Scott Gomez Trade Tree Between the Rangers and Canadiens
Let’s go back to the ancient year of 2009. That doesn’t feel too long, but it was 14 years ago. Your New York Rangers were looking to move forward, Scott Gomez. They picked him up as a free agent in the summer of 2007 when he signed a 7-year, $51,500,000 contract with an average annual value of $7,357,143 because Glen Sather’s contracts were just something else. He was picked up in free agency from the Devils.
After having a 33-goal season in 2005-06, where he finished with 84 points in 82 games, this seemed like a player that could become a star in the league. But in 2006-07, he seemed to take a step backward when he only produced 13 goals and 47 assists for 60 points in 71 games. As he headed into free agency, the Rangers took the big homerun swing on this player to see if it would work on Broadway.
Seeing the Rangers’ history of chasing star talent wherever possible, this seems on brand. However, this didn’t go too well for the Rangers. In his first season with the Rangers, Gomez had 16 goals and 54 assists for 70 points in 81 games. It’s fine, but this was a lot of money at the time because the salary cap was about $60 million, not the $83.5 million it is now.
In year two of this deal, Gomez had 16 goals and 48 assists for 58 points. This was just a clear indication that he would not be the goal scorer the Rangers were hoping for, so they started to explore the trade market before the opening of free agency in 2009. On June 30th, there was a deal struck between Glen Sather and the Montreal Canadiens that would move Scott Gomez to Quebec.
I’m sure you can already see the big name we’ll get to that makes this trade tree a grand slam for the Rangers, but we’re not there yet. This was designed to be a deal that allowed the Rangers to shift the contract out of town without taking back any major salary, and the Canadiens were willing to try and give Gomez the chance to be what he was back in New Jersey after the lockout.
Montreal’s Side
Let’s start with the Canadiens’ side. Scott Gomez had a fine time in Quebec but never reached the 30-goal mark he set in New Jersey. Besides that superb season in Jersey, he never hit the 20-goal plateau at any other point in his career. In Montreal, his goal-scoring seemed to deteriorate season after season.
In 2009-10, he had just 12 goals but tacked 47 assists onto that for 59 points. It’s not a bad season, but it’s still underwhelming for how much he was being paid. As time progressed, his production started to drop as he put up seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points in 80 games in 2010-11 and just two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 38 games in 2011-12.
After that season, the Canadiens bought out Gomez, and he never really found another home. He had spells in San Jose, Florida, St Louis, and Ottawa and even briefly returned to New Jersey, but the tank was empty, and Gomez was not the player he had been when he was a point-per-game player so many years ago. A career ended after declining for so long, and it was sad to see.
Montreal also got Tom Pyatt in this deal. He scored 12 points in 101 games for the Canadiens before signing in to Tampa as a free agent. Michael Busto never played hockey at any level higher than the ECHL and retired after spending most of his career in France. This leaves the Canadiens’ side of this deal over, so I wanted to start with the far less complicated half of this trade tree.
Rangers side
We’ll get to the big one later. Let’s start with Pavel Valentenko. He played in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack for two years but never quite got into the big leagues. Doug Jenik’s deal expired the day after, and he signed with Detroit, so these two do not affect this trade tree in any way. This is the simple part because the other two do, so let’s go and jump down that rabbit hole.
Chris Higgins would play 55 games with the Rangers finding the net six times and adding eight helpers for 14 points. Not special, but it is a point total the Rangers got from the Gomez deal nonetheless. Higgins would be traded to the Calgary Flames before the end of the season in an attempt to help the Rangers bolster for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Higgins was packaged with Ales Kotalik, a spare forward for most of his career, and sent to the Calgary Flames for journeyman Olli Jokinen and a bit of sandpaper in Brandon Prust. Neither guy would re-sign in New York, so this branch of the trade tree does end here, but wherever possible, I like to add this little bit of unique trivia.
Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust were traded for each other. Prust was sent to Arizona as part of the package for Jokinen, and then the Coyotes decided to send him back before the Flames sold them off to the New York Rangers. How often can you think of two guys traded for each other being packaged off in a deal? It’s just a unique situation I thought I’d mention.
However, this leaves us with the big one, so let’s dive into it.
Ryan McDonagh’s branch
As we get to the fourth player in this deal for the Rangers, it is by far the most significant. Former New York Ranger captain Ryan McDonagh was the other piece, and this is where a deal that looked somewhat average for both sides becomes a homerun shot for the Blueshirts. Not just a home run at Yankee Stadium, either. This gets smashed out of almost every stadium in the world.
McDonagh spent eight years as a New York Ranger. He was made captain after Ryan Callahan’s trade to Tampa in 2014. During his 516 games as a member of the New York Rangers, McDonagh recorded 51 goals and 187 assists for 238 points as a member of the Blueshirts. He played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and was a warrior on the blueline for many years.
However, all good things come to an end. During the 2017-18 NHL season, the New York Rangers wrote a letter telling the fans that they would undergo a retooling because they did not believe they could win the Stanley Cup with the core they had in place. As the deadline ticked closer, key parts would be dealt away, and the Rangers would start their descent into the basement of the NHL, and on February 26th, 2018, McDonagh was dealt.
McDonagh was packaged with J.T. Miller and sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Vladislav Namestnikov, a 2018 1st-round pick, and a 2018 2nd-round pick. This was quite the haul for the Blueshirts captain. McDonagh would win back-to-back Stanley Cups as a member of the Lightning, so he did get his championship eventually.
To tie up the easy ends here, the 2018 2nd round pick was used to draft center Karl Henriksson who is still in the organization. He was playing with the Hartford Wolf Pack last season. Libor Hajek was not qualified and walked away from the organization as an unrestricted free agent this summer. As far as I can see, he’s still not signed anywhere at the time of writing.
Vladislav Namestnikov was traded to Ottawa for Nick Ebert and a 2021 4th-round pick. Ebert left the organization after the season. The pick became Kalle Väisänen, still on the Rangers reserve list.
Moving on to Brett Howden, he was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2022 4th-round pick that became Noah Laba, who is still in the organization, and Nick DeSimone, who left the hockey club.
Finally, the 2018 1st-round pick. This was used to select defenseman Nils Lundkvist. Lundkvist was dealt to the Dallas Stars in exchange for a 2023 1st-round pick and a conditional 2025 4th-round pick that can still become a 3rd if Lundkvist puts up 55 points or more in his first 2 seasons in Dallas. That 1st round pick was used in the package that brought Vladimir Tarasenko to New York at the deadline in 2023.
This deal is still developing, so it will be a while until we see this trade tree finalized, but we know that the Rangers win this deal quite comfortably. To get back a future captain for a man that would be bought out a few years after the trade is a massive success. To get everything else the Rangers have from this deal almost 15 years ago is great work by the Blueshirts organization.