This is the week! The week leading up to the day that every hockey fan has etched on the calendar: Trade Deadline Day, or otherwise known as “Either build your GM a statue or an effigy” day.
Depending on your team, it can be a day of joy, whether that is from getting a new star player for a playoff run, or a great futures haul for said star player to speed up a rebuild, to despair, whether it is not getting the value one expected, or just not a trade of significance at all.
Over the years, every team has been in all of the above boats. We could talk about each team’s best or worst trade on D-day, but what about their most…weird one? A trade that makes you go “huh” or “who?” or “why?” or “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about this and therefore I am angry.” Or one that just has some weird coincidences about it.
So we are going to break down each team’s weirdest trade in the Salary Cap era (because otherwise I will go down way too many more rabbitholes). Since a trade requires two teams (at least), we are only allowing a trade to be assigned to one of the teams, not both.
Here we go with our first ten weird trades. They are in alphabetical order, not in order of “weirdness”, because what is considered more weird will vary by person, and the last thing I need is arguments in the comments that x condition is way weirder than y condition, or that I’m the weird one for thinking this trade is weird.
Anaheim Ducks: The O’Briens, 2007
On February 24, 2007, three days before the deadline, the Anaheim Ducks traded rookie defenceman Shane O’Brien and a third-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for goalie Gerald Coleman and a first-round pick.
That in itself is a bit of a weird trade, at least from Tampa’s side, given O’Brien’s greenness and the fact that he was more of a fighter, although he did have a decent 14 points in 62 games on a team with Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Richard Jackman, Francois Beauchemin, and Sean O’Donnell.
But still, a first-round pick? The other players traded for first rounders around the deadline that year were Peter Forsberg, Ryan Smyth, Bill Guerin, Danius Zubrus, Mattias Norstrom, Craig Rivet, Keith Tkachuk (although that was a conditional first that didn’t end up being transferred), and Ladislav Nagy.
Sure, Norstrom had less points than O’Brien at that point, but he also did have 761 more NHL games in his career.
Although, the Lightning seem to have a bit of a pattern of overpaying for intangibles (more on that later).
But what makes this an actual weird trade is that on the actual deadline day, the Ducks made another trade, again with the Lightning, and again involving a defenceman named O’Brien.
No, it wasn’t a do-over trade. The Ducks sent away Joe Rullier, who never had and never would play an NHL game, for Doug O’Brien, who played five NHL games the previous season.
Doug was actually six months younger than Shane, and was drafted two rounds and 58 places ahead of Shane in the 2003 draft. So I mean, the Ducks got a first-round pick and arguably a better prospect?
Well, no. Doug would never play another NHL game, while Shane would play 475 mores.
From what I can tell, there is no relation between Doug and Shane, which means we have to wait until the next entry for that level of weirdness.
Arizona Coyotes: Ritchie brothers, 2023
A potential weird one for the Arizona Coyotes is the fact that Derek Morris was involved in three separate deadline deals made by them in his career (they acquired him in 2004 and 2010, and traded him away in 2009), but because each of those deals in and of themselves aren’t super noteworthy, I decided to go with one of their deals last year.
The Coyotes traded Nick Ritchie and Troy Stecher to the Calgary Flames for Connor Mackey and… Brett Ritchie aka Nick’s older brother.
It’s a trade where you kinda wonder if that novelty is the reason why the trade was made?
The Flames were technically just one spot out of the playoffs at the deadline, but they were still five points back of the Winnipeg Jets and the Nashville Predators were only one point behind them with three games in hand. Plus the Flames had just lost four straight games.
At the same time, it’s not like the trade was bad for the Flames. Stecher was an NHL regular and Nick had 21 points in 58 games versus Brett’s eight points in 34 games. And Mackey had only played 10 games with the Flames that season.
But then that’s where it gets weird for Arizona. Why trade two better players for worse players? All the players involved were upcoming UFAs, so it’s not like there was any futures going back.
On the whole, this trade just doesn’t really make sense to me.
One thing that adds a bit to this weirdness is that both Ritchies went on to put up five points in 16 games for their new clubs.
Boston Bruins, 2008
It’s not a deadline deal but I do find it hilarious that this is considered part of the Boston Bruins trade history:
And by “hilarious” I mean that I laughed until I cried, and then I cried until I laughed. It’s also funny/weird that that’s not the only time Peter Chiarelli is on their trade history:
But the actual weirdest deadline move for the Bruins has to be at the 2008 deadline when they made *checks notes* no deals?
There were 25 trades involving 24 teams that day. And if you make for the entire month of February, every team other than Boston and Buffalo made a trade.
The Bruins were in sixth place in the Eastern Conference at the deadline, but ninth place Buffalo was only three points behind (which again, makes it a bit weird they both stood pat).
It came precariously close to being a mistake, as the Bruins ended up just barely making the playoffs in the eighth spot. They did manage to push the first place Montreal Canadiens to seven games at least?
It is also a testament to how good/not bad the Bruins trading on deadline days have been if the weirdest one is where they didn’t do anything.
Buffalo Sabres: eight piece deal, 2016
Two days before the 2016 deadline, the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators made the biggest trade within a week before the deadline.
The Sabres sent Jason Akeson, Jerome Leduc, Philip Varone, and a conditional seventh-round pick to the Ottawa Senators for Eric O’Dell, Alexander Guptill, Cole Schneider, and Michael Sdao.
I guess I should have clarified that by “biggest” I meant that in the amount of pieces, not the most impactful.
I’m not really sure what the reasons were behind the deal for either team. The only players who had played NHL games at the time of the trade were O’Dell, who had eight points in 41 games under his belt, Varone, who had nine points in 42 games over three seasons and Akeson, who had two points in 15 games the prior two seasons. Schneider and Varone were the only ones to play in the NHL after the trade, with Schneider playing a grand total of six more games. Varone did play a further 55 games, with 47 of them coming in 2018–19 with the Philadelphia Flyers.
The conditional pick was that Ottawa would get Buffalo’s seventh-round pick in 2016 if Schneider played at least three NHL games with Buffalo. He ended up playing in two, and that bit of trickery meant the Sabres got to keep their pick and take Austin Osmanski, who also has not played a single NHL game so far.
The only reason I can think of is that the GM for Buffalo was Tim Murray, the nephew of Ottawa’s GM Bryan Murray.
The funny thing is this was actually the second biggest trade that the Senators consummated that month, when they made a ten-piece deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 9. That one actually involved some pieces of substance at least.
Calgary Flames: Michael McNiven, 2022
The Flames were comfortably in first place in the Pacific Division as the 2022 trade deadline approached, but that doesn’t mean that the team can’t still do some tinkering.
Five days before the deadline the Flames made their big splash, acquiring Calle Jarnkrok from the Seattle Kraken for a second-, third- and seventh-round pick. At the actual deadline though, they only made two trades.
One was acquiring depth forward Ryan Carpenter from the Chicago Blackhawks for a fifth-round pick. A decent pick up for the fourth line, although would only play in eight of the team’s remaining 20 games and none of their playoff games, which could have landed itself as the choice for this article.
But it is the other trade made that day that is the truly weird one.
The Flames traded minor league goalie Michael McNiven to the Senators for future considerations. Now generally, a nothing trade like that can be explained by the need for a team to vacate a contract spot or save a little bit of money, both of which could definitely be the case here.
What makes it weird is that McNiven had been a Flame for all of 19 days, when he had been acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for…future considerations.
In those 19 days, not only did McNiven not play a single game in the Flames system, he didn’t even suit up as a backup. He was indeed assigned to the AHL affiliate Stockton Heat, and he did show up on the roster, so at least we know this isn’t a Taro Tsujimoto situation that the three GMs cooked up, although that would make a little more sense on the reasons for the deals to be honest.
Carolina Hurricanes: Sami Vatanen, 2020
The Carolina Hurricanes were looking to shore up the d-corps at the 2020 deadline, and managed to so by acquiring Brady Skjei from the New York Rangers, and Sami Vatanen from the New Jersey Devils.
The Hurricanes sent Frederik Claessen, Janne Kuokkanen, and a conditional fourth-round pick to the Devils. The condition on the pick was that if Vatanen, who was currently on the IR, played in five regular season games for the Hurricanes, the Devils would get the fourth-round pick in 2020. If he played in 12 regular season games or he plays in 70% of Carolina’s playoff games, then the pick becomes a third rounder in 2020.
Simple enough right?
Well, this big thing happened in March of 2020, and so the season had to be cut short. As a result, the NHL amended the conditions of the pick (as Oilers fans know all too well).
The amended conditions were convoluted, to say the least:
I guess that is one way to get Devils to watch and take an interest in the bubble playofs when their team didn’t make it.
I won’t lie, I read these conditions about 10 times and I still have trouble fully visualizing all the possible scenarios. It is entirely too much for a third- or fourth-round pick.
Chicago Blackhawks: Andrew Desjardins, 2015
The Chicago Blackhawks made a depth move in 2015 to gear up for their playoff run, trading Ben Smith and a seventh rounder to the San Jose Sharks for Andrew Desjardins. Nothing too earth shattering, although Smith had scored 14 goals for the Blackhawks the year before, one less than Desjardins’ career total at the time of the trade. The trade was done for cap reasons, as Smith had another year on his contract at $1.5M while Desjardins would be a free agent.
The Blackhawks won the Cup that year, so no complaints about the trade, I’m sure.
The reason I am including it in this list is due to the condition on the seventh-round pick. The condition was that San Jose gets the pick if the Blackhawks won the Cup.
Obviously a savvy move by Sharks GM Doug Wilson, as San Jose did in fact get the pick. And as all seventh-round picks tend to go, it resulted in a player who played a whopping four NHL games.
But I just find it absolutely hilarious that the condition for the lowest pick a team can trade was that the other team wins the championship. Talk about high risk low reward.
Colorado Avalanche: Jarome Iginla, 2017
Jarome Iginla was in the last year of a three-year, $16M deal, which apparently had a cap hit of only $15,999,999 according to Capfriendly, and the Colorado Avalanche were dead last in the league with 37 points, 14 less than the second last Coyotes and 30 points out of a playoff spot. To put into perspective how bad that is, if they won every single on of their 21 remaining games and somehow every other team lost every single game, then they would finish third in the Central Division. So yeah, bad.
Therefore, it makes sense that Iginla would be on the trading block, especially since he was still chasing that elusive Stanley Cup.
The Avs ended up trading him to the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional fourth-round pick. That doesn’t sound like much for a player of Iginla’s caliber, even if his production had dropped that year to only 18 points in 61 games. He had 22 goals and 47 points the year prior, and 29 goals the year before that, after all. It seems even worse when you realize that Colorado retained 50% of Iginla’s salary too.
But he did also have a no-movement clause, and so he had all the power. With former Coach Darryl Sutter behind Los Angeles’ bench, it made sense that Iginla would want to go there, and getting something is better than nothing right?
Well what if you actually end up just getting nothing?
Turns out the condition on the pick was related to two things: something related to the playoffs, or if Iginla re-signed in L.A. If neither was met, then L.A. keeps their pick.
We don’t know what the playoff conditions were, and it doesn’t matter because the Kings did not end up making the playoffs. And since Iginla did not sign, L.A. got to keep their pick, meaning Colorado got absolutely nothing back in the trade.
Technically I think “future considerations” would have been better, as at least GM Joe Sakic could have gotten like a steak dinner or something out of it.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Jonathan Quick, 2023
On March 1, 2023, the day before the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Kings acquired upcoming UFAs goalie Joonas Korpisalo and defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov from the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a quintessential deadline trade between a playoff team and the last place team. In exchange, the Blue Jackets got a conditional first-round pick and a third-round pick.
But they also got goaltender Jonathan Quick, who was included for cap purposes, not for any real hockey reason.
Quick was apparently not too happy with the deal, which makes sense given he went from the only team he’s ever known to a bottom feeder.
But he didn’t need to worry too much about that, as the next day the Blue Jackets traded Quick to the Vegas Golden Knights for Michael Hutchinson and a seventh-round pick. So Quick ended up actually ending up in a better spot, as Vegas was ahead of the Kings.
He also got the last laugh when he went on to win his third Stanley Cup with the Knights.
The best part of the trade came this year, however, when the Blue Jackets did the classy thing of honouring their former goalie:
Dallas Stars: Tim Thomas, 2014
On March 4, 2014, a trade happened that (sorta) shocked the hockey world: the Vancouver Canucks traded Roberto Luongo back to the Florida Panthers, along with Steven Anthony, in exchange for Jacob Markstrom and Shawn Matthias.
There was more excitement about that trade than there normally should be when the two teams are outside of the playoffs, especially when the one that is closer to making it is the one that traded for the futures.
But the excitement was based on the fact that the current starting goaltender for the Florida Panthers was Tim Thomas, who had faced off against Luongo three seasons earlier in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.
There was a few verbal jabs that sparked a rivalry between the two, with Luongo saying “It’s not hard (to stop) if you’re playing in the paint…It’s an easy save for me, but if you’re wandering out, that’s going to happen” in response to Thomas letting in the game winner in Game 5. Then to add even more fuel on the fire when he tried to clarify that he wasn’t taking any jabs at Thomas by saying “I’ve been pumping his tires ever since the series started and I haven’t heard one nice thing he had to say about me, so that’s the way it is.” Thomas quipped back “I guess I didn’t realize it was my job to pump his tires.”
Around a year and a half later, a twitter account that definitely does not belong to Luongo tweeted out:
Definitely a not so subtle shot at Thomas’ political views, which included not going to the White House to celebrate the Bruins’ Stanley Cup victory for political reasons.
So I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were excited to see the two of them on the same team and so could rightfully pump each other’s tires (I don’t know why, but that just sounds really wrong now that I’ve typed it out).
Unfortunately, we never got the chance to witness any potential bromance, as Thomas was traded the next day to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Dan Ellis.
The Stars were holding down the last wildcard spot in the West, but had Kari Lehtonen as their well entrenched starter, so it seemed a bit weird they would make that trade. Thomas only had a slightly better save percentage than Ellis (0.909 to 0.900), and made $1.6M more, which seems like a lot for a backup goalie.
Thomas would play in eight games for Dallas, only winning two of them to close out his NHL career.
I think we can all agree with not-Luongo when it comes to this deal, who eloquently put it:
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