Naslund trade no big deal back then
The NHL's second leading scorer, and potential Hart Trophy Candidate, Markus Naslund, is coming to town Tuesday night to play the Penguins.
Undoubtedly, you will be hearing and reading a lot about the trade that sent him from the Penguins to the Vancouver Canucks in March of 1996 for another former first-round draft choice and tough guy, Alek Stojanov.
In a recent Sports Illustrated article on Naslund and his linemates, Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison, writer Michael Farber referred to the Naslund deal as the "worst trade in NHL history," almost as if it is a simple matter of fact. While it is true that trades are ultimately judged over time, it is also never fair to discount the situation at the time the trade was actually consummated. When analyzing which team got the best of the other, this particular trade is so utterly lopsided that there is really no debating it.
Since the trade was made, Naslund has scored 217 goals, 222 assists for 439 points, while Stojanov scored two goals and four assists for the Penguins in 45 games and was ultimately released.
However, it is only fair to consider the other important details that led to the trade in the first place.
First of all, the Penguins were absolutely loaded with talent in 1995-96. Naslund, a right winger, had Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Miller, Glen Murray and Tomas Sandstrom ahead of him on the depth chart. Eddie Johnston, who was coaching the team at the time, tried Naslund on the left wing with Mario Lemieux, where he showed flashes of brilliance on some nights and lapses in judgement and confidence on most others.
Naslund was always great in training camp, and in practice, but for some reason, his brilliance rarely translated in games. And his heart was questioned on many occasions. Still, he scored 19 goals and 52 points in 66 games in the 1995-96 season, which, believe it or not, was the ninth highest total on the team.
I must admit that I was one of the folks who wondered out loud whether or not Naslund would ever reach his potential. I used to say that he picked the wrong sport and should have been a tennis player instead of a hockey player. I was not alone in my assessment.
"(Naslund) wasn't a very good player when we acquired him," said Maple Leafs general manager Pat Quinn, who was managing the Canucks at the time of the trade.
Naslund did struggle early on in Vancouver, too, and scored only 14 goals in 76 games in the 1997-98 season.
"When the trade was made, we were in need of some skill, and Pittsburgh was looking for some toughness. It made sense at the time."
Quinn referred to Stojanov as a "lovely boy," which isn't exactly the kind of description you often hear from the lips of a NHL GM.
Stojanov had been a fairly productive player with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League.
He was 6-foot-4', 225 pounds, had decent hands, and was pretty good with his fists. You might remember that he suffered an abdominal injury when he was involved in a car accident during the 1996-97 season and apparently never fully recovered. There is really no way to determine whether or not he would have held up his end of the bargain had he not been injured. He played a couple of good games for the Penguins when he was healthy, but there was very little evidence at the NHL level by which to judge his potential, although the fact that Stojanov had been kicking around the lower minor leagues for the past few years, and is now apparently out of hockey, is evidence that he was probably not very good in the first place.
During the 1990s, it almost seemed that 40-goal scorers were growing on trees. Naslund appeared to be one notch below the great players we had come to know between 1988 and 1994. People like Kevin Stevens, Joe Mullen, Rick Tocchet, Petr Nedved and Tomas Sandstrom. We were spoiled, and GM Craig Patrick, whose patience is legendary, simply made the deal with Vancouver because he and his staff believed that they would be better served in the playoffs with some grit and toughness to complement the great skill the team already possessed. The Penguins made it to the conference finals that season, so their emphasis on preparing for the playoffs was well-founded.
Naslund has not only developed into one of the best pure goal-scorers in the game, he has also become a great leader as captain of the Canucks. No one would have predicted that in 1996.
Look at it this way. Naslund was a great draft pick for Patrick and his scouting staff in the summer of 1991, only a month after the Penguins had won their first Stanley Cup. He just came along at a time when the Penguins were blessed with more than enough of what he had to offer.
Besides, he probably would have been traded by now, anyway, because the Penguins would not have been able to afford him.
