Just a reminder that not all trades made by a declining franchise are bad, and not all trades made by an eventual Cup winner are good.
I'm not at all convinced that the Kings won the Richards for Schenn/Simmonds trade and as time goes by, more than likely they will have definitely lost that trade.
The Kings ended up winning a Cup not because of the trade itself but because of the players they had in place surrounding the player they traded for.
So explain to me how the Flyers won the Richards trade. Putting aside the Carter trade because we didn't get him from Philly, this is only about giving up Schenn, Simmonds, and a 2nd for Mike Richards.
They won the cup the year they made that trade and Philly is now straddling the .500 mark. I don't know what you even mean by the last statement. You feel like you are missing something so you make a trade to to complete your team. You are missing some experience, leadership, and a #2 center, so you get Richards to fill that void. The players you lost are Schenn, who is nowhere near the caliber of Richards outside of maybe points wise, Simmonds, who is a serviceable winger you can easily find on the free agency market, and a 2nd rounder, which the Flyers turned into Grossman, a serviceable defenseman.
So your team created a solid 1-2 combo at center for years to come and you immediately won the Cup for the first time in franchise history. The franchise that you made the trade with is fighting to make the playoffs this year after missing them last year. So you don't think any of that has to do with Richards?
And you think we will eventually see this trade as a loss. In what world does a trade leading to a Stanley Cup equal a loss? You don't win the Cup in 2012 with Schenn and Simmonds. You need a #2 center and you need the guy who has the experience of winning on every level. I don't know what Schenn is going to turn into. In fact, I don't even know if they will keep Schenn with Laughton almost ready for the NHL. I do know what I've seen from the Kings the last three years. A team that is one of the best in the western conference, a perennial Cup contender, and a Stanley Cup winner.
