Why mike richards got traded

General manager Paul Holmgren confirmed to the newspaper that they did not participate but said they were not the only players to decline. But Holmgren called it "preposterous" that Carter and Richards were traded because of their drinking. Carter's agent denied the allegations, while neither player nor Richards' agent returned requests from the paper for comment.

The Richards trade was much more out of nowhere than the Carter one, as it is relatively unprecedented for a team to trade its captain during his prime. But that is exactly what happened, and the reward was hefty. Philadelphia received Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds in return for Richards, as well as a second-round pick in the draft. Schenn, at the time just two years removed from being a top prospect and the fifth overall selection in the draft, was the big piece of the deal.

He got off to a really slow start in Philadelphia, however, dealing with injuries and scoring only 18 points in 54 games in his first year in orange and black. But last season, he started to get more comfortable, and for the season, he's really stepped up.

Despite battling for time with Sean Couturier and seeing a lot of action out of position on the wing, Schenn has been very productive both offensively and defensively. Simmonds was considered merely a solid role player who would was a nice complement to Schenn in the trade. But he really surpassed expectations right away, and Philadelphia immediately took to the scrappy winger. Now 25 years old, some would even say that a Simmonds-for-Richards straight-up deal would have been relatively even for both sides.

Sound crazy? Check out the stat sheet. RW Francis Perron. OTT Acquires. C Chris Tierney. D Dylan DeMelo. LW Rudolfs Balcers. C Josh Norris. Turns out the Hoffman trade was the second biggest deal involving a former Senator and the Sharks. Karlsson was viewed as a game-breaking offensive-defensemen who gave the Sharks an elite backend it was already pretty good beforehand. At the time, this deal was viewed as a clear win for the Sharks, who didn't have to give up any of their best young players and only one first.

But then the Sharks lost in the Western Conference Finals, Karlsson got hurt a bunch and signed a bloated extension, and the Sharks fell to the basement in , with their first round pick belonging to Ottawa. Suddenly, Alexis Lafreniere or some other top prospect is likely to find their name in this three. Regardless of how it ages, this is one of the biggest blockbusters in recent memory. The 5th Montreal acquired for one of the picks in the Mike Hoffman to Florida deal was traded at least year's draft to Florida, because who else?

LW Taylor Hall. C Blake Speers. NJ Acquires:. C Nick Merkley. C Nathan Schnarr. D Kevin Bahl. Over a year after I wrote this article, I came back looking to see if there were any more trades to add, and yeah, this is a big one. The Islanders traded a pick to the Flyers who traded it to the Coyotes who used to draft Schnarr, one of the three prospects sent to New Jersey for Hart winner Taylor Hall. Coronavirus and an extension may change how we look at this trade in a few years, but for now, it seems like a lose-lose.

The Devils arguably got more for 3rd liner Blake Coleman than Hall, who has struggled with the Coyotes, who have fallen from 1st in the Pacific to likely missing the playoffs for the ninth straight season. Time will tell which prospect s pan out best. WPG Acquires. With their blue-line depleted due to free agency and the Dustin Byfuglien saga, the Jets needed a blue-liner at this year's deadline.

DeMelo was having a nice season in Ottawa and is a pending UFA, so the Jets ponied up a 3rd round pick to acquire him. A pretty standard deadline rental. DeMelo was off to a nice start in Winnipeg, but now it remains to be seen if he'll ever play another game for the Jets. And with that move, that does it for the Richards trade tree.

For now. Obviously, more moves could happen to extend the tree one happened as recently as this Monday , but for now, this is as far as it goes. Now, on to Carter. CBJ Acquires. C Jeff Carter. RW Jakub Voracek. Just to clarify, this is the start of an entirely new trade tree. In part 2 of their massive shakeup, the Flyers made out similarly, acquiring two core pieces and a mid-round pick in exchange for a franchise center. Voracek was a top pick himself, and has been a staple of the Flyers offense since he arrived, posting 2 point seasons.

Couturier took a bit longer to develop, but a point breakout season saw him finally realize his potential. As for Cousins LW Brendan Warren. C Nick Cousins. G Merrick Madsen.

Cousins was a decent player in one and a half seasons in Philadelphia, but the Flyers had a log-jam at forward in the summer of As a result, Cousins was dealt along with an ok goalie prospect in Madsen for a 5th and a mediocre prospect in Warren, who likely won't receive an ELC from Philadelphia.

It seems like we might be done. Just like the Richards trade, it only takes one asset to lead us down the rabbit hole. LAK Acquires. D Jack Johnson. With the Kings looking to boost their team for a playoff run in , they elected to reunite Richards with Carter, who was frusturated in Columbus.

Neither Johnson nor Dano lived up to their hype, while Carter is still a fixture of the Kings' top-6 today. LW Brandon Saad. C Alex Broadhurst. D Michael Paliotta. C Artem Anismov. C Marko Dano. LW Jeremy Morin. RW Corey Tropp. The first Brandon Saad trade makes an appearance as well, as Dano was part of the package that sent to Columbus. This was a blockbuster, as the Blackhawks were just coming off their 3rd Stanley Cup in 6 years, the 2nd one Saad was a part of.

Still, he was due for a raise, and the Blackhawks needed both cap space and help down the middle, and got both in Anismov. Although of course we know his career in Chicago and spolier alert: his time on this trade tree wasn't done. Give it some time though. D Jay Harrison. The big story of this move isn't Ladd being moved for help at the deadline for a Blackhawks squad ready to defend their title in , nor was it Dano being moved for the 2nd time since being drafted 3 times if you count the pick itself.

No, for these purposes, it's Fraser's inclusion, as he becomes the only player to be in both Richards' and Carter's trade trees which could change in the future, of course.

Dano is still a Jet now, but only after Colorado claimed him off waivers, played him a few games, then put back on, where he was subsequently claimed by Winnipeg and sent to the AHL, now in serious danger of becoming a bust. Speaking of draft busts, get a load of this pure pick trade at the draft floor in Simmonds and Schenn combined for 56 goals during the regular season, with 31 coming from Simmonds alone as he continues to be one of the NHL 's best power forwards and net-front players on the power play.

What makes the return so impressive for the Flyers more than four years later is that, in hindsight, the deal looks to have been perfectly timed. Even though Richards still give the Kings a couple of really good years two-way hockey, his overall play and production started to decline as soon as he arrived in Los Angeles. Again: Simmonds and Schenn, the two players the Flyers acquired for him, combined to score 56 this season alone, while Schenn is still younger than Richards was at the time of the trade.

That number will obviously go up next season when Voracek and Couturier start their new deals Schenn will also be due a raise , but all four players are still at ages where they should still be near the peak of their playing careers in the league.

It's also going to come at a time where the Flyers' impressive collection of young defensemen is going to start hitting the NHL.

In the end, even though the Flyers had to take a step backwards in the immediate aftermath of the Richards and Carter deals mainly because of some of the other moves they made at the time -- like the entire Ilya Bryzgalov era, not to mention the career of Chris Pronger coming to an end they are a better team today, and will be a better team in the immediate future, than they would have been had they not made them.