It’s the off-season and the hot-stove of trade rumours has most hockey fans talking about what the next season holds for their prospective teams. Specifically: the talk of free agents and trades. This is the time of year where the storymakers at TSN really come out with the most fantastic movie-worthy trade rumours.

Will Sundin be a Hab?
Is Hossa just a money grabbing Slovakian?
Where will Brian Campbell finally end up?

Yes people, it’s that time of year when media outlets across North America are happy to report on any transaction that happens in the NHL. Most of the dialogue is to do with potential trades during the off-season – especially the bad ones.

But what were the worst trades in NHL History?

I thought about that, and here are the worst trades of all time (in my opinion anyway).

10) Montreal trades: Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to
Colorado for: Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky, and Andrei Kovalenko.
The infamous St Patrick trade was materialised when he demanded a trade from Mario Tremblay’s Canadiens after an 11-1 loss to the wings and a soured relationship between the two. All they needed to do was say ‘sorry’ to each other and it would have been Montreal winning another two Stanley Cups …not Colorado.

9) Vancouver trades: Cam Neely and a 1st round pick (Glen Wesley) to
Boston for: Barry Pederson.
In 1986 Vancouver traded Cam Neely, who was low on the Canucks’ depth chart to Boston for Barry Pederson. Neely would go on to define ‘power forward’ while Pederson would go on to define ‘obscurity’. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Canucks also threw in a 1st rounder who turned out to be standout defenseman Glen Wesley.

8) Edmonton trades: Mark Messier and Jeff Beukeboom to
New York Rangers for: Bernie Nichols, Steven Rice, and Louie Debrusk
Messier became New York’s saviour, scoring 250 goals, adding 441 assists and winning the cup in 1994. Nichols registered just 28 goals and 61 assists in comparison.

7) New York Islanders trade: Bill Muckalt, Zdeno Chara and a 1st round pick (Jason Spezza) to
Ottawa for: Alexei Yashin
In this deal Ottawa gave up a #1 center and got a better #1 center in Spezza, a #1 defensemen (Zdeno Chara) and a 4th line hardman (Bill Muckalt). Yashin on the other hand was just an expensive cap hit to the Islanders ($7.6 million) to which they are still paying off his contract. Islanders got seriously punked on this one.

6) Edmonton trades: Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley to
Los Angeles Kings for: Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, THREE 1st round picks (Jason Miller, Martin Rucinsky, Nick Stajduhar), and $15 million in cash.
What made this trade slightly more feasible is that the Oilers won another cup.
Unfortunately Gretzky goes on to play 539 games and scoring 918 points. Compare that to the entire group of players that the Oilers received, it doesn’t even come close.
They gave up the greatest hockey player of all time … oh dear.

5) Calgary trades: Doug Gilmour, Ric Nattress, Jamie Macoun, Rick Wamsley and Kent Manderville to
Toronto for: Gary Leeman, Michel Petit, Jeff Reese, Craig Berube and Alexander Godynyuk.
Holy cow … the Leafs actually won a trade?! The day Doug Gilmour was traded from Calgary marked the beginning of the downfall of the mighty Flames’ franchise. “Killer” averaged 100+ point seasons for the Leafs, while Leeman, Petit, Berube, and Godynyuk scored just 27 goals combined in their careers with the Flames.

4) Hartford trades: Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, and Grant Jennings to
Pittsburgh for: John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski, and Jeff Parker.
The Hartford Whalers were the proverbial ‘kings of all boneheaded trades’ … but this particular one is forever regarded as the worst in Whaler history. The Penguins ended up winning two Stanley Cups under the superb play of Francis, Sammuelsson and Jennings. Cullen, Zalapsky and Parker didn’t last two seasons with the Whale. Other notable idiot moves include Chris Pronger for Brendan Shanahan (Shanhan lasted one season), Brendan Shanahan for Paul Coffey (Coffey lasted just 20 games) … and the list goes on.

3) Florida Panthers trades: Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a 6th round (Sergei Shirokov) to
Vancouver for: Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen and Alex Auld.
The Canucks received their franchise stonewall goalie for the next decade or so.
The Panthers received Todd Bertuzzi who injured himself 7 games in. Even they admitted that the Luongo-Bertuzzi trade was the worst in franchise history.
The rest was just to make up the numbers.

2) Pittsburgh trades: Markus Naslund to
Vancouver for: Alex Stojanov.
Stojanov 35 GP, 6 PTS.
Naslund 929 GP, 789 PTS.
Pittsburgh: what the hell were you thinking?

1) Philadelphia trades: Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, TWO 1st round picks (Jocelyn Thibault, Nolan Baumgartner), and $15,000,000 cash to
Quebec for: Eric Lindros.
Even by today’s standards that’s pretty bad.
Quebec/Colorado received 9 players and $15 million cash and ended up winning Two Stanley cups out of this gigantic trade.
The Flyers received one badly concussed player and no cups.
Worst … trade … ever.

Dishonourable Mention:

Toronto trades: Andrew Raycroft to
Boston for: Tuukka Rask.
Toronto gives up the future Finnish national goaltender for backup Andrew Raycroft – a technically sound keeper who has a distinct habit of letting goals in. He’s now been put on waivers and is no longer a part of the Leafs plans, whilst the Bruins have a potential all-star goalie.
I can still hear them laughing all the way in Boston…

Agree? Disagree? Bloody hell, did I miss any? Share your opinions on what you think were the worst trades. Write away!