yave1964 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Second in the series, drew the Bolts out of the hat this morning, gonna take a look at the best and worst trades in franchise history for the Lightning. BEST EVER: BEN BISHOP FROM OTTAWA FOR CORY CONACHER Seriously, Corey Conacher looked like a find, the next Martin St. Louis for the first few months coming out of the strike year. People were comparing the undrafted Conacher to St. Louis, a player deemed too short to play who by sheer will had made something of himself. Many thought that Tampa had lost their mind when they dealt him to Ottawa for spare goalie Ben Bishop who had size and technique but had not put it together. It was classic buy low, sell high. Conacher bounced around 4 seasons and 3 organizations before moving on to Switzerland, Bishop has established himself as a big time goalie who took his team to the finals two years ago and the conference finals this year before being injured. Major league trade. MARTIN ST. LOUIS FROM THE FLAMES Okay, not quite a trade, but St. Louis was a diminutive college player who went undrafted because of his size, managed a deal with the Flames and played a year and a half before they exposed him to the expansion draft where nobody wanted him. The Lightning took a chance after the Flames bought him out and he became iconic, scoring nearly 1000 points and winning a cup as well as becoming the oldest man in Hockey to win a scoring Championship. DAN BOYLE FROM THE PANTHERS FOR A 5TH ROUNDER Boyle was a young up and comer who the Panthers inexplicably gave away for a 5th rounder, keep in mind the Panthers had no idea what they Hell they were doing back then. Boyle won a cup, in six years he established himself as one of the best offensive blueliners in the game. TRADED BRAD MARCHMENT, DAVID SHAW AND THE SECOND PICK IN THE DRAFT FOR THE FIRST PICK IN THE DRAFT FROM THE SHARKS (DRAFTED VINNIE LECAVALIER) The Bolts moved up one spot, giving the Sharks a couple of spare parts and the second pick in the draft to get the first pick and drafted the greatest player in the organizations history in Lecavalier. Forget his later years in Philly and LA, he was iconic in Tampa and they flat out stole him. The second pick in the draft turned out to be David Legwand who is a massive step down. WORST TRADES IN TEAM HISTORY THE LORD GIVETH AND TAKETH AWAY, THE BOLTS TRADE BOYLE TO SHARKS FOR FILIP KUBA AND SHANE O'BRIEN Boyle wanted out of Tampa and they made a poor choice, going for depth along the blueline in exchange for Boyle who had plenty left in the tank in San Jose. The package they added for Boyle was an exercise in mediocrity at best. BRAD RICHARDS TRADED TO THE STARS IN MID CAREER FOR MIKE SMITH, JUSSI JOKINEN AND JEFF HALPERN Richards was a star in Dallas (pun intended) scoring over a point a game for three years and leading the team to a resurgence before leaving for the Rangers. The Bolts fell apart, missing the playoffs for three years in a row after the trade, Smith and Jokinen did diddly in Tampa but both have had fine careers after leaving. Smith went to Arizona as a free agent, the underrated goal scorer for hire Jokinen was given away to Carolina for something named Wade Brookbank. That is my list. I left off Nikolai Khabibulin who came from the 'Yotes for a pail of used pucks and was in net and played brilliantly during their Stanley Cup year, shoulda put him up there, he was fantastic but was ordinary for two seasons before that and left for Chicago and never played in Tampa again and was never as good again elsewhere. As far as bad trades, during the Phil Esposito rein there were so many bad ones it is impossible to count but most were small bad, he had no big time talent to squander. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poulin20 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Just 1 correction...Brad Richards, not Mike Richards... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 31, 2016 Author Share Posted May 31, 2016 22 minutes ago, Poulin20 said: Just 1 correction...Brad Richards, not Mike Richards... Damnit, Brad, Mike, Keith, whoever. I cannot feel too bad, I havent called one of my kids by the correct name on the first try in about five years..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 @yave1964 As a long time fan of the team, I gotta say, pretty spot on post. As for some of those bad trades, those were done during the dark days of the team being owned and run by Oren Koules and Len Barrie...and under the GM "guidance" (yes, I know, hysterical!) of Brian Lawton. Wasn't until the team was bought by Jeff Vinik and the subsequent hiring of Steve Yzerman as the GM back in 2010 that the team FINALLY saw stability after years of inconsistency and plain awfulness since its inception in 1992. Back when he ran the team, Phil Esposito's heart was ALWAYS in the right place, but I think history will show that while that was so, his business acumen did not quite match his desire to see the team succeed. Lots of the "small bad trades" came under Esposito (ok, maybe some medium ones too...heh), while the really big blunders (Boyle departing, the trading of Richards for just about nothing for instance) fell squarely on the shoulders on the Koules/Barrie/Lawton joke of an administration. Side note: those were the same clowns who hired Barry Freakin Melrose as head coach!! Some 'good' trades I can personally think of off the top of my head (doing from the memories of a kid...yea, kinda fuzzy), Enrico Ciccone coming to TB while the Bolts sent Joe Reekie to Washington. Reekie was a solid enough stay-at-home type D-man, but hardly anything spectacular...and while Ciccone was nothing more than a pair of fists on skates, he certainly fit in with what the Bolts seemingly were building at the time: a bonafide 90's style goon squad. Sure, the team was horrible, but at least they were attracting fans by assembling some of the meanest men in hockey and beating up (physically) on other teams on a nightly basis....albeit the scoreboard results were less than desirable. Ciccone, Cummins (he was brought in by trading off Robby DiMaio if memory serves), Myhres, Poeschek, Nazarov, just to name a few....yea, hardly a winning combination, but a physically dangerous one, the fans loved it (led to the "Kick Ice" or Kick Your Ice marketing gimmick), and Enrico went on to become one of the more popular player goons in franchise history. Interestingly, Ciccone being traded AWAY to the Blackhawks and getting Patrick Poulin and Igor Ulanov in return could be considered a small "good trade" as well, due to the fact that while Ciccone knew how to beat people up, Poulin and Ulanov were key components to the Bolts making the playoffs for the first time in their history, as underdogs against the mighty Lindros-led Flyers. Bolts lost in six games (a feat in itself, taking the series that far, considering the Bolts were given about as much a chance to win that series as Donald Trump has of becoming the best US president EVER! lol ), but man, that series got the Bolts fans together and for me, personally, became THE moment I transformed into a Bolts (and hockey fan) for life! Some other very good trades I can think of for the Bolts off the top of my head were acquiring an aging Dino Ciccarelli from the Wings for a draft pick that never really amounted to anything for the Wings, getting Cory Stillman from the Blues for a pick, and acquiring Daryl Sydor for that embarrassment of a player, Alex Svitov....Sydor, of course, being an underrated, (along with Stillman) yet very important acquisition that stabilized the Bolts defense and helped make their Cup win in 2004 possible. Side note though: the pick the Bolts traded to the Blues became David Backes, and while it could be argued Backes ended up being a good player the Bolts 'missed out on', fact remains Stillman helped his team to a Cup, while Backes has YET to win anything! Ciccarelli? yea, he wasn't the same player he was for the North Stars or Wings obviously, but the man still had plenty of fight, attitude, and desire and that was infectious not only with his underdog teammates on the Lightning, but with the fans as well, and it further helped cement the idea of hockey in Florida...and acquiring players like him past their primes, yet still with fire, was one of the reasons the Bolts were able to survive during their dark years in Florida to the much more stable franchise they are today. Bad trades, well, those are already mentioned in the opening post. Boyle was basically run out of town by those bums in the Koules/Barrie administration, while Richards' value was NOT properly gauged. Another bad trade: Bolts acquiring Karl Dykhuis and Mikael Renberg from the Flyers for a big package of about 4 or 5 picks...Dykhuis was always a mediocre defenseman, IMO, and Renberg never was the same without John LeClair and Eric Lindros as his linemates. Philly ended up with some decent players with the picks, though I would have to look them up to see who exactly they were Also bad was the trading, re-aquiring and trading of Chris Gratton. Seriously...Gratton was NOT the franchise saving player the Bolts were looking for (though I personally was a fan of his, and looking back now, he was an excellent third liner...though at the time, TB STILL thought him to be a top line C).....and they kept repeating the same trade mistakes with him in hopes he had "finally come around". Wow...I rambled on more than I anticipated...but thank you Yave, for allowing me this stroll down memory lane on my team...both the good and the bad..... 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J0e Th0rnton Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 How far has DeAngelo's stock fallen for him to only fetch a 2nd rounder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 4 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said: How far has DeAngelo's stock fallen for him to only fetch a 2nd rounder? The skill is there...but so is the douchebaggery, terrible decision making and an apparent aversion to playing actual defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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