just how psychotically competitive Dale was, and how much he f***ing despised losing. It's an ingredient our guys could use an injection of come April and May.
 

brachyrynchos

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Apr 10, 2017
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Agreed, and even in that era (32 games!) Dale was punished.

He was the grit the team needed!
The unfortunate thing too, is that in that 6 game series, Hunter led the team in goals (7) and points (8). Him and Iafrate (6 goals) were pretty much the only guys that scored that series.
What he did to Turgeon was totally uncalled for, but to hold that against him would mean dismissing his 29 game winning goals as a Capital, it would mean forgetting about the 72 playoff points in 99 games w/WSH, the leadership, grit, and how he elevated expectations fo this team. He served his time being suspended. Should the limo players still be held accountable? Did anyone question bringing in Dino when as a North Star he slashed Luke Richardson (actually leading to police and judges) ? How about the other players this organization has had, (Simon, Brashear, Cooke, to name a few)? People make mistakes, I sure have, we all have.
As for the pick itself, it's the cost of getting good players, which we did. Quebec could very well have selected Bryan Marchment or Jody Hull, but that shouldn't really matter, that pick was no longer ours. The trading/acquiring of picks don't always work out (Dafoe + Khristich to LA for 4th overall- Volchkov), sometimes it does, like Eminger +3rd (0 NHL games) for 27th overall for John Carlson, ask Flyer fans if they'd like that one back.
 

marcel snapshot

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OTOH, Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin could, but if they played 30 years ago, the way they do now, they'd be getting their faces routinely caved in, especially Malkin.

Imagine Malkin doing his slew-foot and knee-on-knee crap in a league with guys like Brian Marchment, Dave Manson (nicknamed, of course, Charlie), Dale, Tiger Williams, Bobby Clarke and their ilk.
 
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Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
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I don't recall Brashear as dirty. He was a fighter and enforcer, but he generally played clean. The only big mix-up he was involved in was Marty McSorley tried to kill Brashear with his stick. Are there incidents with Brash that I'm not aware of or have forgotten?

Cooke was a punk, even as a Capital. He basically ruined Vinny Lecavalier's career in a Caps jersey, and it pisses me off that he was a member of this team when he did that.
 
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RandyHolt

Keep truckin'
Nov 3, 2006
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Some may scoff at this, but a punch to the head can do as much damage as a shoulder check to someone not braced for it. Call it a bell ringing. I am sure Brash got first / unexpected punches in plenty of times. Brash went after an innocent defensemen in the famous chicken dance incident. Playoffs, he KO'd that Rangers center on a slightly late hit. I remember when he was on the Flyers, he intimidated our entire team. And fans at home, by just hitting everyone in sight and our players turning tail for the safety of the bench. I am sure he did some more questionable stuff, maybe some forearm shivers or elbows. But the goons largely obeyed the code, it was the guys right below the goons that were the dirtiest.
 
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Chokingdogs

Registered User
Apr 18, 2006
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The timing of Dales shove, and the stage it was on, couldn't have been worse. Bettman had just taken over and the soccer mom fan cultivating/anti "violence" drum beat was heating up.

Bettman had his example to show the fans, that would never be fans, he meant business.

I think deep down he knew the length of the suspension was a joke, and the resulting backlash Dale and the team took as a result of the publicity, thus his commissioner appointment of Dale to the ASG several years later.
 
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Ajax1995

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Dec 9, 2002
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f*** that. He deserved every game of that suspension. You can’t hit a guy on one leg, arm extended, leaning backwards, completely unbalanced because he is mid celebration, which started a second and a half earlier, like that. He couldn’t have been more vulnerable because he had absolutely no expectation of being hit, nor should he have.
 
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VaCaps Fan

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Feb 18, 2018
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Some may scoff at this, but a punch to the head can do as much damage as a shoulder check to someone not braced for it. Call it a bell ringing. I am sure Brash got first / unexpected punches in plenty of times. Brash went after an innocent defensemen in the famous chicken dance incident. Playoffs, he KO'd that Rangers center on a slightly late hit. I remember when he was on the Flyers, he intimidated our entire team. And fans at home, by just hitting everyone in sight and our players turning tail for the safety of the bench. I am sure he did some more questionable stuff, maybe some forearm shivers or elbows. But the goons largely obeyed the code, it was the guys right below the goons that were the dirtiest.
Reminds me of a great movie, Ice Guardians....
Ice Guardians (2016) - IMDb
 
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brachyrynchos

Registered User
Apr 10, 2017
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**** that. He deserved every game of that suspension. You can’t hit a guy on one leg, arm extended, leaning backwards, completely unbalanced because he is mid celebration, which started a second and a half earlier, like that. He couldn’t have been more vulnerable because he had absolutely no expectation of being hit, nor should he have.
Absolutely, and he served his suspension and later admitted that he went too far. Hunter was never suspended after that over the 6 seasons he played before retiring, he made one mistake (a bad one) and faced the penalty. Lesson learned the way I see it.
 

Ajax1995

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Dec 9, 2002
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Absolutely, and he served his suspension and later admitted that he went too far. Hunter was never suspended after that over the 6 seasons he played before retiring, he made one mistake (a bad one) and faced the penalty. Lesson learned the way I see it.

I’m good with that. People make mistakes.

My issue is with the lack of intellectual honesty amongst those who want to pretend it was nothing and the punishment undeserved. Imagine that was Kasparaitis on Bondra...
 

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