What was the worst trade in Flames history?

[FireGilbert]

I'm clearly going crazy thinking Matteau was a defenceman. Still a horrible trade though, Yawney was useless.

[Jay Random]

Yawney was a pretty decent defenceman when he came to Calgary, but he spoiled it with a real bonehead moment. During fitness testing in training camp, he put too much weight on one of the machines (to show off how strong he was) and ripped a pectoral muscle right off its insertion. The thing rolled up in his chest like a tennis ball and had to be surgically reattached. He missed a big chunk of the season, as I recall, and was never really the same afterwards.

[David Struch]

Not the worst trades but...

August 25, 2005

Buffalo Sabres acquire
Toni Lydman

Calgary Flames acquire
2006 3rd round pick (#87-John Armstrong)

March 24, 1998

Calgary Flames acquire
Jason Wiemer

Tampa Bay Lightning acquire
Sandy McCarthy
1998 3rd round pick (#64-Brad Richards)
1998 5th round pick (#121-Curtis Rich)

June 16, 1990

Calgary Flames acquire
1990 1st round pick (#11-Trevor Kidd)
1990 2nd round pick (#32-Vesa Viitakoski)

New Jersey Devils acquire
1990 1st round pick (#20-Martin Brodeur)
1990 2nd round pick (#24-David Harlock)
1990 2nd round pick (#29-Chris Gotziaman)

June 16, 1990

Calgary Flames acquire
1990 2nd round pick (#26-Nicolas Perreault)

Date Pittsburgh Penguins acquire
Joe Mullen

[Samonadreau]

It stings worse when you think we gave Tampa the pick they used for Richards and let St. Louis walk to them for nothing. Ugh.

[David Struch]

This exact details of this trade weren't officially recorded on the NHL books but...

June 26, 1993

Calgary Flames acquire
1993 5th round pick (#121-Darryl LaFrance)

Washington Capitals acquire
"The Chief" Craig Berube

*To get Berube, the Capitals sent the Flames their 5th draft pick and agreed not to take Swedish forward Jesper Mattsson with the 17th pick in the first round. Calgary then took Mattsson with the 18th choice.

With the 17th pick, the Capitals went on to select Jason Allison who scored 42 goals last season for London of the Ontario Hockey League. Though his skating is supposedly a weakness he was hopeful he could "put up the numbers," offensively in time.

Making the deal to ensure Mattsson was available at their pick, the Flames thought they had pulled off another "Loob Job."

[locsofblu]

It's hard not to get pissed off reading all the bone head trades.

[Jakester]

Originally Posted by David Struch

Not the worst trades but...

A
June 16, 1990

Calgary Flames acquire
1990 1st round pick (#11-Trevor Kidd)
1990 2nd round pick (#32-Vesa Viitakoski)

New Jersey Devils acquire
1990 1st round pick (#20-Martin Brodeur)
1990 2nd round pick (#24-David Harlock)
1990 2nd round pick (#29-Chris Gotziaman)

This was less a bad trade than it was a drafting failure. The Flames could have picked Brodeur at #11. Not to mention goalies are a bit of a crapshot at the best of times.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by Jakester

This was less a bad trade than it was a drafting failure. The Flames could have picked Brodeur at #11. Not to mention goalies are a bit of a crapshot at the best of times.

And I say this every time this trade gets brought up, what would Kidd's career have been like playing behind Stevens and Niedermayer, under Jaques Lemaire's dead puck system?

[Jiri Hrdina]

And at the time Kidd was the right pick. He was considered the better goalie at the time.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by GoJetsGo

Phaneuf's perceived value at the time should have landed us more, agreed.

However, if he wasn't traded that contact would have become worse and worse.

I still stand by the above Stajan goal. It won us a playoff series. I still think at the end of the day that would have beat riding out Dion's contact.

Maybe your idea of what his perceived value was, is incorrect. If they could have got more, they would have got more.

I bet everyone talks and everyone knew what a bedwetter phaneuf was. I thought I remember reading shortly after that trade that most teams didn't even want to discuss the idea of a trade in the first place and his value was tanking.

Phaneuf deal aside, After thinking back at all the bad trades the flames have been apart of, to me it feels pretty clear that when you look at all the net good trades it's a much smaller list isn't it? That says we stink at GMing. It never really dawned on my how awful we have been in the trade dept until now.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

I thought I remember reading shortly after that trade that most teams didn't even want to discuss the idea of a trade in the first place and his value was tanking.

Actually , I read that teams said Sutter didn't even let them know that Phaneuf was available and if he did they would've given a better return. It sounded like it was unanimous around the league's executives that Sutter got taken to school by Burke.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

And at the time Kidd was the right pick. He was considered the better goalie at the time.

no kidding...the same people that say it was a disaster are the ones who follow the draft rankings like the gospel each year and lose their #### if Calgary doesn't take the next guy on TSN's list.

hindsight is 20/20

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Maybe your idea of what his perceived value was, is incorrect. If they could have got more, they would have got more.

I bet everyone talks and everyone knew what a bedwetter phaneuf was. I thought I remember reading shortly after that trade that most teams didn't even want to discuss the idea of a trade in the first place and his value was tanking.

Phaneuf deal aside, After thinking back at all the bad trades the flames have been apart of, to me it feels pretty clear that when you look at all the net good trades it's a much smaller list isn't it? That says we stink at GMing. It never really dawned on my how awful we have been in the trade dept until now.

You are too young. The Flames won a lot of trades in the 80s. MacDonald, Risebrough, Wilson, McCrimmon, Bullard, Tonelli, Mullen, Musil, Gilmour. the 90s were a lean time. But Sutter actually won a few early on - Donovan, Ference, Huselius, Langkow, Nilsson, Neimenen, Reinprecht/Warrener, Jokinen, Cammaleri, Backlund (the pick).

[Calgary4LIfe]

If there is one thing to be gleamed out of all of this, it is that the Flames wouldn't have become a good team if they weren't a good drafting team. As soon as they stopped being a good drafting team, they relied too much on trades to try and keep themselves afloat, and it all started blowing up.

Now that they are a fairly good drafting team again, I expect another Stanley Cup soon.

[JD]

We're getting a pretty good glimpse of what CP or twitter could have been like in the 80's and 90's!

Arguments over Ramage vs. Murzyn vs. Macoun vs. Suter, people claiming Trent Yawney was a decent defencemen, people gleaning over the fact that Trevor Kidd was a straight-up dominant star goalie in his junior years. Good fun.

From my recollection, which could be wrong, the Flames' even-strength pairings back in the day were
Murzyn-MacInnis
Suter-McCrimmon
Macoun-Ramage
Nattress

Which is absolutely incredible depth. It's no wonder they didn't miss a beat when Suter went down with that season-ending injury in 1989. But the fact that Murzyn played 1st pairing shows that he was more than just a 3rd pairing scrub. Ramage was probably a better player than him but the coach relied on Murzyn pretty heavily.

MacInnis made a career out of making slugs look pretty good. I remember in 1991 he was paired with Frank Musil and they worked really well together too. It's weird because it's not like MacInnis was a great skater himself, he just played such a strong positional game. His transition game was 2nd to none, he could hit a streaking forward with a crisp pass from anywhere. Wonder what he could have done in today's game with no red line.