Welcome to Part 2 of our list of every NHL team’s weirdest trade deadline moves. See Part 1 here.
Detroit Red Wings: Filip Hronek, 2023
On March 1, 2023, two days before the deadline, the Detroit Red Wings were five points out of the second wildcard spot in the East, but with five teams to jump over in order to make it. So the playoffs were essentially out of reach, a disappointment after the season began with expectations to be in the race until the end of the season.
As result, the Red Wings were understandably going into selling mode, with a look to the future.
But the first move they made was one that did not seem to quite jive with that, as they traded away defenceman Filip Hronek and a fourth-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for a first- and second-round pick.
Hronek was a 24-year-old defenceman who had scored 156 points in 305 career games, and had tied his career highs of nine goals and 38 points in only 60 games. That tied him for second on the entire team for points, and first in defencemen scoring, eight point ahead of Moritz Seider. He was also 19th in the league in defenceman scoring.
He still had one more year at $4.4M left on his contract, after which he would still be an RFA under team control, albeit with arbitration rights.
For a team that was looking for a quick retool, it doesn’t quite make sense to trade away that kind of a player, but I guess that’s why I’m not privy to the Yzerplan®.
If you needed more proof that Hronek should be coveted for a team looking to the future, the team he was traded to had 11 less points than the Red Wings, so it’s not like this was a contender looking for a piece to put them over the edge.
Hronek has had a great season in Vancouver on the top pairing with Quinn Hughes, having posted 44 points in just 62 games. The Vancouver Canucks are also first in the Pacific Division and fourth in the league overall.
Sure, Detroit is also in the first wildcard spot and looking to have a good shot at making their first playoff appearance since 2016, but it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t be there, if not even better, with Hronek in the lineup.
Edmonton Oilers: Viktor Fasth, 2014
I already talked about the Edmonton Oilers best and worst moves, so we’ll have to look elsewhere for the weirdest one.
The 2013–14 season was the year of the goaltending carousel for the Oilers. From the free agency commencement date to the trade deadline, the Oilers completed 15 trades: six of them included goalies, and two of them included picks that would eventually be used on goalies.
In all, the Oilers would have seven different goalies play for them that season.
But what makes the 2014 deadline weird, per se, is that it was the second time that season the Oilers traded a goalie and then acquired another goalie in a separate trade on the same day.
First, on January 15, 2014, the Oilers traded the struggling upcoming UFA Devan Dubnyk to the Nashville Predators for Matt Hendricks. They would turn around and trade a third-round pick to L.A. for Ben Scrivens.
On the deadline, the Oilers shipped out another upcoming UFA, Ilya “why you heff to be mad” Bryzgalov to the Minnesota Wild for a fourth-round pick, and then acquired Viktor Fasth for a third- and fifth-round pick.
Scrivens and Fasth looked good down the stretch, posting save percentages of 0.916 and 0.914 respectively. Scrivens earned himself a two-year deal with $2.3M per year, while Fasth had one more year at $2.9M.
Alas, both would struggle the next year, both posting sub 0.900 save percentages in what would be Fasth’s last NHL season and Scrivens’ second last.
To make matters worse, Dubnyk ended up rejuvenating his career the next season, and was a Vezina finalist. He would go five straight seasons of winning 30+ games and having a save percentage above 0.913.
That includes Dubnyk winning 12 more games than the entire Oilers team that season, and one more than the team the year after that. Luckily the Oilers stopped it there, winning seven, one, and four more games the next three seasons, or else that would have been really embarassing.
Florida Panthers: Chad Kilger, 2008
At the 2008 deadline, the Florida Panthers were six points out of a playoff spot but third last in the Eastern Conference.
Being in that no-mans land isn’t a great spot, as the team has to decide on whether to stay put, try to get some pieces for a potential push, or sell off for the future.
The Panthers traded Ruslan Salei for Karlis Skrastins and a third-round pick, which made some sense from a middle ground perspective, as although Salei was the better player, he was more expensive for two more years, and they also got a third round pick.
But then they traded away a fifth-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Wade Belak, who had scored only one goal that season as an enforcer. He did have another year on his contract, but like, still why trade for him?
It was the other trade they completed that day that was the weirdest though.
The Panthers made another deal with the Leafs, this time acquiring Chad Kilger for a third-round pick. Kilger also had another year on his contract, so perhaps the Panthers were hoping for a bit of retool.
The Leafs were actually in Florida that day, so maybe that is why the two trades happened between the teams. In any event, a Florida team staffer had just picked up Belak and was then told to turn around to get Kilger, who never showed up.
Kilger requested a leave of absence for personal reasons immediately upon being traded, a request that was granted by the Panthers.
Kilger’s leave was to end on March 5, but he did not report, resulting in him being suspended by the team.
Kilger didn’t report to the training camp the next season either, and officially retired in July of 2009. He then became a firefighter in his hometown of Cornwall, a position he held at least until last year.
The speculation was that Kilger didn’t want to leave his home in Cornwall/Toronto to go play in Florida, which may be the first time a player has ever felt that way. At least he put his money where his mouth was, both by giving up his $700,000 salary for the 2008–09 season by not playing, and by staying in his hometown this whole time. You have to respect that at least.
Los Angeles Kings: Dwight King, 2017
At the 2017 deadline, the Los Angeles Kings were one point out of the playoffs. A week earlier, they had acquired Ben Bishop from the Tampa Bay Lightning as an insurance policy in net, given that Jonathan Quick had missed the majority of the season with injury. They traded away Peter Budaj, who had stepped up admirably, and 19-year-old prospect Erik Cernak, along with two picks. Not a trade for a team looking to sell, and they followed that up with the Jarome Iginla trade.
But, as is usual in the cap era, something had to give to fit the salaries, and so the Kings traded Dwight King to the Montreal Canadiens, who were first in the Atlantic Division.
The trade was for a conditional fourth-round pick, pretty standard for a player of King’s caliber.
The conditions on the pick would make it a third-round pick if the Canadiens won at least two playoff rounds and King played in at least 50% of the games, or if the Canadiens re-signed King. Both fairly standard conditions.
But it was the further condition on the re-signing condition that was interesting—King had to also be on Montreal’s roster from July 1 to November 15, 2017.
Why November 15, you might ask? Well…I honestly don’t know. Both L.A. and Montreal played that day, but not against each other, and also the schedule hadn’t been out at the time of the trade so that couldn’t have been a consideration (although I don’t know why it would have been a potential anyway).
November 15 is the King’s Feast, or Koningdag, in Belgium, so maybe they got confused and thought it was a holiday for King’s family and so they wanted to make sure he wasn’t disturbed by the process of moving teams potentially? I don’t know, that’s the best I got.
Minnesota Wild: The Swede Swede, 2023
For the 2023 deadline week, the Minnesota Wild were looking to load up for a playoff run, as they were only a point out of first place in the Central Division title on February 28, and two points out of first in the Western Conference.
So after previously being involved in two different three way trades where they were simply the money middleman, they finally made two trades of their own.
First, they traded a third-round pick to Washington for Marcus Johansson, and then they sent a fifth-round pick to Columbus for Gustav Nyquist.
On the actual deadline day, they made three further trades. First they sent away Jordan Greenway and his $3M cap hit to Buffalo for a second- and fifth-round pick, and then they traded a fourth-round pick to Detroit for Oscar Sunqvist. Their final move was the “big” one, where they trade Andrej Sustr, Nikita Nesterenko, and a fifth-round pick for John Klingberg.
Those moves were all pretty good moves, as Johansson score 18 points in 20 games, Nyquist scored five points in three games along with another five in six playoff games, Sundqvist scored seven in 15 games, and Klingberg notched nine points in 17 games from the back end along with four points in four playoff games.
But do you notice one thing in common with all these players? Let’s just say there are one more of them than the crowns on their jerseys when they play internationally.
These four more than doubled the Swedish contingent in Minnesota, joining Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Filip Gustavsson.
Those seven put them in second for the team with the most Swedish players to play that season behind Toronto, Detroit, and L.A. (although Toronto’s eight didn’t all play for the team at the same time and only had five after the deadline, and Detroit traded one of their eight to Minnesota).
To top it off, the Wild used the fifth-round pick they got in the Orlov trade with Boston and Washington on Melvin Strahl, who is from, you guessed it, Sweden. Unfortunately they used the only other pick they have made so far on Riley Heidt, who is just another stupid Canadian and therefore broke the Swedish streak from this deadline. But they still have two other picks that can hopefully make him the odd one out.
Montreal Canadiens: Jose Theodore, 2006
After becoming the third goalie to win the Vezina and Hart Trophies in the same season in 2002 (and the second Montreal Canadiens goalie to do it, and to be followed by another Canadiens goalie 13 years later), Jose Theodore was looking like the next big thing in net. He had a down year the next season, but bounced back in 200–-04, leading the Canadiens to the second round of the playoffs for the second time in three years, including a comeback series win against the rival Boston Bruins after being down 3–1.
Theodore was rewarded with a three-year $16.5M contract, the richest contract in Canadiens history at that time.
That’s when things took a turn for Theodore.
His father and four half brothers were charged with and eventually plead guilty to loan sharking, and he further failed a drug test administered prior to the 2006 Olympics as a result of using Propecia.
That all clearly had an effect on Theodore, as he saw his performance plummet to the tune of a 0.881 save percentage, resulting in him losing the starting job to Cristobal Huet.
To add injury to insult (yes I know that’s the wrong way, but you’ll see why), during the Olympic break (where Theodore was possibly supposed to be playing for Team Canada), he slipped on ice outside his home, breaking his heel and putting him on the shelf for six weeks.
The Canadiens decided to cut bait with Theodore, trading him to the Colorado Avalanche (as per tradition for Canadiens goalies) in exchange for David Aebischer, essentially a cap dump in order to acquire *checks notes* Todd Simpson? But given his further two years under a hefty contract, it still made sense.
Upon his return from injury, Theodore would play five games, winning only one and posting a slightly better save percentage of 0.887.
But still, Theodore was able to wrestle the starting job for the Avs in the playoffs, managing to take them to the second round.
Theodore’s time in Colorado was just as much of a roller coaster, as he would lose the starting job the next season, but then regain it and take the Avs to the second round again in 2007–08. He would then go on to become the starter for the Washington Capitals in 2008–09, taking over from recently departed UFA…Cristobal Huet.
In the end, Theodore would end up playing more career games after the trade than Huet and Aebischer combined, both in regular season and playoffs, and be a starter for four of his last seven seasons away from Montreal.
So yeah, a bit weird how that all turned out.
Nashville Predators: Cody Franson, 2015
I initially thought of including the random Matt Irwin and and a sixth-round pick for Korbinian Holzer from 2020, as it seemed like an extra pick was being traded for what was essentially a lateral move, but there is no way I could top this review of the trade by Kate R from ontheforecheck.com.
So instead we will travel back to the 2015 deadline for the Nashville Predators entry. Well actually, approximately two weeks before the deadline, on February 15.
The Preds were first in the Western Conference after missing the playoffs the previous two years, and were looking to bolster their team for what would hopefully be a long playoff run.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, meanwhile, were third last in the East and looking to be a seller to get rid of assets to tank for the season to be able to land hometown generational talent Connor McDavid rebuild on their way to their second straight year of missing the playoffs.
Leafs defenceman Cody Franson was in the midst of a career season, posting 32 points in 55 games, only one point less than his career high the year before. So he was definitely a hot commodity.
Four years earlier the Predators traded Franson to the Leafs in order for the Leafs to take on Matthew Lombardi’s contract, despite him having put up seasons of 21 and 29 points as a 22-year-old rookie and 23-year-old sophomore. The price you have to pay to get rid of a bad contract, the Oilers fan says with teary eyes looking at Jack Campbell’s name in the ledger.
Clearly the Predators wanted to rectify that wrong, and sent Olli Jokinen, Brendan Leipsic, and a first-round pick in exchange for Franson and Mike Santorelli. As far as bolstering deadline trades go, this actually looked pretty solid for the Predators. Santorelli had 29 points in 57 games, putting him on pace to tie his career high of 41 points, so they got a second piece.
It was a good deal for the Leafs too, as they got a 20-year-old Leipsic who had 35 points in 47 games in his first professional season in the AHL, and a first-round pick is a first-round pick.
The only “loser” in the deal was Olli Jokinen, who went from being on the cusp of playing in just his second career playoffs to a bottom feeder. The Leafs did end up doing him a solid by trading him later to the St. Louis Blues, who ended up edging out the Predators for first in the division, but then undid all that when Jokinen ended up getting a season (and what turned out to be career) ending injury in his eighth game as a Blue against…the Leafs.
That injury nor the fact that the Predators reacquired a prospect for a higher price than they traded him for is the weird(est) part of the trade though.
What is weird is that the Predators didn’t really need another defenceman. Like at all.
Here was the Preds d-corps before Franson:
- Shea Weber
- Roman Josi
- Ryan Ellis
- Seth Jones
- Mattias Ekholm
- Anton Volchenkov
- Victor Bartley
Now you may say, well Franson was probably an upgrade over Bartley and an end of his career Volchenkov. Which probably had some merit. Except for one thing, Franson was a right-handed, right-sided defenceman, and had all of Weber, Josi, and Jones ahead of him on that side. It’s an issue that GM David Poile admitted after the season was not a good fit. He would end up scoring just four points in 23 regular season games along with two points in five playoff games as the Predators would disappoint and lose in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Santorelli also struggled, also putting up just four points in 22 games along with one goal in four playoff games, and both he and Franson would leave in the offseason as free agents.
The trade also didn’t end up that great for the Leafs in the end either.
Leipsic would play six games for the Leafs the following season before being claimed by Vegas in the expansion draft. Joakim Lindstrom, the player they got in exchange for trading Jokinen to the Blues, played 19 games for the Leafs to close out the season (also scoring four points) before heading back to Europe. The Leafs used the sixth-round pick they also acquired for Jokinen on Nicolas Mattinen, who would never play an NHL game.
But that first round pick they got? Well that turned out to be one hell of a player. Just not for the Leafs.
The Leafs traded the pick to Philadelphia at the draft for a later first-round pick and a second-round pick. They used those to get Gabriel Carlsson and Jeremy Bracco. Bracco would never play an NHL game, and Carlsson would never play for the Leafs, although they did end up trading him for the pick they used on Travis Dermott, so at least that was something.
Meanwhile Philly went on to pick some guy named Travis Konecny.
So what makes this trade weird is why Nashville would spend fairly good assets on what was really an unneeded luxury, and also how a trade that looked like a win-win for both teams ended up being an almost lose-lose.
New Jersey Devils: Alexander Korolyuk, 2007
Alexander Korolyuk was a fairly good young player for the San Jose Sharks. After a 19-game cup of coffee in 1997–98, Korolyuk played 55 games for the Sharks in 1998–99, posting 12 goals and 30 points, an 18 goal, 45 point pace. He would score a further four points in six playoff games, fourth on the team.
The next season saw him improve his numbers to 14 goals and 35 points in 57 games, a 20-goal, 50-point pace. His playoff performance wouldn’t be quite as good, posting three points in nine games. But still not bad for a 23-year-old.
Korolyuk and Head Coach Daryrl Sutter apparently were not the best of friends, and so Korolyuk held out for the start of the 2000–01 season. He would eventually return to the team, and score 12 goals but only 25 points in 70 games. The season after that would see him suit up in only 32 games, and score only 10 points.
Korolyuk would then head back to Russia for the 2002–03 season, but with Sutter being fired, Korolyuk made his way back for the 2003–04 season, scoring a career best 19 goals and 37 points in only 63 games. He would finish third on the team in goals in the playoffs with five in 17 games.
He also had his own empty-net goal controversy, but luckily Morgan Reilly was only 10-years-old at the time and so he was confronted by veterans Jarome Iginla and Chris Simon who, you know, didn’t cheapshot crosscheck him in the face but still managed to make their displeasure well known.
You’re probably reading this and wondering why this is under the Devils section instead of San Jose’s right?
Well, Korolyuk returned to Russia during the lockout, and didn’t come back when the league started up again. So on October 1, 2006, after it became clear he wasn’t returning to the NHL, the Sharks included him in a trade with the Devils for Vladimir Malakhov and first-round pick, one of the first “cap dump premium” trades in the salary cap era.
Korolyuk then had a change of heart, and decided he actually did want to come back to the NHL, but only to play for San Jose.
So on February 16, 2007, 11 days before the trade deadline, the Devils sent him back to San Jose for a third-round pick. Pretty tidy business to get back a decent asset to recoup the cost of the cap dump.
But then, Korolyuk didn’t actually show up in San Jose, apparently because the owner of his Russian team convinced him not to go.
So six days later the NHL voided the trade and the Sharks got back their third-round pick. The teams were in the same position as they expected to be after the initial trade in October, so really no harm, no foul. Just weird.
Oh, and the “weird” cherry on top? The Sharks used that pick to draft a goalie by the name of Timo Pelmeier, who actually eventually played two games for the Devils AHL team in Albany. Eight years later, the Sharks would draft a Timo Meier, who then was traded last year a week before the deadline to…the New Jersey Devils.
New York Islanders: Marc-Andre Bergeron, 2008
On February 26, 2008, the New York Islanders traded Marc-Andre Bergeron to the Anaheim Ducks for a third-round pick. Nothing too crazy, just a little offensive d depth for the playoffs for the Ducks and a little piece for the future for the Islanders.
But what makes this weird is the pick they received for Bergeron.
Prior to the 2007 trade deadline, the Oilers traded Bergeron, along with a third-round pick in 2008, to the Islanders for Denis Grebeshkov.
That summer, on July 5, 2007, the Islanders traded that pick back to the Oilers, along with Allan Rourke, for a second-round pick in 2008.
Why did the Oilers want that pick so bad as to clearly lose a trade for it? Well, later that summer, the Oilers signed Anaheim’s restricted free agent, Dustin Penner, to a five-year, $21.5M offer sheet.
The Ducks declined to match the offersheet, and in exchange they received Edmonton’s first-, second-, and third-round pick in 2008. See under an offersheet, it has to be the team that is signing the player’s own draft pick that is included as compensation.
And then, as we see here, the Ducks traded that third-round pick back to the Islanders. Even more weird is that the trade involved Bergeron again as well, although this time he was exchanged for the pick instead of with it.
So within a span of a year, that third-round pick exchanged hands four times between three teams, and Bergeron was involved in two of those trades.
Oh and one last final oddity? That was the third straight year at the deadline that involved one of the above pieces, as the Islanders previously acquired Grebeshkov at the 2006 deadline from the Kings.
New York Rangers: John Scott, 2012
At the trade deadline, the New York Rangers were first in the Eastern Conference and second in the league, yet their deals leading up to the deadline were to trade away Erik Christensen and a seventh-round pick to Minnesota for Casey Wellman, who would never play a game for the Rangers, and trading Wojtec Wolski to the Florida Panthers for Michael Vernace, another player who would never suit up for the Rangers and a third-round pick.
Granted, those moves cleared salary for the Rangers, especially getting rid of Wolski’s $3.8M hit, so maybe it was all leading up to a big move to put them over the top.
And on February 27, lo and behold, the Rangers did make a trade: a fifth-round pick was sent to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for…John Scott?
Apparently the fans weren’t the only one confused about the trade, as John Tortorella apparently didn’t know they traded for Scott and reportedly told him he had no idea what he was going to do with him.
It’s a fair assessment, as at this point Scott had only one goal and five points in his 140 game career averaging 7:01 per game as the prototypical enforcer.
This was also four seasons before he became an NHL All-Star, winning the MVP at the All-Star Game, although perhaps Sather saw that potential.
Scott would only go on to play six regular season games for the Rangers, scoring zero points and averaging only 5:33 per game, which makes sense if Torts didn’t know what to do with him.
Scott wouldn’t play a single playoff game, but the Rangers did finish first in the East and make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, so maybe Slats was on to something there.
Ottawa Senators: Tobias Lindberg, 2019
You’re probably looking at that title and asking why I labelled this trade under Tobias Lindberg, a player who has only played six career NHL games which makes him the piece involved in this deal with the least amount of NHL games (yes, even the second-round pick in 2020 has more than double the amount of games at 13).
But I’ve filed it under Tobias Lindberg’s name because he is the weird part about this trade. And if you are wondering why I keep using his first name, it is because there was another Lindberg, Oscar, involved.
The fact there are two Lindbergs (who are not related) is not the weird part though.
The weird part is that this was the FIFTH trade the Ottawa Senators made that involved Tobias. Even weirder is that four of those trades were made around the trade deadline.
The first trade was Ottawa acquiring the draft pick they eventually used to pick Tobias along with Cory Conacher in exchange for Ben Bishop on the 2013 trade deadline.
Three years later, Ottawa would include Tobias in the massive Dion Phaneuf trade with Toronto, that time a couple weeks before the deadline.
The Leafs would trade him to Vegas the next year, who would then trade him to Pittsburgh the year after that at the 2018 deadline. That trade, however, was a three way trade that included, you guessed it, the Ottawa Senators, in order to make the money work in the Derrick Brassard trade. So while Tobias didn’t become Ottawa property that deadline, there was still a connection.
Clearly Ottawa regretted that, and so the following December they would get him back from the Penguins along with Stefan Elliott for Ben Sexton and Macoy Erkamps, arguably the only non-consequential trade of the seven he had ever been involved in. Seriously, the next closest one was for Calvin Pickard, but he was coming off a season where he had played 50 games, so a legitimate NHL player still.
Then we get to this deal on February 25, 2019, where the Senators once again traded him away along with Mark Stone for the other Lindberg, Erik Brannstrom and a second-round pick.
Lindberg has been playing in Europe ever since, and so it seems like this will be the end of the road for him and the Senators, but I for one would love for Ottawa to do the right thing and sign him to a one-day contract at the end of his career so he can retire with the team that had such a love/hate relationship with him.
