What are the 5 worst NHL trades?

Question

Some i can think of are

Gretzky for Cash
Messier for 3 no namers
Luongo for Bertuzzi,Auld,Allen
Thornton for Sturm and other no namers
Naslund for some stojonav guy

I actually didn't know about that Eric Lindros trade. What were the Flyers thinking!! Like Im telling you, did you notice that when Gretz and Messier were traded the cup didn't come back to us? When you say it was only a bad trade for Florida in the Luongo trade,well then you should know every bad trade is like that! Theres one team who gets so much stuff and the other who gets nothing!And trading thornton to San Jose, i think it was bad because they traded a guy who was probably gonna stay there forever and score hundreds of points. Dont be so biased.

Answer 1

Calgary fans didn't seem too impressed with the trade that sent Doug Gilmore to Toronto. I forget all players involved but I think it was Gilmore and 2 role players for 5 Leafs who were no longer going to be there for one reason or another. That trade changed the dynamics of both teams in opposite directions.
The most shocking trade had to be Eric Lindros to Philly for $15 mil, Foresburg, a few first round draft picks (one of which became Matts Sundin) and a bunch of players. Big E was ok, but you gotta remember at the time a team's annual salary wasn't $15 million. Shortly after, Quebec moved to Denver and you know the rest of that story.
Thornton to San Jose had some WTF factor too.
I think it was Leaf favorite Russ Courtnal who went to Montreal for John Kordik. That was 20 years ago and I still haven't figured that one out.
Can't think of fifth trade that quite matches those.

Answer 2

Most have already been mentioned so I will just say the main player.

1. The first Lindros trade.

2. Boston trades Ken Dryden and Alex Campbell to Montreal for Guy Allen and Paul Reid

3. Flordia trades Pavel Bure with 2nd round pick to NY Rangers for Igor Ulanov, Filip Novak, NY Rangers' 1st.

4. The Adam Oates to Boston from St. Louis trade.

5. The Marcus Naslund to Vancouver from Pittsburgh trade.

Another one I want to mention was not a trade, but a waiver transaction was the Edmonton Oilers in 1998. They placed Ray Whitney on waivers after 8 games and was picked up but the Florida Panthers and went on to have a carrer best year to the point. If we had kept him, who knows, maybe he would have been on our side in 2006.

Answer 3

I will not pick on any trades made by Chicago (although I could list some bad ones (Phil Esposito Fred Stanfield, and Ken Hodge for Pit Martin, Jack Norris and Gilles Marotte rings a bell)

Worst Trade in NHL History
1. Russ Courtnall (Toronto) for John Kordic (Mtl)
Courtnall scored more points in hist first 25 games with Montreal than the late John Kordic scored in the remainder of his career

2. Darryl Sittler (Tor) for Rich Costello, Ken Strong, and a pick that became Miroslav Ihnacak (Pha)
- Darryl Sittler was an icon in Toronto. Rich Costello and Ken Strong weren't even around long enough to have a coffee. Ihnacak played for years, but it still doesn;t balance out.


3. Jaromir Jagr and Frantisek Kucera (Pit) for Kris Beech, Ross Lupaschak, and future considerations (Wsh)
- This was a salary dump plain and simple.


4. Pavol Demitra (Ott) for Christer Olsson (Stl)
- Sure, Demitra was nothing in Ottawa (26 points in 60 games)..............Olsson had 16 career points!

5. Toronto's 1991 1st Round Choice for Tom Kurvers. That Draft Choice became Scott Niedermayer.



To the asker
1. Gretzky was traded along with Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley for Jimmy Carson (50 goal scorer), Martin Gelinas (20 yr career), Martin Rucinsky, and Nick Stadjuhar.
- you can't replace Wayne, but the trade worked for both teams, hard to call it a bad trade

2. Messier for 3 no-namers? Bernie Nicholls was far from being a no-namer! Rice and Debrusk both stuck around long enough to earn a huge payday when they hit 55

3. This is only a bad deal from Florida's perspective, but only because they traded Bertuzzi to Detroi and Auld is in Phoenix

4. Joe Thornton was traded for Brad Stuart (2 All-Star Games), Marco Sturm, and Wayne Primeau. This is not a bad deal. All players performed as expected for their new teams. This was again, clearly a salary dump by Boston.

5. Markus Naslund (Pit) for Alek Stojanov (Van).
- Pittsburgh was looking for toughness at the time and Stojanov fit the bill. Naslund had not performed well in Pittsburgh (scoring 4pts in 19 games prior to the trade). 2+ years later, the trade looked like a wash as Naslund hadn't done anything as a Canuck.

Answer 4

WORST TRADE OF ALL TIME:
Eric Lindros for Peter Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, two 1st round draft choices (who turned out to be Jocelyn Thibault and Nolan Baumgartner) and $15,000,000.

Some other bad ones that you missed out:
The Flyers traded Eric Lindros to the Rangers for Jan Hlavac, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl and a 3rd round draft choice.

The Winnipeg Jets traded Teemu Selanne, March Chouinard and a 4th round pick to the Ducks for Chad Kilger, Oleg Tverdovsky and a 3rd round pick. Selanne went on to score more points in his first couple seasons than Kilger has in his 14 year career.

Answer 5

The Bruins got the draft pick they used to get Ray Bourque, for their third string goalie Ron Grahme, John Grahme's father, he was good but gee can you imagine the Kings with the triple crown line and Ray Bourque on the Blue line. The Blackhawks had alot of offensive talent when they traded Espo, and got some good defensive personnel who helped Tony Esposito. The worst ever the Philly and Quebec Lindross deal, tres mal!

Answer 6

My favorites:

1) The world for Eric Lindros and no Stanley Cups.
2) Mikael Renberg for Chris Gratton.

Everything else pales in comparison.

Answer 7

Well, that is easy. I have a Boston Bruins T-Shirt. On it is Ray Bourque Captain, traded for nobody good, but he got his cup, so it wasn't that bad. Next on the shirt is Sergei Samsonov. Let go, was never good. Next Player Brian Rolston, captain, traded, for nobody. Also on the shirt, Thorton, captain traded for nobody. Do you see where this is going. The Bruins are the all time leaders in trading good young guys away for nobody in return, but old vets that cant play anymore. I am sure that Brad Boyes is going to be another that the bruins wished they never let go, and I have been waiting to see how long it takes them to trade Chara, since he is their captain, and you see how many times their captains get traded. Plus, Manny Fernandez, not the answer bruins fans were looking for in the off season.

Answer 8

Add Adam Oates for Bernie Federko and Tony McKegney...At first look the trade isn't horrid considering Federko was a future Hall of Famer and McKegney was a fairly solid forward that certainly wouldn't hurt your team but neither of them was very young and Oates was only in his 4th full season in the NHL.

After 14 games played for Detroit, McKegney was traded to the Nordiques. Federko retired after one season in Detroit. Meanwhile Adam Oates goes on to play 18 more seasons and score 1221 more points.

Answer 9

I'd say Dominik Hasek for Stephane Beauregard worked out pretty well for Buffalo. As did Daniel Briere for Chris Gratton, and going back a ways Rene Robert for Eddie Shack.

Answer 10

Those are not bad trades. One side got a great deal in all those. You mean most lopsided trades. A bad trade is mung for mung or both sides traded for good players but they flopped.

Most one-sided trades in NHL history (yes, the NHL existed before Gretzky)...and this is just my own opinion:

1. Habs get Guy Lafleur
Man oh man, the California Golden Seals (loved them but, boy, were they stupid) but Habs GM Sam Pollock was a genius. He traded Ernie Hicke and the Habs' first rd. pick for Francois Lacombe and the Seals' first rd. pick. To ensure the Seals finished last overall, he sent the Kings Ralph Backstrom for virtually nothing so Ralphie (who was a damned fine player) could help the Kings move up in the standings ensuring the Seals finished last giving the Habs' the #1 overall pick. They picked Lafleur. Years later the Seals folded/merged after their move to Cleveland...I would say this is #1 as it destroyed a franchise.

2. Gus Bodnar, Bud Poile, Gaye Stewart, Bob Goldham and Ernie Dickens from Tarrana to Chicago for Max Bentley. (Bentley was the NHL scoring leader!!!...Toronto went on to win the Cup...Chicago went nowhere as usual.)

3. Ken Dryden from Boston with some dude called Alex Campbell for Guy Allen and Paul Reid. The latter three never played in the NHL. Dryden stoned the B's in '71 in one of the biggest upsets in NHL history and then was the backbone of the greatest NHL dynasty (apologies to the '50s Habs and '80s Isles).

4. Marcel Dionne and (member of the all-time hockey name team) Bart Crashley from Detroit for Terry Harper and Dan Maloney. The Kings went on to become a pretty decent team and Dionne a HOFer. Harper and Maloney were well past sell-by date. But this deal really doomed Detroit for years until Yzerman came along....even then it took him 15 years to win a Cup. Remember Detroit used to be as good as Montreal back in pre-expansion era.

5. Patrick Roy and Mike Keane (never trade your captain!) from Montreal to Colorado for Jocelyn Thibault (or Teapot as he is known), Martin Rucinsky, and Andrei "the Tank" Kovalenko. Killed the Habs' franchise so now they are like the Laffs floundering and living on past glories nowhere near Cup ready. This deal made the Avs a powerhouse and instantly won them the Cup that season.

There are tons more but I went with ones that really screwed up the franchise who got the short end of the stick. Gretzky deal was bad but Edm won a Cup in 1990 and LA never did. I think it worked out fine given the circumstances in Edm at the time with Peter Puck's money troubles.

Naslund is a stiff though now. He sucks so badly. He had two great seasons and that's it. Bad deal for Pittsburgh but I don't like him at all (and I'm a Nux fan).