Worst trades your team avoided

[Igor Shestyorkin]

People remember that but McDonagh while being a key piece was just considered as a throw in by Gainey. He never talked with his chief amateur scout about his progress...apparently the chief amateur scout even cried when he heard about the trade (As McDonagh was his favorite prospect). The other main pieces were Higgins and cap relief to the rangers.

That trade was terrible from the get go same with the Forsberg Vs Erat trade.

"Just a throw in" correlated with McDonagh's name now would be so, so funny, and it seems funny then too. Oh Gainey, how could you be such a fool?

 

[LA_Viking]

L.A. Kings for Kovalchuk.

 

[Ducksurban]

Almost shipped out Lovejoy for Despres...oh wait

 

[BPD]

I always bring up the same story when these threads get brought up.

The "Stamkos to the Rangers" thing. Sather and Len Barrie had a handshake agreement for a pick 3 from:

Brandon Dubinsky
Ryan Callahan
Michael DelZotto
Evgeny Grachev
Dan Girardi

That could have been DZ, Girardi, and Grachev for Steven Stamkos.

Barrie agreed to it, then had to run it by both Lawton and Koules...who promptly knocked him upside the head.

 

[kingdok]

I always bring up the same story when these threads get brought up.

The "Stamkos to the Rangers" thing. Sather and Len Barrie had a handshake agreement for a pick 3 from:

Brandon Dubinsky
Ryan Callahan
Michael DelZotto
Evgeny Grachev
Dan Girardi

That could have been DZ, Girardi, and Grachev for Steven Stamkos.

Barrie agreed to it, then had to run it by both Lawton and Koules...who promptly knocked him upside the head.

Even at the time, with no benefit of hindsight, that was pretty horrible.

 

[BPD]

Even at the time, with no benefit of hindsight, that was pretty horrible.

Eh, not so much. This was 2008. Grachev was the steal of the draft (playing with Duchene and Hodgson on the Battalion), DZ was lighting up the OHL as John Tavares' main feeder, and Girardi was a 24 year old rising star on defense. Stamkos had like...2 goals in 35 games or so.

Hindsight? Would have gone down as one of the worst trades in the history of the NHL.

 

[Martin Riggs]

I mentioned this in another thread but back in '06, the Hawks were going to trade Seabrook to the Rangers for Petr Prucha. That would've been in the top 5 for sure of worst trades in Hawk history.

 

[CharlestownChiefsESC]

I always bring up the same story when these threads get brought up.

The "Stamkos to the Rangers" thing. Sather and Len Barrie had a handshake agreement for a pick 3 from:

Brandon Dubinsky
Ryan Callahan
Michael DelZotto
Evgeny Grachev
Dan Girardi

That could have been DZ, Girardi, and Grachev for Steven Stamkos.

Barrie agreed to it, then had to run it by both Lawton and Koules...who promptly knocked him upside the head.

I always wonder what if the pulled Girardi out and offered Staal instead. Staal's value was at an all time high

 

[Maukkis]

Apparently, the Jets were offered Krug, Zboril and a 1st for Trouba in the summer of 2016. Nowhere near as bad as some of the trades posted here, but Trouba went on to elevate his game to a much higher level in 16-17, which we got to benefit from.

 

[The Macho King]

I always bring up the same story when these threads get brought up.

The "Stamkos to the Rangers" thing. Sather and Len Barrie had a handshake agreement for a pick 3 from:

Brandon Dubinsky
Ryan Callahan
Michael DelZotto
Evgeny Grachev
Dan Girardi

That could have been DZ, Girardi, and Grachev for Steven Stamkos.

Barrie agreed to it, then had to run it by both Lawton and Koules...who promptly knocked him upside the head.

Barrie... Ugh.

Best day in modern Lightning history was the day Vinik bought the Lightning and brought in Yzerman.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I remember around 96ish or so there was talk of a Stevie Y for Daniel Alfredsson deal, whether or not that is totally true is another question, but if it is, very glad it did not happen!

I had heard Stevie for Yashin but never Alfie

 

[Rschmitz]

Lecavalier for Antropov, 1st, Kaberle

 

[Rschmitz]

Stamkos for Girardi, Callahan, and MDZ got nixed too thank god

 

[Brobust]

JVR for Hamonic.

JVR is the lynchpin for one of the top PP units in the league. Hamonic continues his struggles.

Leafs fans would have been in complete panic mode right now if this trade had gone through.

 

[Hockeyisl1fe]

I remember Buffalo almost traded Thomas Vanek for Tyler Seguin. Would have been great for Buffalo but bad for Boston.

Funny thing is that the actual Seguin trade was even worse than this.

 

[Ceremony]

https://deadspin.com/5921077/the-bl...he-islanders-entire-draft-for-their-no-2-pick

The Islanders offered all their 2012 draft picks to Columbus in exchange for 2nd overall. Columbus refused. It's hard to tell which is worse.

 

[CodeE]

Barzal+Hamonic+Sorokin+1st for Matt Duchene

 

[Sentinel]

There was a talk a few years ago of trading Zetterberg for Nash, when Z was not in his best form. Boy, am I glad that never happened!

 

[PuckItUp27]

Not trading Barzal for Duchene.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Jeff Carter and a 1st for Tomas Kaberle

 

[Brock Boeser Laser Show]

Canucks nearly traded their 2015 1st (used to select Brock Boeser) and other assets to Boston for Lucic. Thankfully LA stepped up with a better offer or we would be stuck with Lucic for the next 6/7 years and have no Boeser.

There was also a potential canucks/lightning deal (Brad Richards for Schneider, Bourdon, 1st, 2nd) that would've turned out awful had it gone through but Feaster preferred a meh collection of assets from Dallas.

 

[Viqsi]

https://deadspin.com/5921077/the-bl...he-islanders-entire-draft-for-their-no-2-pick

The Islanders offered all their 2012 draft picks to Columbus in exchange for 2nd overall. Columbus refused. It's hard to tell which is worse.

Despite HF's collective wide-eyed drooling fetishization of draft picks of any and all kinds, turning that down was easily and demonstrably the right move then, and it's even more ludicrously easy to see that five years later (as long as you're intellectually honest and don't try the whole "hey, so-and-so star was picked 20 picks after that one, you could have gotten your guy AND him, OMG such ripoff" BS that so many folks seem to do with these scenarios).

 

[alko]

https://deadspin.com/5921077/the-bl...he-islanders-entire-draft-for-their-no-2-pick

The Islanders offered all their 2012 draft picks to Columbus in exchange for 2nd overall. Columbus refused. It's hard to tell which is worse.

Just crazy as the Minnesota offer in 1984 - All their picks for Pens 1. overall pick (You know, who it was).

 

[Canada4Gold]

I don't remember too many almost trades from the Leafs. Franson for Gorges comes to mind which Gorges declined(thankfully), we later flipped Franson and Santorelli(Franson was the main piece) to Nashville for Leipsic, and a 1st which all together turned out to be the piece Vegas took(protecting the rest of our available trash), Dermott, Bracco, Mattinen and Dzierkals. No real NHL impact to this point but I feel like Dermott will be a solid player and Bracco may be too.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Despite HF's collective wide-eyed drooling fetishization of draft picks of any and all kinds, turning that down was easily and demonstrably the right move then, and it's even more ludicrously easy to see that five years later (as long as you're intellectually honest and don't try the whole "hey, so-and-so star was picked 20 picks after that one, you could have gotten your guy AND him, OMG such ripoff" BS that so many folks seem to do with these scenarios).

I mean the Islanders blew their picks sure, but they did turn Reinhart and a 3rd into Barzal and Beauvillier. And also picked Pelech with one of their later picks. I'd argue those now are more valuable than Murray and a 3rd assuming they were going to pick Murray.

The Jackets side comes down to who they would have picked at 4and later but that's impossible to guess). I can't remember how that went down, but wasn't Reinhart seen as a reach at the time? I know Lindholm was by Anaheim.

Given Murray's "hype"(not sure hype is the right word here but alas) at the time I understand why they would turn it down and it's impossible to tell in hindsight how it would have worked out for Columbus if they accepted.