How does it work out when a player demands a trade?
By Steve Paulus
An earlier post on Blue Line Station about the speculation that the New York Rangers are interested in a trade for Vladimir Tarasenko generated a lot of interest. From the comments from our readers, it’s clear that Ranger fans feel very strongly about that possibility. With all of this interest, it’s worth looking at some other examples of players forcing a deal.
It’s not uncommon for an NHL player to request a trade. The New York Rangers are deep in the conversation when it comes to two such players this year in Jack Eichel and Tarasenko. How does it usually work out when a star player asks to be moved?
You would believe that a team looking to trade a disgruntled player would have no leverage, but that is not always the case. Unless a player is willing to hold out, the leverage is more in the team’s favor and they will wait to get the best deal possible. Sometimes it can take over a year to satisfy a player’s trade request.
The Rangers have been involved in several such deals with mixed results. Here are some notable Rangers acquisitions.
Jacob Trouba
Most recently, it was Jacob Trouba who made it clear he wanted out of Winnipeg and the Rangers were willing trade partners. At the time, Jets fans screamed bloody murder when they sent the defenseman to New York in exchange for Neal Pionk and a first round draft pick. Now, the consensus is that the Jets may have come out on top.
Pionk has turned into a top pair blueliner for Winnipeg with a better offensive upside than Trouba. With the first round pick the Jets took Finnish defenseman Ville Heinola who is could become a regular on their blueline as soon as next season. Trouba was rewarded with a seven-year, $56 million contract shortly after the trade. Trouba disappointed in his first season, but this year he developed into a real team leader and is on the short list to become team captain.
An onerous long term contract with a No Movement Clause and the fact that with Adam Fox, Zac Jones, Nils Lundkvist and Braden Schneider, the Rangers have a surplus of right shot defenders makes this deal one that the Rangers may regret in the future. For now, it’s pretty even.
Martin St. Louis
In 2014, Marty St. Louis was angry with Tampa General Manager Steve Yzerman who left him off the Canadian Olympic hockey team and he demanded a trade. The only sticking point was that he would agree to go to only one team, the New York Rangers.
You would think that with no leverage at all, Yzerman would have taken anything he could from New York, to satisfy his disgruntled captain. Instead, he got pending free agent Ryan Callahan, a 2015 first round pick and a conditional 2014 second round pick that turned into a first round pick when the Rangers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
As part of the deal, if Callahan re-signed with the Lightning, the Rangers got Tampa’s second round pick in 2015.
So, how did it all work out? One complication is that all of the draft picks were eventually traded by both teams. Here is what the Rangers ended up with:
- Martin St. Louis for one full season and two playoffs.
- Keith Yandle for one full season and two playoffs.
- Chris Summers for six games.
- Prospects Brandon Crawley, Morgan Barron, Adam Huska, Tyler Wall and Tarmo Reunanen.
Tampa ended up with:
- Ryan Callahan for five seasons.
- Anthony Cirelli
- Mitchell Stephens
- Prospects Dominick Masin, Jack Finley, Nick Capone and Daniel Walcott
- Two Stanley Cups
With all of the ensuing trades and drafts, it’s still too early to say who won that deal though the role that Cirelli has played in winning two Cups cannot be overlooked. However, if Morgan Barron can become an integral part of a championship team in New York, the trade may end up in the Rangers’ favor.
Steve Larmer
In 1993, Steve Larmer demanded a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks because he wanted to win a Stanley Cup and felt the team was going nowhere. What made the demand unusual was that he refused to report, ending an 11 year streak of playing every single game. It was an iron man streak of 884 games, third longest in NHL history. He was poised to surpass Doug Jarvis’ record of 964 games, but ended the streak with the holdout.
On November 2, one month into the season, the Blackhawks made a three-team deal with the Whalers and Rangers. New York sent James Patrick and Darren Turcotte to Hartford in exchange for Larmer, Nick Kypreos, prospect Barry Richter and a sixth round draft pick.
Over a barrel, the Blackhawks got a decent return from the Whalers in defenseman Eric Weinrich and forward Patrick Poulin. The Whalers got a top pair blueliner in Patrick and a decent forward in Turcotte.
Larmer was reunited with Mike Keenan, his coach in Chicago, and ended up playing in New York for two seasons before retiring. Chalk this one up in the win column for the Rangers because they won the Stanley Cup.
Those are three memorable trade demands that involved the Blueshirts. There have been some other big ones in NHL history.