Michael Whiteacre
Registered User
On March 4, 1991: The Hartford Whalers pulled a shocker when they decided that they were gonna trade their longtime star (who played almost a decade with the Whalers, served as their captain for six seasons and set the Whalers franchise history record books) to the Pittsburgh Penguins along with Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings in exchange for John Cullen (who was doing well with Kevin Stevens and Mark Recchi), Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker.
Hartford/Pittsburgh had made an earlier trade on December 21, 1990 where Scott Young went from the Whalers to the Penguins in exchange for Rob Brown going to the Whalers.
Francis would go on to win his first Stanley Cup with the Penguins in '91, but what if Cullen continued his point producing magic with the Whalers (as he had with K. Stevens and Recchi) and Francis did not pan out for the Penguins in '91-'92? Would that have been when Hartford and Pittsburgh essentially undo the Ron Francis trade during '91-'92?
Only instead of Jeff Parker and Ulf Samuelsson involved this time, Scott Young (who spent the '91-'92 season in Italy) gets sent back to Hartford, with Francis and Grant Jennings in exchange for John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski going back to the Penguins with Kevin Dineen, so that Pittsburgh would have Mario Lemieux, Kevin Stevens, Jaromir Jagr, Rick Tocchet, John Cullen, Larry Murphy, Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson, Joe Mullen, Dineen and Zalapski while Hartford would have Francis, Bobby Holik, Pat Verbeek, Andrew Cassels, Geoff Sanderson, Scott Young, Grant Jennings and Brad Shaw.
There have been instances of teams undoing the original trade, such as the Philadelphia Flyers trading Mikael Renberg to the Tampa Bay Lightning in order to get Chris Gratton prior to '97-'98, and then a year later, the Flyers take back Renberg and sent Gratton back to Tampa Bay; and then the Marty McSorley-Shawn McEachern trade between the L.A. Kings and Penguins where McSorley went to the Penguins before '93-'94 and came back to the Kings later that season.
That had me think maybe a Ron Francis/John Cullen trade re-do in '91-'92 would too, only with Scott Young and Kevin Dineen included in the deal instead of Jeff Parker and Ulf Samuelsson in the first one.
Hartford/Pittsburgh had made an earlier trade on December 21, 1990 where Scott Young went from the Whalers to the Penguins in exchange for Rob Brown going to the Whalers.
Francis would go on to win his first Stanley Cup with the Penguins in '91, but what if Cullen continued his point producing magic with the Whalers (as he had with K. Stevens and Recchi) and Francis did not pan out for the Penguins in '91-'92? Would that have been when Hartford and Pittsburgh essentially undo the Ron Francis trade during '91-'92?
Only instead of Jeff Parker and Ulf Samuelsson involved this time, Scott Young (who spent the '91-'92 season in Italy) gets sent back to Hartford, with Francis and Grant Jennings in exchange for John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski going back to the Penguins with Kevin Dineen, so that Pittsburgh would have Mario Lemieux, Kevin Stevens, Jaromir Jagr, Rick Tocchet, John Cullen, Larry Murphy, Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson, Joe Mullen, Dineen and Zalapski while Hartford would have Francis, Bobby Holik, Pat Verbeek, Andrew Cassels, Geoff Sanderson, Scott Young, Grant Jennings and Brad Shaw.
There have been instances of teams undoing the original trade, such as the Philadelphia Flyers trading Mikael Renberg to the Tampa Bay Lightning in order to get Chris Gratton prior to '97-'98, and then a year later, the Flyers take back Renberg and sent Gratton back to Tampa Bay; and then the Marty McSorley-Shawn McEachern trade between the L.A. Kings and Penguins where McSorley went to the Penguins before '93-'94 and came back to the Kings later that season.
That had me think maybe a Ron Francis/John Cullen trade re-do in '91-'92 would too, only with Scott Young and Kevin Dineen included in the deal instead of Jeff Parker and Ulf Samuelsson in the first one.
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