Here is our third and final part of our series on the weirdest trade deadline deals for each team. You can check out Part 1 and Part 22 here.
Philadelphia Flyers: Mark Streit, 2017
At the 2017 deadline, the Philadelphia Flyers were just four points out of a playoff spot, but had four teams to pass to get there. As a result, the Flyers only made one trade that day: sending away upcoming UFA Mark Streit to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Valtteri Filppula, a fourth-round pick and a conditional seventh-round pick.
One of the weird things about this trade was that Tampa Bay was the team directly ahead of the Flyers by one point, so in essence they were both chasing a playoff spot.
To be fair to Philadelphia, Filppula wasn’t exactly just a straight cap dump. He had scored 34 points in 59 games for the Lightning and the Flyers offence was 21st in goals (and would finish the season with just three 20+ goal scorers). Plus Filppula had another year on his deal, so it could be looked at as a move for a quick retool even if they didn’t make the playoffs, similar to the one Philly pulled in 2007–08.
Filppula would only manage eight points in 20 games and the Flyers would miss the playoffs. The next season he wouldn’t fare much better, scoring just 33 points in 81 games, although the Flyers did make the playoffs and he scored three points in six games.
The conditional seventh-round pick is another slightly weird part to this. The pick was conditional on whether or not Tampa traded Streit, which literally only had 10 minutes left to be fulfilled.
Tampa did end up trading Streit, meaning the Flyers got that seventh-round pick. But given the time frame and the fact that it was made a condition, it must have meant that the Flyers were fairly, if not 100%, certain that Tampa was going to flip him. In that case, why not just do a thre- way trade?
Well the team that Tampa traded Streit to was Pittsburgh. I’m not sure if you know this, but those two teams didn’t exactly like each other at that time:
Perhaps that animosity wafted all the way to the top, and so that is why the Lightning had to do a roundabout three way deal instead.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Jarome Iginla, 2013
After 16 years in Calgary, a 35-year-old, upcoming UFA Jarome Iginla was looking to chase a cup in the twilight of his career, with him having come so agonizingly close in 2004 when a controversial review decision ended up making all the difference.
He ended up being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 28, 2013, a week before the deadline, in exchange for Ben Hanowski, a 21-year-old right wing who had just finished his college career, Kenny Agostino, a 21-year-old left wing in his second last college season, and a first-round pick. All very standard for a deadline deal for a player of Iginla’s caliber. It also made sense that Iginla, who had a no-movement clause, would choose to go to Pittsburgh to reunite with Sidney Crosby, his linemate at the 2010 Olympics and who “Iggy” set up for the Golden Goal. Pittsburgh was also first in the East, so looked to be a good choice for a Cup winner.
One little thing though, Iginla was reported to have been already traded the day before, to the Boston Bruins, who were six points behind the Penguins with two games in hand.
The purported trade was for Matt Bartkowski, forward prospect Alex Klokhlachev, and a conditional first-round pick.
Apparently, though, if the Bruins trade hadn’t been reported/leaked, then Iginla may not have actually become a Penguin, as Penguins GM Ray Shero apparently called Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster to congratulate him on the trade and then was told that a deal had in fact not been completed. We do know that the Bruins were on his list of teams he would waive his no trade for though, so it is still a bit weird that he didn’t end up waiving for them.
The Penguins managed to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, with Iginla contributing 11 points in 13 regular season games and 12 points in 15 playoff games, but they were ultimately defeated by the Boston Bruins.
So if Iginla had indeed gone to Boston, perhaps he would have been playing in those Finals against the Blackhawks, and maybe with him the Bruins get an edge and win their second Cup in two years, and Iginla’s first.
Perhaps that was what was running through Iginla’s mind, because that summer he signed as a free agent with Boston. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be, as the Bruins lost in the second round that year to their rival Montreal Canadiens.
San Jose Sharks: Kyle McLaren, 2009
In 2009, the San Jose Sharks were second in the Western Conference while the Flyers were fourth in the East. However, while San Jose was a comfy 25 points ahead of the ninth place team, the Flyers were only seven points up on the ninth place Buffalo Sabres in a tightly contested conference.
The Flyers traded a sxith-round pick to the Sharks for Kyle McLaren at the deadline, as one of two minor moves they made that deadline.
McLaren was a 12-year NHL veteran with further 70 playoff games, but with the Sharks having added defencemen Dan Boyle, Rob Blake, and Brad Lukowich to a d-corps that already included Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Christian Ehrhoff and Douglas Murray, McLaren saw himself on the outside looking in.
McLaren was sent down to the AHL prior to the season starting, in no small part due to his $2.5M salary being almost a million more than Lukowich’s.
The plan was for Philly to assign McLaren to the AHL, which was again most likely due to salary concerns since they only had about $900k in cap space. But there is no salary cap in the playoffs, something that all NHL fans have become extremely well acquainted with in recent years, and so it would appear that McLaren was traded to be up with the team come playoff time.
McLaren had played in 17 games in the AHL, posting six points, before suffering a hand injury in December.
It would appear that injury hadn’t fully healed, as the day after the trade the Flyers nullified the trade due to him failing his physical.
It’s a bit weird that the Flyers wouldn’t have had some idea about McLaren’s injury before the trade. But the other weird part is that it wasn’t like McLaren was out for the season. He ended up playing five more games in the AHL, scoring a goal, and played in seven AHL playoff games.
It seems strange that, if the Flyers were indeed looking to stash McLaren for the playoffs, that they would then nullify it the next day.
Perhaps the Sharks didn’t disclose the severity of the injury to the Flyers? That would also seem a bit weird, although earlier that day the Sharks made a trade to acquire Kent Huskins from the Anaheim Ducks, who was out with a broken foot, and so maybe they didn’t see any issues with trading an injured player.
In fact, Huskins didn’t end up being able to play a single game for the Sharks that season due to his injury.
So if any team had a reason to nullify a trade due to injury, you think it would have been the Sharks (although the main piece in that trade was actually Travis Moen, and I am not sure if you can just partially annul a trade).
Seattle Kraken: Mason Appleton, 2022
The Seattle Kraken have only had two deadlines in their franchise history, so the options are limited. There have been only seven trades involving the Kraken around deadline time, six of which were in their first year when they offloaded a bunch of the players they picked in the expansion draft for draft capital, as everyone expected.
You could point to their only trade last year when they were first in the Pacific Division being for Jacob Megna who would only go on to play six games for them, but a) it happened almost a full month before the deadline, b) Megna was having the best season of his career, and c) it was just a fourth-round pick.
By the time the actual deadline came, the Kraken had dropped to third in the division, tied with the Edmonton Oilers, and so for a young franchise it probably made sense not to sell the farm, as the only real weakness for them was goaltending. The Kraken went on to even win a playoff round against the defending champion Colorado Avalanche, so all in all it was a success.
So I guess we will go with one of the trades at that first deadling where they traded Mason Appleton back to the Winnipeg Jets after claiming him from them in the expansion draft, just because that seems like good asset management. Although Appleton was an RFA, not a UFA, so an argument could be made that that could be more valuable than a fourth-round pick. But still, there was some logic there. One question would be why the Jets wouldn’t have just traded for him right away after the expansion draft like the Washington Capitals did with Vitek Vanacek, but even that isn’t really that weird.
Hopefully this year the GM Ron Francis will spice it up for us, although with the Kraken currently being outside of the playoffs, it’s likely going to be another sell year. The funniest thing I can think of would be them trading upcoming free agents Jordan Eberle, Kailer Yamamoto, Justin Schultz, and Devin Shore back to the Oilers, which frankly wouldn’t be the worst trade for the Oilers and is actually kind of possible as long as a contract like Cody Ceci’s goes the other way. But it would be weirder than the Appleton one that’s for sure, considering that three of those players were given up on/run out of town by Edmonton.
St. Louis Blues: Kevin Shattenkirk, 2017
Despite being in a playoff spot, the St. Louis Blues decided to trade upcoming UFA Kevin Shattenkirk rather than lose him for nothing, along with goalie Phoenix Copley who was also scheduled to become a “Group 6” UFA due to his age and professional years but lack of games.
They were traded to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Brad Malone, Zach Sanford, a first-round pick, and a conditional second-round pick in 2019.
The weird part of this trade, again, was the conditions on the pick.
One condition was the now fairly standard one where the team has to make it to a certain point in the playoffs and the player has to play half of the games, and the other one was another standard one depending on if Shattenkirk re-signed.
There was a further little wrinkle in there though. If the Capitals traded Shattenkirk prior to July 1 (aka when he would become a free agent), then St. Louis gets a seventh-round pick. Not a bad condition, and fairly straightforward right?
Well, unless Washington got a fourth-round pick or better. In that case, the Blues would get the “next available pick two rounds later than the earliest pick received by the Capitals.”
Essentially, if Washington got a fourth, then the Blues could get a sixth instead of the seventh, and if the Capitals got a third then the Blues could get a fifth, etc.
But the operative word there is “could.” Because, from how I read it, if the Capitals didn’t have a pick before this seventh rounder that complies with the two round term, then the Blues would be in the same place.
Could you imagine how funny it would be if the Capitals traded Shattenkirk for a fourth or earlier pick and included all the picks after other than the seventh?
Ok maybe not really that funny, per se, but still, if you were the GM who thought you were so smart to come up with that condition but not realize that one “loophole” and it came to fruition, you would have felt not so smart anymore.
Alas, Shattenkirk never re-signed nor was traded, so we didn’t get to see any such potential fallout. Interestingly, the Capitals only ended up making one pick after round 4, in round 5, but the trades involving the other picks all came after the July 1, 2017 deadline.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Tanner Jeannot, 2023
This is a trade that had the entire hockey world going “wut” right after it happened.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were comfortably in a playoff spot, and it was essentially set in stone that they would be playing the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. The only question remaining was who would get home ice advantage, with the Lightning trailing the Leafs by four points with a game in hand.
So on February 26, 2023, five days before the deadline, the Lightning made their big deadline swing: acquiring Tanner Jeannot from the Nashville Predators.
Jeannot was in the midst of a disappointing season, having just five goals and 14 points in 56 games, but the year prior he scored 24 goals, 21 of which were at even strength, and 41 points. He led the team in hits with a whopping 318, 95 more than the next player on his team, and second in the league only to Radko Gudas’ 355.
And even though he wasn’t scoring in 2022–23, he was still hitting, and still finished second on the Predators with 213 at the end of the season.
So there was some value there and Jeannot was certainly being sought after by many teams.
Over the previous three seasons, the Lightning had had success with a model of trading a first-round pick for players that were more of depth players rather than the “big fish” you normally would trade a first for.
The year before they traded two first-round picks, Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk to the Chicago Blackhawks for Brandon Hagel, who was having a career year with 21 goals and 37 points in 55 games as a 23-year-old, so it actually maybe doesn’t quite fit the profile. However, moving from the bottom feeding Blackhawks to the contending Lightning meant a drop in ice time from 17:28 per game to 13:35, and correspondingly his production dropped like a rock to just 13 points over 45 regular season and playoff games. But the team did make the finals for a third straight year, and the next season Hagel broke out with 30 goals and 64 points, and this year he looks poised to break that as so far he has 22 goals and 59 points in 62 games.
The year before that they traded their first for David Savard, who didn’t score much and averaged only 14:07 per game in the playoffs, but at least they won the Cup.
The year before that they traded their first for Barclay Goodrow, who was having a career season with eight goals and 24 points in 62 games with the San Jose Sharks. He only notched two assists in eight regular season games and then six points in 25 playoff games, but they ended up winning the Cup.
So why mess with a good a thing?
That must have been what GM Julien Brisebois was thinking as he traded a first-round pick for the fourth straight season for Jeannot. Maybe a bit of an overpay, but Jeannot was still only 25-years-old and an RFA after the season, so not a full rental.
But I guess the Predators needed a bit more in order to give up Jeannot because of that.
So the Lightning added a second-round pick. Ok maybe that is a touch too much, but if you really like the player and his potential, then in the long run he is probably more valuable than that pick.
I guess that wasn’t enough for the Predators, so a third-round pick was tossed in. That…seems a bit much.
But this was David Poile’s last year as a GM, and given he had been the GM for 26 years, he probably felt some attachment and responsibility for the team’s future and so needed to make sure the team got a good haul for their young coveted player.
Brisebois therefore added in a fourth-round pick.
But I mean, what value does a fourth-round pick have really? The odds of getting a regular NHLer from there are not the best.
So a fifth-round pick needed to be added, just so there can be another dart to throw at the board.
Again though, that is just five magic beans. I’m sure Brisebois was hoping that at that point Poile would go “Jeannot is Jeannot, but a pick could be anything. It could even be a Jeannot!”
But this wasn’t Poiles first rodeo, and he knew a young prospect was needed. So eventually Brisebois had to give in and included their first-round pick from 2017, Cal Foote, in the trade.
So the Predators ended up getting six pieces for their rebuild, which is one more than goals Jeannot had scored.
Was the juice worth the squeeze? Well, Jeannot ended up performing…even worse than he was with the Predators, scoring just one goal and four points in 20 regular season games. He did hit 77 times in those games at least.
Jeannot ended up being injured for the start of the playoffs and managed only three games with no points in the Lightning’s first round exit to the Leafs. Granted, he did hit 16 times in those three games, putting him sixth on the team despite playing half as many games as the five players ahead of him.
Remember though, this was a trade that also looked to the future, much like the Hagel trade, and we saw how that worked out for the Lightning.
Jeannot ended up filing for arbitration, but the parties came to a deal for two years at $2.665M per year, making him the sixth highest paid forward on the team.
Jeannot has rewarded them with six goals and 12 points in 41 games, good for 10th and 12th on the team respectively. But at least he leads them in hits with 164?
The Lightning actually ended up getting their fourth-round pick back from Nashville, by trading away their fourth-round pick in this years draft, so that’s something?
Toronto Maple Leafs: Richard Petiot, 2009
The Toronto Maple Leafs, in 11th spot and nine points out of the playoffs, traded Richard Petiot, a career AHLer, to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Olaf Kolzig, Andy Rogers, Jamie Heward, and a fourth-round pick.
The trade wasn’t all that meaningful, given none of Kolzig, Rogers, and Heward suited up for the Leafs (Rogers did play a game for the Marlies that year and then another six the next), while Petiot played 11 games for the Lighting.
But the weird part is with respect to the fourth-round pick.
In the summer of 2008, the Maple Leafs signed Jonas Frögren out of Sweden. However, the NHL rejected the contract as they believed Frögren to still be considered an entry level player given he had been drafted by the Calgary Flames 10 years prior. But he never signed a contract, and so could not sign for more than the $875,000 rookie max salary, and the max signing bonus of $87,500.00. The signing bonus on the contract apparently was for $750,000.
The NHL ended up fining the Maple Leafs $500,000 and to forfeit their 2009 fourth-round pick, which was this pick, and therefore got essentially nothing in this trade.
Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo, 2014
Roberto Luongo was a Vancouver Canucks legend, who was the seventh goalie in NHL history to be named captain (although unofficially due to NHL rules against that for some reason), led the team to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and holds the franchise records for wins (career and single season), shutouts (career and single season), career save percentage, and career goals against average.
He looked to be the goalie for the Canucks for the foreseeable future, and the team locked him up to a 12-year, $64M contract in 2009, which everyone totally expected him to play until the end of.
But Luongo was starting to be challenged by his backup Cory Schneider, who is seven years his junior.
In 2010–11, Luongo played 60 games with a 0.929 save percentage. Schneider played 25 games with 0.928.
In 2011–12, Luongo played 55 games with a 0.919 save percentage, while Schneider increased his games to 33 and his save percentage to 0.936. That led to Schneider signing a three-year, $12M deal, which had a cap hit of only $1.33M less than Luongo’s.
In the lockout shortened 2012–13 season, Schneider took over the starting position, playing in 30 games to Luongo’s 20, and besting his 0.907 save percentage with a 0.927.
It was looking like it was time to pass over the reins to young Schneider and move on from Luongo. Unfortunately, Luongo’s contract, um well, it sucked.
So of course, the Canucks did the obvious thing and traded Schneider immediately after his career season and stuck with Luongo, who they had been publicly trying to trade. Obviously not ideal, but the logic was there in that you still had a very good goalie and got some assets for your other really good goalie.
Luongo appeared to have rewarded the Canucks’ “vote of confidence” (and definitely not “reluctant acceptance”) by posting a 0.917 save percentage over 42 games leading up to the trade deadline, where the Canucks were just 2 points out of a playoff spot.
Luongo’s backup was Eddie Lack, a rookie who was nine years his junior and who played in 26 games up to that point, rocking a 0.926 save percentage.
To quote Taylor Swift: “I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn’t like the ending.”
Things came to a head on March 2, the day that the Heritage Classic was to be held “outdoors” at BC Place. Canucks Coach John Tortorella decided to start Lack instead of Luongo, much to the chagrin of basically everybody, as Luongo was obviously not happy with the decision, and Canucks fans chanted “Luuuuu” when Lack was announced as the starter (and no, they were not chanting “Luuuu-ack”).
And so two days later, the Canucks traded away Luongo, meaning that in a span of eight months the Canucks went from having two of the best goalies in the league to having neither of them and handing the reins over to a 25-year-old Lack and a 23-year-old Jacob Markstrom, who they acquired in exchange for Luongo.
All things considered, the actual trade wasn’t one, as the Canucks only had to retain $800,000 of his salary to make it work, and also received 25-year-old forward Shawn Matthias.
But still, if you had told Canucks fans at the end of the 2013 season that a year later they would have neither Luongo nor Schneider in net, they would have probably rioted (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Unfortunately for the Canucks, the NHL introduced a “cap recapture” penalty for the long term front-loaded contracts that were signed around the time they signed Luongo, and so when he retired before his contract expired, they got hit with a penalty of just over $3M per year for three years. Although apparently the Panthers had offered to trade back Luongo so Vancouver could try using another NHL loophole with LTIR shenanigans to avoid that, but for some reason Vancouver refused.
Vegas Golden Knights: Mattias Janmark, 2021
The second most recent expansion team to Seattle, the Vegas Golden Knights have six previous deadlines worth of deals to look at.
The Knights also had a penchant for making big deals in season, which is likely due in large part to their immediate success as a franchise that reached the finals in their inaugural year.
Their first deadline they sent a first-, second- and third-round pick to Detroit for Tomas Tatar, which was a bit of an overpay considering his production had fallen to just 28 points in 62 games, and seemed to go against the grain of an expansion franchise that you would think would want to build up a prospect base. But, hey, they were excited ok?
The next deadline, they pulled off a massive trade, acquiring Mark Stone and then signing him to a massive eight-year, $76M contract.
The season after that saw them pick up Robin Lehner, even though they still had Marc-Andre Fleury, a move that definitely did not create any controversy whatsoever.
While not at the deadline, the 2021–22 season saw them add Jack Eichel to the fray, and since they didn’t make any trades after that it kind of counts?
Finally, last year they acquired Ivan Barbashev, thanks to Stone going to LTIR, who ended up being a huge contributor to the Cup victory with 18 points in 22 games.
Wow, such a good track record. I guess the Lehner one could count as the weird one though right?
What’s that? I missed a year? *does a quick count* Oh yes, it would appear that that is only five years.
So what about that missing 2020–21 deadline? Surely they made yet another big move right?
Well I guess it depends on your definition of “big.” In comparison to the moves listed above, the Knights’ 2021 deadline was an absolute snoozer.
The only move they made was to acquire Mattias Janmark from the Chicago Blackhawks.
Janmark had only a $2.25M cap hit, which isn’t terrible for a player on pace for 20 goals (10 goals and 19 points in 41 games). But Vegas was right up to the cap with no LTIR available.
So in order to get him down to a more manageable $562,500 hit, they had to get a third team involved, in this case the San Jose Sharks.
Likely because of the retention, the Knights traded a second- and third- round pick to Chicago and a fifth-round pick to San Jose, slightly higher than you’d think for Janmark. But they did also receive a fifth-round pick back and Nick Desimone, who they would trade that summer for Brett Howden.
Janmark would go on to score eight points in 16 playoff games, and earn himself another contract with Vegas, but would only score 25 points in 67 games the next season.
Not a terrible trade by any means, but for a team that was known to make Bellagio Fountain sized splashes, this was more of a disappointing drop of water in a puddle.
Washington Capitals: Martin Erat, 2013
I mean, you knew this one was coming.
The Washington Capitals traded their most recent first-round pick, Filip Forsberg, who was ranked the third best prospect in the draft by Bob MacKenzie and the top ranked European Skater by NHL Central Scouting.
Forsberg was having a good draft+1 season as well, scoring 33 points in 38 games in the Swedish Elite League, good for seventh on his team despite playing 11 to 13 games less than the players ahead of him.
So to trade him for a player with a career high of 58 points (albeit in 71 games) and had scored just 21 points in 36 games that season? Seems very shortsighted.
It’s a trade that everyone jokes about, and surely has resulted in a GM or two pausing before trading away a highly touted prospect for short term gain. After all, in his rookie season Forsberg scored more goals (26) and points (63) than Erat ever had. In fact, the only seasons Forsberg hasn’t at least matched Erat’s 58 points were all seasons where he did not play a full season.
Meanwhile, Erat put up only three points in nine games and no points in four playoff games. The next season he would rebound somewhat with 24 points in 53 games (although just one goal) but would be traded along with John Mitchell (not the one you are thinking of) at the following deadline for Rotislav Klesla, Chris Brown (definitely not the more famous one), and a fourth-round pick. Granted that would open cap space for the Capitals to acquire Dustin Penner and Jaroslav Halak for a playoff push, but the Capitals would not end up making it.
So definitely a clear win for Nashville, no doubt about it. And therefore, a definite loss for Washington right?
Well not a total loss for Washington, in a sense.
When the trade was made on April 3, the Capitals were in 10th place in the Western Conference, three points back of eighth place, but just two points back from a playoff spot because the division leader in the opposite-of-a-powerhouse Southeast Division was the Jets with 38 points. But Washington had two games in hand on them so the playoffs were a real possibility, but still they were in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in six years.
So why Erat? If there is one thing we know about the Washington Capitals, it’s that they could score goals, and wouldn’t really need a scoring winger.
Weirdly, Erat’s 21 points would put him in fourth on the Capitals in scoring. Ovechkin led the team with 37 points, and the whispers that he was on the downswing turned into murmurs.
The Capitals ended up going 10–1–1 in the final 12 games, winning the Southeast Division and getting third in the East and home ice advantage for the first round. Even without the Southeast Division part, they still would have finished fourth in the Conference and gotten home ice, so quite the turnaround.
Ovechkin would tally 12 goals and 19 points in those final 12 games, Mike Ribeiro 14 points, and Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green would score 13 points to lead the way.
Look, I’m not saying that Erat was the reason for the turnaround, but he was the only addition to the team. You do the math.
The Caps would end up losing in the first round to the New York Rangers though, and would miss the playoffs the next year. But that would lead to them picking 14th overall and getting Jakub Vrana, who would score two game winning goals in the second round series against Pittsburgh in 2018, thereby allowing the Capitals to slay that demon and go on to win the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, how many cups has Forsberg won?
So yeah, I think we can count it as a win for Washington.
Winnipeg Jets: 2012 to 2014 deadlines
I couldn’t pick just one deadline for the Winnipeg Jets, because all three of their first deadlines were were more conservative than [redacted by editor – this is not a politics blog].
At the 2012 deadline, Jets were pushing to do something in their first season that the Atlanta Thrashers had only done once in 12: make the playoffs.
Due to the last minute nature of the relocation, the Jets were playing in the Eastern Conference in the Southeast Division, which in itself is weird. But if you are a Jets fan, that was actually a good thing, as the division was notorious for being the worst in the NHL.
The Jets were holding down the eighth spot in the East, but were just two points behind the Florida Panthers for first in the division, which would catapult them to third in the conference due to the seeding rules at the time. Florida did have four games on hand mind you, the third place Washington Capitals were just a point behind with three games in hand, and even the Lightning had a chance at catching up to them being behind by six points with three games in hand.
Still, being that close in your first season back, you’d think maybe you’d swing even a minor deal to help for a possible playoff push.
The Jets made three trades leading up to the deadline.
The first was swapping prospect Akim Aliu with the Flames for prospect John Negrin.
The next was swapping prospect Riley Holzapfel with the Anaheim Ducks for prospect Maxime Macenauer.
The final trade was a true deadline trade, where a veteran was traded for picks. Except that in this case, the Jets were the one trading the veteran, in Johnny Oduya, to the Blackhawks for a second- and third-round pick.
The Jets went 7–8–2 the rest of the way, falling to 11th in the conference, missing the playoffs by eight points and the division title by 10. Granted, that was basically in line with their points percentage at the time of the deadline, and who knows if Oduya really would have made that much of difference.
The next season though, at the trade deadline the Jets were first in the division, although 10th in the Conference. They responded by making no trades on or around the deadline, with the only “big” add being Eric Tangradi almost a month before.
At the 2014 deadline, the Jets were a point out of the second wildcard spot in the West after the realignment and new playoff format. They again made zero trades and missed the playoffs by seven points.
Frankly, in my opinion it was very weird Jets were acting like an expansion team rather than a team that had a prospect base and a fair amount of good up and coming players.
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So there you have it, each team’s weirdest trade, in my opinion. I’m sure many of you have your own weirdest trades, and if so I would love to read them in the comments! The only question is, will any of the trades this year be weird enough to replace any of these? I can say that the Oilers acquiring a goalie who played for hometown Grant MacEwan University who is currently playing in the SPHL is definitely in contention.
