In the NHL, trades are a common transaction for teams to upgrade their organizations or even shed some salary. In most cases, these trades are at or near fair value, but there have also been a number of completely lopsided deals in recent history. Using the past five seasons, we’ll be looking at some of the most one-sided moves and determining who won those specific trades.
For Part 1 of our lopsided NHL Trades click here.
Tyler Seguin to Dallas Stars for Loui Eriksson package.
This trade took the hockey world by surprise as Seguin was quickly becoming one of the elite centers in the NHL. Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli was adamant that trading Seguin was the right choice, as rumors about Seguin’s maturity level swirled. With Seguin in the line up, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, lost in the first round, and then returned to the Finals in the lockout season, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. The Bruins did put up their first 50-win season since 2008-09 last season, but are now feeling the loss of Seguin this year.
Seguin, along with Rich Peverley and Ryan Button, were shipped to the Dallas Stars for a package of Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, Joe Morrow, and bruiser Matt Fraser. Eriksson was supposed to be the offensive force to replace Seguin in this trade. Loui has 58 points in 96 games with Boston. Tyler has almost double that with 126 points in 113 games played. Eriksson has also battled some concussion and injury issues, so this switcheroo didn’t work out. At all.
Smith had 20 goals and 51 points with Boston last year and was one of the RFAs Boston fought to keep on the books for this year. In 2014-15 he hasn’t returned the favor, notching only 8 goals in 35 games so far. Morrow had a 15-game tryout in 2014-15 as injuries hit the Bruins blueline, but couldn’t stick around. Fraser is the also in the Bruins lineup, but as a depth player. Dallas acquired Rich Peverley in this deal too, but he had suffered a heart attack during a game with the Stars and has not played since. Rich was a reliable center for the Stars and was useful, another win for the Stars and a loss for the Bruins, who have tried to replace him with Chris Kelly. Yuck. The Bruins have had major issues at the offensive end of the rink this year. As for Seguin, he is leading the NHL in goals and second in the league in points. Wonder if that type of production would help in Boston?
Steve Mason for Michael Leighton and a 3rd round pick.
The Columbus Blue Jackets were convinced that Sergei Bobrovsky was the goalie of the future, and still is, so they traded former rookie sensation Steve Mason who had been severely struggling in the Blue Jackets club for Michael Leighton and a third round pick. Now while we can’t argue with the Blue Jackets decision to stick with Bobrovsky over Mason, the results suggest they should have tried to get a little more value out of the deal. Mason was able to put up near career high numbers in his first full season with the Flyers in 2013-14, going 33-18-7 with four shutouts, a GAA of 2.50, a .921 SV%, and 145 goals against. It was near identical to his rookie season with the Jackets, give or take a couple percentages, but the Flyers still made out like thieves to get a 30-game-plus winning goalie for a goalie who isn’t even in the NHL anymore, and a third rounder.
Leighton hasn’t played in the NHL since 2012-13, going from AHL to KHL to press box in the NHL. He got his 15 minutes of fame from the 2009-10 playoffs with the Flyers, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals after regular starter Brian Boucher had gone down with an injury. Leighton went 8-3, 2.46 GAA, .916 SV%, and 3 shutouts in 14 games. Since then, Leighton had literally fallen off the face of the earth bouncing from club to club, league to league.
Mason’s numbers may be a bit down in the 2014-15 season, but nearly the entire Flyers defense is also struggling. He has solidified the goalie spot in Philly, now they need to work on the guys in front of him.
As for more from these two teams, including Bobrovsky and another deal, you’ll just have to wait for part 3.
Sam Gagner and BJ Crombeen for a 6th round pick.
Gagner was traded twice on June 29th 2014, first getting shipped from the Edmonton Oilers for Teddy Purcell, then getting traded a couple hours later with Crombeen for a 6th round pick. A 6th round pick…. Of course there will always be gems who are found in that 6th round pick (Pavel Datsyuk anybody?), but the actual percentage of a player picked in the 6th round actually playing 1 game, 50 games, and 200 games are 28%, 16.7%, and 11.8% (pulled from hfboards and hockeydb.com). Gagner was already an NHL’er, no matter how overhyped he was for a former 6th overall pick (coincidence?), but was able to put up 40-plus points in Edmonton consistently, was able to put up near a point per game pace in the lockout year, and was relied upon to be a top 6 player for the Oilers. The fact that he was able to do all that yet only fetched a 6th round pick, doesn’t matter if shedding salary cap was the primary reason, shows the Coyotes won this trade over and over again, no matter which angle you take. The Oilers complete inability to find a second line centre this season, just makes it worse.
Kyle Turris for David Rundblad and 2nd round pick.
Turris had unrealistic expectations put on him for being a former third overall pick in the 2007 NHL Draft by the Phoenix Coyotes. After bouncing back and forth in the AHL and the NHL between 07-08 and 10-11, Turris had reached the 2011 offseason as an RFA and was holding out for a better contract. Money wasn’t rumored to be the reason, as well as playing time and a spot on the team. He signed a contract with the ‘Yotes by November 2011 and two weeks later, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators for Rundblad.
Turris has already put up career high numbers with 26 goals and 58 points last season, and while he is struggling a bit, he has taken over the top center spot from recently departed Jason Spezza. This was Turris’s wish and now he has it. It is up to him to prove that he was worth it, but he has for sure proved he was worth trading Rundblad for.
Rundblad hasn’t played a full season yet, only accumulating 71 games over six seasons for four clubs, never being able to crack into a line up, despite having impressive numbers in the Swedish league. He is currently with the Chicago Blackhawks right now.
Honourable Mention: Scott Gomez for Ryan McDonagh package.
Now this trade happened just slightly more than five years ago but it still burns my heart and is a huge one sided trade. It happened when the Montreal Canadiens traded McDonagh, a prized defenseman prospect, Chris Higgins, Doug Janik, and Pavel Valentenko for Gomez, Tom Pyatt, and Michael Busto. This was a time of change in the Habs organization, who would use the acquisition of Gomez (along with boatloads of money) to lure former teammate Brian Gionta to Montreal with a five-year contract. They also signed Michael Cammalleri to a contract and the future looked bright with all this money spent on offense. Little did they know was that they had just traded a future top tier defenseman in McDonagh. Add in the fact that Gomez wouldn’t even finish out his contact and was an amnesty buyout as well huge disappointment for both the team and the fans.
Keeping McDonagh would have made Montreal a much better team. Putting him with P.K. Subban would have made one of the most dominant two-way defence pairings in the NHL. Just makes me incredibly sad.
Stay tuned for Part 3, coming out later this week.
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