Ranger trades…from the unusual to just plain weird

Most picks traded in one deal

Draft picks have become a favorite trading chip of NHL general managers, but twice the Blueshirts have made trades that involved four picks.

The first one on June 25, 2004  and it was strictly picks for picks.  The Rangers sent their first round pick (#24) and their second round pick (#46) to Calgary in exchange for their first round pick (#19) and and eighth round pick  (#247).

The Rangers clearly had Lauri Korpikoski as a draft target and were willing to give up two high picks in order to get him.  They did okay on this deal.  Of the two players selected by Calgary, only one (Kris Chucko) played two games for them.

Korpikoski played 68 games for the Blueshirts before being flipped to Phoenix for Enver Lisin.  In his NHL career he played 609 games over nine years.   He is still playing, a teammate of prospect Lauri Pajuniemi for TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga.  Believe it or not, the eight round pick, Jonathan Paiement, is still playing hockey, last with Riviere-du-Loup, a team in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a low level pro league in Canada with the reputation of being the toughest hockey league in the world.  In the 2010-11 season they averaged 3.2 fights per game.

There was one deal that involved four draft picks and one player.  On June 27, 2015, the Rangers sent Cam Talbot and a seventh round pick to Edmonton in exchange for a second, third and seventh round pick in the 2015 draft. Of all of those picks, the only one that may pan out is the seventh rounder the Rangers acquired which they used to draft goalie Adam Huska.

Most players for one

In 1979 the Rangers lusted after defenseman Barry Beck of the Colorado Rockies. A 22 goal scorer in his rookie season, the 6’3″ Beck was an imposing and dominant figure on the ice. After losing to the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final the previous season, the Blueshirts pulled the trigger on a deal that they thought would get them over the top.

On November 2, 1979 they traded five players for Beck, ripping the heart out of the team that had almost won the Cup.  The Rangers gave up forwards Pat Hickey, Lucien DeBlois and defenders Mike McEwen and Dean Turner along with future considerations that turned into Bobby Crawford.

The Rangers gave up players who had scored 65 goals for the team including 20 by McEwen. Beck played seven years in New York, but never lived up to his promise and suffered recurring shoulder injuries that shortened his career.

It’s worth noting a one-sided deal that was an absolute disaster for New York. On June 26, 1999 they swapped goalie Dan Cloutier, forward Niklas Sundstrom and a first and third round pick for Tampa’s first round pick.  Of course, this was the infamous 1999 draft when the Rangers selected Pavel Brendl fourth overall.