Posted by Disco Stu on September 2, 2003, 13:57:22 I am hardly a fan of the Colorado Avalanche, but the way they built hat team via trades was simply nothing short of amazing. And all they had to do to get there was draft a moronic, concussion-prone, overhyped young superstar who made it very clear that he did not want to play for you. The Nordiques took the Lindros hype and turned it into a trade that basically shook the founation of hockey for the next 10 years. Let's have a look: Quebec received Ron Hextall, Peter Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Chris Simon, a 1st round pick in 1993, and a 1st round pick in 1994, along with $15 Million for Eric Lindros. That pick in 1993 was Jocelyn Thibault, who was traded along with Andrei Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky to the Canadiens for Patrick Roy and Mike Keane. Hextall was traded along with the team's original 1st round pick in 1993 to the New York Islanders for goalie Mark Fitzpatrick and the Islanders' first round pick in 1993: Adam Deadmarsh. Fitzpatrick was later scooped up by the Florida Panthers, in the expansion draft four days later. But the Nords got the man they wanted in the deal. The man they could have had? Todd Bertuzzi, who the Islanders drafted with the draft pick they got in this deal. Then they stupidly traded him (and Bryan McCabe) to Vancouver for Travor Linden, who ended up leaving the island and making his way back to Vancouver via Montreal and Washington. Al the Islanders had left from this deal was Branislav Mezei. How Milbury made this deal and kept his job, I don't know. Steve Duchesne was traded with Denis Chasse to the St. Louis Blues for Bob Bassen, Garth Butcher and Ron Sutter. Sutter was later traded to the Islanders, along with a 1st round pick, for Uwe Krupp and a 1st round pick (Wade Belak). Belak was later part of the deal to pick up Chris Dingman and Theoren Fleury. Here is where it gets interesting. The Nordiques made a trade with the Maple Leafs, and sent Butcher, along with Mats Sundin, Todd Warriner and that 1st round selection in 1994 that was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers.....and got Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre, Landon Wilson and the Leafs 1st round selection in 1994. They later sent Wendel Clark to the Islanders in a 3 way deal with the New Jersey Devils who sent Claude Lemieux to the Avalanche. The third man in that deal (going from the Isles to the Devils) was Steve Thomas. Kerry Huffman, the forgotten man in the Lindros deal, was traded to the Ottawa Senators during the 1993-94 season. I've spent all day trying to figure out who the Nordiques received in the deal. It was not Sens goalie Craig Billington, who ended up later on as Roy's backup, because Billington spent two years with the Bruins (1994-95 and 1995-96) prior to joining the Avs in 1997-98. Roy's backup during the Cup year of 1996, for those who might remember, was Stephane Fiset, who was a Nordiques draft pick in 1988. The Avs later sent Stephane Fiset and a 1st rounder in 1998 to the Los Angeles Kings for "Daddy's boy" Eric Lacroix and LA's 1st round selection (Martin Skoula) in 1998. Deadmarsh, Aaron Miller, a 1st round selection in 2001, Jared Aulin, and the much-belived "future considerations" were also sent to LA, in return the Avs got Rob Blake and Steve Reinprecht. Chris Simon was shipped out of town along with Curtis Leschyshyn to Washington in exchange for Keith Jones, a draft pick that ended up becoming Scott Parker, and another pick. The Caps went on to the Cup Finals in 1998. Coincidence?! Mike Keane was allowed to walk right out of town by the brain-dead Avs management. He eventually joined the Dallas Stars who won the Cup in 1999. Coincidence?! Keane eventually came back to the Avs, but they had to give up Shjon Podein (who the Avs acquired by trading the aforementioned Keith Jones to Philly) to get him. So they traded Chris Simon just to get Scott Parker, and to get Mike Keane back, who the Avs got nothing in return for when he left in the first place. This was probably the one idiotic move they made, unless you want to suggest the pickup of Theoren Fleury was idiotic as well. They later picked up a draft pick that became Alex Tanguay by trading Ricci to the Sharks. They also traded Claude Lemieux back to the Devils in 2000 for Brian Rolston. The Devils won the Cup in 2000. Coincidence?! So, by trading Lindros, and making a few other moves along the way with the players they got back in those deals, the Nordiques/Avs were able to get: Forsberg, Ricci, Simon, Roy, Keane, Deadmarsh, Krupp, Lefebvre, and Lemieux. That's pretty wild stuff right there. In spite of this trade, the Flyers were still able to make it to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals. If they had kept what they had, they could have won it all a year sooner.
216.99.65.10
There was more to that Lindros deal than meets the eye, if you think about it.
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