Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
That mid-season holdout had lasted for all of 24 hours, and only happened because of the incompetence of the very same general manager who made the trade. You certainly can't use it to excuse him, with or without the benefit of hindsight.
As for Leeman, he had already fallen off the cliff. His track record made it clear that he was only a prolific scorer if you put him on a line with a top-quality playmaking centreman. The Flames had just one player on their roster who could have got the most out of Leeman: Doug Gilmour. So after they traded Gilmour for Leeman, all they had to do was put him on Gilmour's line… errr…
After that horrible beginning, the more players Risebrough added to the deal, the worse it got. Even on the day of the trade, it was obvious that it was a complete botch.
If you were to talk about a trade that seemed to make sense at the time but went sour in retrospect, that would probably do a better job of supporting your point.
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And as far as I know, Risebrough has never really owned up to how badly he misjudged the talent he had and the "talent" he received. I agree with the opinion expressed earlier, that not only was this the worst trade in Flames history, it is a good candidate for the worst in NHL history. The multiplayer trade that gave the Bruins Phil Esposito is often mentioned as the worst, but at least Chicago got legitimate NHLers in return. The five that Calgary received were part of the reason the Leaves were flirting with last place at the time of the trade.