Kurt Cobain
Registered User
- Mar 30, 2004
- 5,947
- 258
Why on earth did the Rangers trade a Sergei Zubov who was about to enter his prime and who already had a cup and a 90 point season under his belt? Was he taking attention away from Leetch? Was there a salary cap dispute? Was he a liability defensively? I know he wasn't by the time he was on Dallas that's for sure and those Rangers teams of the 90s weren't known for stellar defense abilities anyway. Did something else happen? It just fathoms my mind you could trade this guy the way they did. Or was it Neil Smith being Neil Smith, something tell me that's my answer. Can a Rangers fan elaborate?
They traded a barely 25y.o. Zubov and a 23y.o Nedved for 29y.o. Luc Robitaille and Ulf Samuelsson who was 31y.o. at that time. What a **** trade for the Rangers. Nedved gets traded back to the Rangers but they had to trade Kovalev for him. Luc had one fantastic season followed by his worst year of his career up to that point, then he gets traded for an aging Kevin Stevens. Samuelsson was Samuelsson was always a plus player, chip in offensively occasionally and would always do something dirty eventually.
Zubov goes on to be one of the best defensman of his generation and in my opinion very undderrated if not the most underrated defensman of the last 30 years. Possibly the greatest Russian defensman ever, unless I'm forgetting someone. Could you imagine throwing Leetch and Zubov out there constantly. Both players were capable of playing almost 30 mins a night. Idk if they would have worked as a pair I feel like it would have been better to throw them one out there after the other a 1a - 1b situation 5 on 5. Having one of them out the almost 90% or the game would have been rough to say the least. That constant pressure from the backend would have driven teams crazy.
I'm a Devils fan so I'm happy things didn't go that way and Neil Smith was a moron. Can anyone think of a better one two punch offensively from the backend cause I can't. Idk how great they would have been defensively together if they were paired. Leetch could get the job done even though he was nothing special defensively and idk about Zubov on the Rangers, but by the time he was is Dallas he was an elite 2 way defenseman. I can remember him playing around 50 mins during some of those overtimes against the Devils in the 2000 Cup Finals. He was just so impressive.
People talk about the Rangers getting rid of Amonte, Weight, Marchand etc. at such young ages but those trades helped them win a cup. If I were a Rangers fan this is the one that would really **** me off, trading Zubov did nothing for them. They also threw in a young Nedved just to make it worse. Then they give up a slumping Kovalev to get Nedved back. What awful asset management. I just think it's one of those what could haves and even if there is no second cup for the Rangers, I don't think there's anyway in hell they miss the playoffs from 98 - 06 consecutively. They also would have been very very entertaining.
They traded a barely 25y.o. Zubov and a 23y.o Nedved for 29y.o. Luc Robitaille and Ulf Samuelsson who was 31y.o. at that time. What a **** trade for the Rangers. Nedved gets traded back to the Rangers but they had to trade Kovalev for him. Luc had one fantastic season followed by his worst year of his career up to that point, then he gets traded for an aging Kevin Stevens. Samuelsson was Samuelsson was always a plus player, chip in offensively occasionally and would always do something dirty eventually.
Zubov goes on to be one of the best defensman of his generation and in my opinion very undderrated if not the most underrated defensman of the last 30 years. Possibly the greatest Russian defensman ever, unless I'm forgetting someone. Could you imagine throwing Leetch and Zubov out there constantly. Both players were capable of playing almost 30 mins a night. Idk if they would have worked as a pair I feel like it would have been better to throw them one out there after the other a 1a - 1b situation 5 on 5. Having one of them out the almost 90% or the game would have been rough to say the least. That constant pressure from the backend would have driven teams crazy.
I'm a Devils fan so I'm happy things didn't go that way and Neil Smith was a moron. Can anyone think of a better one two punch offensively from the backend cause I can't. Idk how great they would have been defensively together if they were paired. Leetch could get the job done even though he was nothing special defensively and idk about Zubov on the Rangers, but by the time he was is Dallas he was an elite 2 way defenseman. I can remember him playing around 50 mins during some of those overtimes against the Devils in the 2000 Cup Finals. He was just so impressive.
People talk about the Rangers getting rid of Amonte, Weight, Marchand etc. at such young ages but those trades helped them win a cup. If I were a Rangers fan this is the one that would really **** me off, trading Zubov did nothing for them. They also threw in a young Nedved just to make it worse. Then they give up a slumping Kovalev to get Nedved back. What awful asset management. I just think it's one of those what could haves and even if there is no second cup for the Rangers, I don't think there's anyway in hell they miss the playoffs from 98 - 06 consecutively. They also would have been very very entertaining.