It doesn’t happen very often, but it makes for some great
news headlines when it does.
Team drafts/trades for player, team is excited, player is
excited. Fans go nuts.
And then all hell breaks loose.
The most recent example was Evander Kane leaving the
Winnipeg Jets (for Buffalo of all places), then we the sports fans, get to sit
back and poke fun at whoever got the worst of it.
That’s the best part of the breakup, somebody has to lose.
Sometimes nobody gets the better of it, but in every single case, somebody loses
either money, respect, pride, or a fun mix of both.
Here are some of the worst (best) that I could find online:
-Evander Kane and the
Jets, 2014
The long and short of it saw Kane show up to a team meeting.
Apparently everybody else was dressed in a suit (hockey players at almost every
level are required to look good, even at Pee Wee, so what Kane may have been
thinking, I do not know). Some players did not take this too well. One of them
was the big guy on the team, Dustin Byfuglien.
Byfuglien then proceeded to throw some of Kane’s clothes in
a shower stall. When Kane realized this, apparently he went home and the team
could not reach him until about an hour prior to game time. Not cool, Kane. This
may have not been quite so bad had Kane not been photographed from a hotel room
in Las Vegas pretending to talk to Floyd Mayweather on a phone made of 100
dollar bills.
Who won? Right
now, the Jets won because they no longer have to deal with this clown, I have
trouble believing that Kane wins because now he is stuck in Buffalo, one of the
worst franchises in the league. And to further the problem, they just traded their
starting goaltender (Michal Neuvirth) for the NYI backup goaltender (Chad
Johnson). Don’t see this as a win for Kane; at least the Jets will probably make
the post season; plus they got Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford in the deal.
-Dany Heatley and the
Senators, 2009
This is the spoiled brat story for the ages. This is the
dude that killed a past teammate (unintentionally we hope) while speeding in a
Lamborghini) then got traded to Ottawa where he became a flat-superstar,
scoring 50-goals in two seasons and establishing himself as one of the most
unstoppable forces in the game. He also scored 4 times in the all-star game one
year.
Then all hell broke loose.
The team struggled, and then Heatley decided that he did not
like the team’s new head coach, Corey Clouston.
Then, because of the no-trade clause in his contract,
Heatley got to choose the team he would be dealt to.
Ottawa then had a deal worked out with the Oilers (of all
teams) as a destination, however that was not good enough for Heater either.
Plus, the dilemma dragged out for so long that the Sens were forced to pay out
a $4 million roster bonus even though the sniper wasn’t playing.
Ottawa wound up granting Heatley’s request, sending him to
San Jose in a deal that fetched Milan Michalek as the main component in return;
Jonathan Cheechoo and a draft pick were also in the package. At the time, it
was seen as a lopsided win for the Sharks. The Senators eventually took Heatley
to court in attempt to win their bonus money back.
According to the Ottawa Sun in a story dated Oct. 22, 2013,
the Senators were able to get some of the money back.
Who won? The
Senators, easily. Heater had one strong season in San Jose. He was there for a
total of 2 seasons. He played injured a lot, despite a trip to the Conference
Finals in 2010 where the Sharks were swept by the Blackhawks. The following
season was his worst. He was dealt to the Minnesota Wild and has been bouncing
around ever since.
Heater is now signed with the Florida Panthers; Milan
Michalek, on the other hand, remains a relatively strong part of the Senators.
-Ilya Kovalchuk and
the Devils, 2013
Three years into this 15-year deal, Kovalchuk decided that
he would rather go back home and play in the KHL. I think that tells you who
won the conflict right there. Now we should all be wondering at what point Kovy
decides to try and make a return to the NHL.
-Paul Kariya and the
Mighty Ducks, 2003
Kariya was the first draft pick of the then-Anaheim Mighty
Ducks. He did everything for them except win the Stanley Cup in 2003 (they came
up one game short to be exact). The team owed him a qualifying offer at that
point, for the value of his contract ($10M). They decline to make it. Kariya
did not like that. Not one bit. Kariya had been the face of the franchise for
10 years in Anaheim.
This made him an unrestricted free agent and could go
anywhere he chose.
He signed a contract, and shocked everybody in the process.
It was worth only $1.2M with the Colorado Avalanche.
Who won? Kariya
did not win. He didn’t win anything. He had his first disappointing year in the
NHL. The Avalanche were already heavily loaded with offensive stars, expected
to win the Stanley Cup; and the following season was wiped out by the lock out.
Kariya wound up spending the next 5 seasons between
Nashville and St. Louis and did not regain that superstar status. As for the
Ducks, they missed the playoffs without Kariya in 2004, rebuilt themselves, and
actually won the Cup 3 years later.
-Eric Lindros and the
Flyers, 2001
Eric Lindros won the Hart Trophy and took his team on a hell
of a ride to the Stanley Cup final in 1997…all this came after all the
craziness of the draft which saw the Flyers outbid the entire league to acquire
Lindros since he had refused to play for the team that drafted him originally,
the Quebec Nordiques.
In my mind, he was doomed from that very day. Great player
(for awhile). Bad attitude.
Come 2000, he started falling victim to the deadly
concussion, and other health problems. Then he attempted to make a heroic
return to the conference finals but was sent right back to the hospital after
Scott Stevens nailed him near the blueline, and he was done like dinner,
completely.
The ‘fun’ part began when he refused a two-way qualifying
offer from the Flyers. He told GM Bobby Clarke that he wanted to be traded to
one team, and one team only, that was the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Furthermore, if Clarke could not make a deal with the Leafs,
Lindros would sit out the entire season; he ended up doing that.
The Leafs nearly had him on 2 separate occasions, both times
missed so Lindros gave Clarke more destination teams to which he would accept a
trade.
Finally they found a deal with the Rangers, but all that
arguing probably cost Lindros his entire career, he never dominated. He was
granted his original wish, to play for the Leafs, but that didn’t go well,
either.
He is probably sitting at home somewhere right now as I write
this.
-Chris Pronger and
the Oilers, 1999
Pronger had arrived in Edmonton and in his first year with
the Oilers, the team went on a wild playoff run that saw them lose in the
Stanley Cup final to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Once that playoff run ended, he said he wanted out.
Nobody has a clue why he made that decision. My guess is his
wife decided that she was sick of Oil town (remember another NHL superstar that
put Edmonton back on the map then asked for a trade because his wife wasn’t
from town???).
Edmonton sent Pronger to Anaheim (big surprise-it isn’t cold
down there), in exchange for Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid and draft picks.
Sadly for Canadian hockey fans (and Oiler fans), the superstar
won a Stanley Cup down in Anaheim in 2007. The Oilers had to do what they could
with what they got (Jordan Eberle) but their franchise has looked like a
cyclone hit it, ever since. Not good.
Who won? Ducks of
course.
-Pavel Bure and the
Canucks, 1999
One of the least-known breakups in pro hockey was between
Pavel Bure (the Russian Rocket) and the Vancouver Canucks. Bure was one of the
most electrifying hockey players during the 1990s. He could dipsy-doodle around
everybody the same way Patrick Kane does today. Bure had a pair of 60-goal
seasons and he led the Canucks to the 1994 Stanley Cup final which they came up
short in 7 to the Rangers.
Bure made 5 all-star teams too. It wasn’t all fun and games,
though. There were contract disputes and a rumoured threat of a holdout during
the playoffs.
After the 1997-98 season, Bure informed the team that he
would not report the following seasons, saying he was unhappy with the
organization. Bure remained in Moscow during training camp.
Vancouver finally traded the unhappy superstar to the
Florida Panthers.
Who won? Hard to
argue against Bure. He had 98 points in the first season (1999-2000) and was
league scoring champ, the following year he scored 59 goals. Vancouver got Ed
Jovanovski in the Bure deal so they did not get completely ripped off.
-Patrick Roy and the
Canadiens , 1995
Nobody on the Montreal Canadiens roster in the early 1990s
had a stronger impact on the team than goaltender Patrick Roy.
That all changed one night in December of 1995 when the Detroit
Red Wings rolled into town.
They absolutely destroyed Patrick Roy. Absolutely destroyed
him. He had nothing that night and it wound up being his last with the Habs.
The Wings beat Roy 9 times on 26 shots and the Canadiens’
‘faithful’ gave it to him too.
That was end of Roy in Montreal. He got suspended after he
told team president Ronald Corey that he played in his last game for Montreal.
He was traded to the Avalanche. Roy hadn’t gotten along with the new coach
hired in Montreal Mario Tremblay, but the 11-1 loss was clearly what moved him.
Who won? The Avs
won, big time. Roy led them to their first Stanley Cup that year (if you are a
Habs fan, that had to hurt), and Colorado won another Cup in 2001.
The Habs were roasted like Charlie Sheen on Comedy Central,
for not getting anything back for Roy. Montreal hasn’t returned to the Cup
since Roy played for them.
Labels: Jeffrey P. S.