The best mid-season trades NHL teams didn’t make

Credit: Brock Boeser (© Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports)

With less than two months until the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline March 8, we’re delivering at least one deadline-focused story every day at Daily Faceoff.

Today, we shift gears and look backward – not at the trades that happened, but at those that didn’t, saving teams’ bacon in the process. As the saying goes, sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.

2024 NHL Trade Deadline Countdown: 48 days

Everyone loves a blockbuster. There’s a reason why hockey fans have been known to come down with the flu and require sick days just in time for trade deadline day. The big deals give us a thrill, right?

But not every mega-swap represents the correct path for a team to take. Sometimes, the trades that don’t happen are just as important. Below, I’ve crafted an unofficial collection of prominent modern-day deals that were rumored to happen or even completed with a handshake only to fall through. The rule for this exercise: the almost-trades must have occurred during the season. Offseason ones don’t count, meaning you won’t find Wayne Gretzky to Vancouver, Brett Hull for Mark Messier or Pavel Datsyuk for Scott Gomez in this space. The $1 million transaction sending Frank Mahovlich from the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Chicago Blackhawks was nixed days before the 1962-63 season. Even the hyped Steve Yzerman-for-Alexei-Yashin trade of 1995 was discussed before the season, not during it, as far as my research indicates.

What we’re seeking here are examples in which GMs were fighting through the fog of war, in the middle of the stretch run, faced with impossibly difficult decisions.

2003-04: Corey Perry

The Anaheim Ducks struck gold in the legendary 2003 NHL Draft, nabbing future franchise icons Ryan Getzlaf and Perry with picks 19 and 28 of the first round. But Perry almost changed teams before he even played a game with the Ducks. He was riding high on a dominant London Knights team, his prospect stock spiking by the day. Meanwhile, Mike Comrie had emerged as a key offensive weapon up the middle with the Oilers, busting out for a 33-goal season in 2001-02. Coming out of his rookie contract, he was embroiled in a contract dispute with then-GM Kevin Lowe and didn’t report to the team. Lowe sought to resolve the problem via trade. In December 2003, he had a deal in place with the Ducks and then-GM Bryan Murray to send Comrie to Anaheim for Perry and a first-round pick. But the trade fell through when Lowe demanded that Comrie repay half the bonuses from his rookie contract, which totalled $2.535 million.

Phew. The trade didn’t happen, the Oilers sent Comrie to the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Ducks held onto Perry. He ended up playing on their 2006-07 Stanley Cup winning team and winning the 2010-11 Hart Trophy in a Ducks uniform, too. He ranks among their most important players in franchise history. Lowe’s demand for the bonus money saved the Ducks and, in the end, helped them win a Cup.

2008-09: Steven Stamkos

Like Joe Thornton before him and Jack Hughes after him, Stamkos struggled at first as a rookie after being drafted first overall before blossoming into a star. It’s easy to forget how much heat was on Stamkos in 2008-09 when he failed to record a point in his first seven games and had just two goals through 17 career contests. As legend has it, Lightning co-owner Len Barrie got deep into negotiations with Rangers GM Glen Sather late in fall 2008. Sather later claimed the trade was enough of a done deal that he and Barrie shook hands on it. Some combination of Ryan Callahan, Dan Girardi, Brandon Dubinsky, Michael Del Zotto and Evgeny Grachev would head to Tampa. Lightning co-owner Oren Koules killed the trade, however, snatching it out of Sather’s hands. Stamkos went on to win two Stanley Cups and build what will be a first-ballot Hall of Fame career as the Lightning’s most iconic player.

2016-17: Gabriel Landeskog

When the 2017 NHL Trade Deadline arrived, GM Joe Sakic was preparing for a roster teardown. The Avs were headed for a third consecutive playoff miss and had not yet seen their foundational pieces, most notably Nathan MacKinnon, blossom into superstars. The Avs reportedly listened to offers on Landeskog and Matt Duchene but ultimately held both through the deadline. While they did punch Duchene’s ticket months later, sending him to the Ottawa Senators, they held onto their captain in Landeskog. He formed one of the league’s most dominant lines with MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen and ended up becoming a crucial component of the 2021-22 championship team.

2019-20: Chris Kreider

Two years after owner James Dolan, GM Jeff Gorton and president Glen Sather penned ‘The Letter’ to the New York Ranger fan base, promising a commitment to rebuilding the right way, the Rangers hadn’t yet broken through as a playoff contender. As the 2020 Trade Deadline arrived, they had no idea COVID-19 would change the world weeks later and that they’d end up competing in a bubble tournament. Their veteran power forward Kreider had the type of skill set contenders drooled over. He was an extremely attractive piece playing on an expiring contract. But as a team source told me at the time, sometimes, you can’t trade away everyone during a rebuild. You have to keep some leaders and build a winning culture. The Rangers committed to that idea emphatically when, instead of dealing him, they announced a seven-year, $45.5 million extension on deadline day. Kreider rewarded the Blueshirts with a 52-goal season two years later and remains a key top-six forward for them.

2022-23: Brock Boeser

From being scratched by the Vancouver Canucks on Hockey Fights Cancer night after losing his father to the disease, to scoring just 18 goals in what might have been the worst season of his career, Boeser had a 2022-23 to forget. He was a common trade candidate mentioned in the months leading up to the deadline. A change of scenery likely would’ve benefitted him. But with his game not in a great place and a chunky $6.65 million cap hit, he wasn’t an easy piece to move and failed to generate much interest. By the end of the season, however, he had found a degree of harmony with new coach Rick Tocchet and expressed a desire to remain a Canuck.

Well, that worked out pretty well for everyone, didn’t it? A man on a mission this season, Boeser is having a career year, with 27 goals through 46 games, on pace to almost double his career high of 29. So much can change in a year for a player whose talent was never in question and perhaps was simply having a trying emotional year in 2022-23. Boeser is back and better than he’s ever been.

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