Cursed Lemon
Registered Bruiser
Simple question: did we need to trade away Paul Coffey, Dino Ciccarelli, and Keith Primeau in 1996 to get our Cups?
Paul Coffey was PPG as a defenseman for us at the time, Keith Primeau was an excellent player, and Dino Ciccarelli still had points left in him though he was at the decline of his career.
I don't have the faintest memory of contract terms going that far back, but considering that we essentially traded those three players away to acquire Brendan Shanahan, would we have at least secured those first two Cups with the help of those three players?
Remember, a good portion of our core at the time were young, such as Lidstrom, Konstantinov, Fedorov, Kozlov, McCarty, etc. And most of our "veterans" still had 10 years on them, like Yzerman and Larionov (who signed the following season).
Paul Coffey was PPG as a defenseman for us at the time, Keith Primeau was an excellent player, and Dino Ciccarelli still had points left in him though he was at the decline of his career.
I don't have the faintest memory of contract terms going that far back, but considering that we essentially traded those three players away to acquire Brendan Shanahan, would we have at least secured those first two Cups with the help of those three players?
Remember, a good portion of our core at the time were young, such as Lidstrom, Konstantinov, Fedorov, Kozlov, McCarty, etc. And most of our "veterans" still had 10 years on them, like Yzerman and Larionov (who signed the following season).