That trade for sure summed up Al Coates trade negotiating for me. An article afterwards said, well we were shopping Reichel around and not sure what to do but when Marty McInnis' name came up we jumped and knew we had to get the deal done. I liked McInnis, no issues with his effort or time as a flames, but this was a guy who had just put up 40 points in prime icetime for the Isles and while leverage was poor and Reichel was coming off a career worst year where he got 43pts in 70 games, he was a young two time 40 goal man. A layperson could have told you the upside was not in the same ballpark or even league.
His ability to assess pro talent on other teams (or maybe his pro scouts) was probably the worst I've ever seen in a flames regime.
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