Quote:
Originally Posted by Ped
My favourite remains the Gratton offersheet.
Philly frontloaded it with a 9 million dollar signing bonus because Tampa Bay had cash problems. Phil Esposito knew he probably couldn't match, tried to claim the offer sheet was invalid because they couldn't read the fax, and traded Gratton's rights to Chicago for Carney, Moreau, and Dubinsky without telling Chicago that Gratton had signed the offer sheet.
The league upheld the offer sheet, invalidated the trade, and Tampa got 4 1st round picks, which they then traded back to Philly for Renberg and Dykhuis
Gratton had a decent season in Philly but got off to a slow start the next season and was promptly traded back to Tampa Bay... for Renberg.
https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Bill...egins/45/45933 |
That isn't the crazy part of that trade. Gratton gets traded back to the Lightning with Mike Sillinger for Renberg and a disappointing first round pick... Damion Langkow. Langkow then breaks out and gets traded to the Coyotes for a first round pick in 2003, which they use to select Jeff Carter. Carter gets traded to the Blue Jackets for Voracek,
a first and a third... The first turns out to be Couturier and the third turns into Nick Cousins.
That trade has in my opinion been the best trade for any team in the past couple of decades and is still paying dividends in the future. They turned a good player in Gratton into multiple great players.