10 times an NHL team traded its star and made out just fine
Welcome to the NHL’s week of awkward homecomings. On Wednesday, Brady Tkachuk returns to Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa to face the Senators for the first time since they traded him to the Florida Panthers at his request. Tkachuk played eight seasons in Ottawa, including five as captain, but he also hurt the fan base by asking out only months after stating he was committed to the franchise. That means he’ll probably see a blend of cheers and jeers on Wednesday, and he’s at peace over whatever happens.
Superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes’ own return comes Sunday night when his Minnesota Wild travel to Rogers Arena to battle the Vancouver Canucks. Hughes was dealt to Minnesota last December just days after the Wild made their one and only visit to Vancouver, so Quinn has never played a game in Vancouver on the road side. That changes Oct. 25 and, given the backlash over the reported disconnect between him and his teammates while he was captain, the reception should be a mixed one.
It’s always difficult for a franchise and fan base to endure the departure of a beloved player, especially when that player actively rejects the team by indicating he won’t sign a contract extension and/or requesting a trade.
And while it’s true that these types of dagger-to-the-heart deals don’t always go well for the team trading a star – I covered the most famous examples here – sometimes, the team that loses its icon fares just fine in the end.
So if you’re a Senators or a Canucks fan hoping the loss of Tkachuk and Hughes will be looked at as positive franchise turning points someday: here are 10 examples in NHL history when that actually happened.
1990: Blackhawks trade Denis Savard, welcome Chris Chelios
Savard was pure magic in his Blackhawks prime, a five-time 100-point scorer with breathtakingly awesome puck skills, but the Blackhawks couldn’t pass up the chance to toughen up their defense with a Chicago-born difference maker. Chelios was a Stanley Cup champ and Norris Trophy winner, still in his 20s, by the summer of 1990. But Habs GM Serge Savard was worried about a knee injury Chelios sustained in the 1989-90 season. The medical expertise suggested to the Habs that Chelios’ career could be finished in a couple more campaigns. Oops. Little did they know, he’d play in the NHL until he was 48 years old.. The Habs got a future a Hall of Famer in Savard in the deal, but he was on the downside of his career and was merely a depth piece by the time Montreal won the Cup in 1992-93. Chelios, meanwhile, won two more Norrises on some dominant Blackhawks clubs in the 1990s and helped them reach the Stanley Cup Final in 1991-92.
1992: Nordiques cut losses on Lindros, change entire franchise trajectory
The hype around Lindros was enormous leading up to the 1991 Draft. He was a superstar talent, built like Superman, a 6-foot-5, 228-pound freak of nature unlike anything the NHL had ever seen. The Quebec Nordiques had to take him given he was by far the best available player, but he refused to play for them on account of distrusting Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut and wanting to play in an English-speaking market. Lindros sat out the entire 1991-92 season, playing for Canada’s national team and competing at the 1992 Olympics, before the Nordiques worked out two trades for him before the 1992 NHL Draft, one with the Philadelphia Flyers and the other with the New York Rangers. An arbitrator ruled that the Flyers struck their deal first and the trade was theirs.
The Nordiques were surrendering a generational talent but landed Steve Duchesne, Ron Hextall, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Peter Forsberg, two first-round draft picks and $15 million in the deal. Those pieces helped the Nordiques grow into a Stanley Cup contender immediately, beginning in 1992-93. Forsberg became a superstar, Hall-of-Famer in his own right, and was a crucial pillar of the Colorado Avalanche teams that won the Stanley Cup in 1995-96 and 2000-01 after relocating from Quebec City in 1995. Lindros, meanwhile, became an icon in Philadelphia but never lifted the Stanley Cup.
1994: Tearful Clark farewell brings Sundin to Toronto
Wendel Clark was as beloved as any Toronto Maple Leaf during the franchise’s most successful run since its 1966-67 Stanley Cup win. He was the heart-and-soul captain who could snipe a goal with his wrist shot just as easily as he could pummel an opponent with his fists. He was also fresh off a career-high 46 goals when the Leafs did the unthinkable and traded him to the Nordiques at the 1994 Draft. The move was so painful that it brought Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher to tears, but Clark, then 27, played a style that taxed his body and led to regular injuries. Adding a promising scorer in his early 20s in Sundin was too tempting to pass up, and while it took Sundin a few seasons to endear himself to fans, he wound up becoming the Leafs’ all-time leading scorer and keying two Eastern Conference Final runs. Better yet, the Leafs were able to reacquire Clark later in his career anyway – twice.
1995: Flyers forge Legion of Doom by trading Recchi
Mark Recchi, one of the most underrated scorers of his era, was fresh off consecutive 100-point seasons with a Flyers club that was nevertheless underachieving in the early days of Lindros. Hoping to shore up their defense, they were willing to load up the Habs with a star forward in Recchi. Eric Desjardins proved a prudent acquisition for the Flyers – he sits second on the franchise’s all-time scoring list among D-men – but the other piece they got in the deal, John LeClair, a clutch-scoring middle sixer on the Habs, bloomed into a star as a Flyer. LeClair formed one third of the famed ‘Legion of Doom’ Line with Lindros and Mikael Renberg and, during the NHL’s worst-ever era for offense, was a consistently dominant goal scorer in his prime. In fact, Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey considers LeClair one of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s biggest snubs. He was that good as a Flyer.
1995: Flames say goodbye to one icon, welcome another
Joe Nieuwendyk was Calgary royalty. He was a Calder Trophy winner, a two-time 50-goal scorer and a Stanley Cup winner as a Flame. But they were failing to make deep playoff runs anymore by the mid-1990s and starting to trade away the stars from their 1988-89 peak, from Doug Gilmour to Al MacInnis to, eventually, Theo Fleury. Trading Nieuwendyk, who was locked in a contract dispute with the Flames, in December 1995 netted them Corey Millen and a first-round prospect named Jarome Iginla. All he’d do was become Calgary’s all-time leader in games, goals and points, leading a 2003-04 team that came within a victory of a Stanley Cup. It never feels good to trade an All-Star, but the Nieuwendyk/Iginla swap is among the best win-win deals in NHL history. The Stars were happy with their haul, too, as Nieuwendyk won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP during their 1998-99 championship year.
1997: Oates trade nets Bruins a new star
Adam Oates had enjoyed some of the most dominant seasons of his career during his tenure with the Boston Bruins, but he felt the franchise was in a plateau and made it publicly known that he wanted management to improve his supporting cast. Those comments sealed his fate as a Bruin, and he wound up a Washington Capital in a blockbuster deal that sent him, Bill Ranford and Rick Tocchet to D.C. for a package that included 1995-96 Vezina Trophy winner Jim Carey and young forwards Anson Carter and Jason Allison. While Oates did play a big role in getting the Caps to the 1997-98 Stanley Cup Final, Allison alone made the trade worthwhile for Boston. In his four full seasons with the B’s, he averaged 30 goals and 82 points per 82 games, peaking with a 95-point campaign in 2000-01, during which he was one of the game’s most dominant centers. He helped bridge the gap to Joe Thornton’s rise in Boston.
2001: Senators trade Yashin and build foundation of franchise’s peak
The enigmatic Yashin had his moments as a Senator, none better than the 1998-99 campaign when he compiled 94 points and finished second in the Hart Trophy vote. But the Senators were fed up after multiple incidents over the years in which he’d demanded a new contract and forced a stalemate with the team, and they’d suspended him for all of 1999-00 for his refusal to report. After he returned for one more awkward 2000-01 season in which he was regularly jeered by fans, the Sens had enough and made arguably their greatest trade in franchise history. Yashin netted them checking forward Bill Muckalt, a towering project of a defenseman named Zdeno Chara and the second pick in the 2001 NHL Draft, which they used on Jason Spezza. Chara and Spezza became two of the key members of some powerhouse Ottawa teams in the early 2000s. They erred in keeping Wade Redden over re-signing eventual Hall of Famer Chara when 2006 free agency rolled around, but Spezza was the No. 1 center on a stacked Sens team that reached the 2006-07 Stanley Cup Final. Isles GM Mike Milbury made several big trade blunders in his career, and this one might have been his worst, exacerbated by the fact he signed Yashin to an infamous 10-year contract that the Isles ended up buying out with four seasons remaining on it.
2018: Ryan O’Reilly trade turns from a loss to a win for Sabres
It always stings for a fan base when their team trades a star and he immediately flourishes elsewhere. O’Reilly, who said his time as a Buffalo Sabre killed his love for the game, was an instant hit as a St. Louis Blue. He won the Selke Trophy and the Conn Smythe Trophy, helping the Blues win the Stanley Cup, in 2018-19. But the Sabres’ return in that deal aged beautifully. We can set aside Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, first-round pick Ryan Johnson and second-round pick Ben Roger. Tage Thompson alone made the O’Reilly trade worthwhile for Buffalo. The hulking center, blessed with a devastating shot, is a three-time 40-goal scorer and was part of the 2025-26 Sabres squad that ended its league-record playoff drought at 15 seasons. Thompson has already cracked the franchise’s top 10 in career goals, and he could make a run at the top of the board if he stays a Sabre for the rest of his career.
2018: Trading Karlsson eventually nets Senators Stutzle, Cozens and more
The 2016-17 Senators were an overtime goal away from reaching the Cup Final, and Karlsson was playing as well as any player on Earth at that time. It was a real gut punch, then, to flash forward a year later and see the Sens starting a teardown. Captain Karlsson, who’d won his first two Norris Trophies in Ottawa, was shipped to the San Jose Sharks for a large package that included center Josh Norris, who was flipped as part of a deal for Dylan Cozens the season before last, and the pick that ended up securing Tim Stutzle at No. 3 overall in the 2020 Draft. Ottawa didn’t make the playoffs from 2017-18 through 2023-24 but has made it back the past two seasons, with Stutzle and Cozens key members of their top-six forward group.
2025: Hurricanes flip Rantanen, add Stanley Cup piece in Stankoven
Mikko Rantanen was supposed to be the top-drawer star the Carolina Hurricanes had lacked in the Rod Brind’Amour era, and it was an exciting moment when they acquired him in a three-team blockbuster that sent Martin Necas to the Avalanche and also brought Taylor Hall to Carolina from the Blackhawks. But Rantanen’s game just never fit Carolina’s system, and it was clear to GM Eric Tulsky that Rantanen had no plans to re-sign there as a UFA. So Tulsky made lemonade out of lemons and, six weeks after acquiring Rantanen, flipped him to the Stars for a package that included two first-round picks and young center Logan Stankoven. He had 11 goals and 16 points in 19 games during Carolina’s 2025-26 Stanley Cup run the following season, while the Canes also used one of Dallas’ first-round picks as part of the package that landed them another Cup-win contributor, defenseman K’Andre Miller, from the Rangers. Quite the successful escape by Tulsky from what could’ve been a flop of a deal for Rantanen had he bolted for nothing in 2025 free agency.
_____
_____