|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Reactions
Kings fans remember the heartbreakersCNNSI.com looked at a few of the transactions that made Kings fans shout, "Say It Ain't So." Then we opened the mailbag and let users vent on those and other dirty deals from over the years. Here is a sampling of your reactions:
The three promising defensemen kings had in the early 90s have all became what they were supposed to become: quality, if not top-notch, blueliners in the NHL. Darryl Sydor, Alexei Zhitnik and Rob Blake . What do we have in return?
Who's going next?
How about trading Larry Murphy to Calgary? After two great years with the Kings, and setting a record of most goals by a rookie defenseman, the Kings ship him out. (I think for two older playrs, I can't even remember their names!) Murphy is still playing regularly for the Red Wings and is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. What a habit the Kings had of trading future All-Stars. Also: The Kings All-Star team of players selected by OTHER teams with traded Kings draft picks:
G-Tom Barrasso (Buffalo 1983)
Gentlemen you have left out Butch Goring . He was sent to the Islanders, who just happened to win 4 straight Cups, after they acquired him. Hardly a fair deal.
I grew up in LA, watched Blakey's entire career. This trade is really hard to swallow. It doesn't seem like the Kings got much in return nor did they help their Swiss cheese-like goaltending. Rob Blake is the last link to Kings of the past, like Dave Taylor, who was a link to Kings of the more distant past, like Charlie Simmer and Marcel Dionne. This trade may have been inevitable but the Kings' trading history has been very poor. They've traded away Dafoe, Luc, Duchesne, Zhitnik, Gretzky, Bernie Nicholls, Garry Galley, etc. all for little in return. Of course they eventually got some of these players back but after they had productive years elsewhere.
I really thought the team was going in the right direction by getting Ziggy and Stumpel and Reinprecht was looking good too. But now I see them being an occasional 8th seed getting knocked out in the first round, if they make the playoffs at all. They sure aren't making them this year.
I've been a Kings' fan since I was 8, 9 years old, so I've become an expert on futility over the years: 6-20-83: Anders Hakansson form Pittsburgh for the rights to Kevin Stevens . This one I blame on the scouts who raved about what a great player Anders would be, like he was Anders Hedberg or something. 10-18-83: Brian Engblom and Ken Houston from Washington for Larry Murphy . What kind of insane logic does it take to arrive at the conclusion that a defenseman who scores 142 points in his first two NHL seasons is not worth keeping. I was a big Brian Engblom fan, but give me a break, of course I would rather of had an offensive defenseman, which is exactly what they needed at that time. Ken Houston, well he's Ken Houston. Murphy STILL holds the Kings' team record for points in a season by a defenseman. Hindsight obviously makes this look even worse because of the great career he's had, be it was still almost as bad at the time. 7-29-94: Don't even get me started on the time they traded Robitaille away ... freakin' Barry Melrose!
2-14-95: Getting Grant Fuhr and Philippe Boucher was also a lame one by the Kings. Getting rid of Huddy was no big deal, since they never should've acquired him in the first place (as they tried to reassemble the Oilers), but getting rid of Zhitnik just because he'd had a little trouble was ridiculous. A washed up goalie and an already injured defenseman in Boucher were not just compensation for a burgeoning young defenseman.
As a Kings fan for over 20 years, the most painful trade I can recall is when L.A. dealt Wayne Gretzky to St. Louis in 1996. The Kings NEVER should have dealt The Great One. What bothered me most of all about the deal is how Gretzky's relationship with the team deteriorated over the course of that season. He had done so much for the Kings and hockey in general, that it was a shame to see him go to another team under such strained circumstances. To this day, it appears that Gretzky holds some sort of grudge with the Kings which is too bad since he brought long-sought respectability to this organization.
As a Kings fan, I was quite upset, but not shocked by the Blake trade. It reminded me of the Marcel Dionne trade back in 1987. I had followed the Kings since 1981, when I moved to LA and Dionne was the greatest player. My father always told me to "watch Dionne, see how he's always moving, looking for the puck." Dionne definitely influenced my own playing of hockey ever since. Dionne played for years in the NHL backwaters of the Fabulous Forum, with ugly gold uniforms and no respect from the league. I came back from playing baseball in high school when my brother told me about the trade. I remember Dionne sobbing as he boarded his plane for New York, thanking the fans for "12 wondeful years." He was genuinely broken up, but I wished him well.
I wrote Dionne a short thank you note for all his memories and efforts in the pre-Gretzky era Kings.I sent the card off to the Rangers, wondering if Marcel would even get it. A couple of weeks later I received a signed postcard of Dionne in his Kings uniform, saying "Dear Chris, Thank you, Marcel Dionne." That postcard remains framed in my bedroom at my mother's house in California and I always think of it when I see the No. 16 up on the wall at the Staples Center. No one was more deserving than Marcel Dionne.
|
Darryl Sydor, traded for Doug Zmolek in 1996, won a Cup with Dallas in 1999.