Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
People keep talking in this thread like Kiprusoff was some big unknown. That's not really how it was. It was Sutter gambling on a goalie with a high upside who had yet to show it in the NHL and rescuing him from a 3 ring goalie circus. Not sure if you some of you don't remember the particulars or maybe just weren't following it as closely back then.
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He really was an unknown though and if Darryl was really that confident that Kipper would have been that good I'm pretty sure he would have traded for him sooner as if Turek never gets hurt Kipper's probably never a Flame so you can argue if anything it was more a turn of fortunate events than steal. He had played in the range of 40 NHL games and his stats in his last season were poor as he was the odd man out for the Sharks as they clearly liked Toskala better. You can argue at the time of the trade a 2nd round pick was an overpayment for what the Flames were getting. He wasn't nearly as touted as say J.S. Giguere who was also had for a 2nd round pick from the Flames. It's a steal when you look back on it with revisionist history but on the day of the trade it probably wasn't even news in cities other than Calgary or San Jose. We all know Darryl was one of those GM's that felt more comfortable acquiring players (or coaches) he had a history with so Kipper made sense but I doubt Darryl had any idea at the time he just acquired arguably the best goaltender in the history of the franchise.
The Hamilton trade was big news and was considered a steal at the time of the trade as it still is today. The Joe Thornton trade from Boston to San Jose or the Tyler Seguin trade from Boston to Dallas were what I consider steals as the day the were made it was apparent one team was making out like bandits. I suppose this entire debate hinges on the inclusion/exclusion of hindsight.