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Red Wings fans remember the heartbreakersCNNSI.com looked at a few of the transactions that made Red Wings 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:
It may not be a transaction in the truest sense, but this event certainly changed the fortunes of one of hockey's most storied franchises. It's a warm, sunny evening in June 1997. The Red Wings have just steamrolled their way to their first Stanley Cup in 42 years. Everyone in Detroit has been celebrating for nearly a week -- the entire state is euphoric (as witnessed by the 1.5 million fans at the victory parade a few days earlier). Suddenly a news wire reports that defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov was involved in an auto accident, and has suffered serious head injuries, and is in critical condition.
In the blink of an eye, the mood of the entire town changes to disbelief, then sorrow; as we receive confirmation that Vlady is in a coma. Most of us know that he eventually came out of the coma, but 3 1/2 years later, he is still confined to a wheelchair, and has very limited use of his legs. It was a cruel twist of fate that night ... and the Red Wings have been trying to replace his loss (with very limited success, ever since.
it was the day Bob Probert signed to play with the hated rival Chicago Blackhawks! That was the last place I thought he would play considering all the fights between the two teams.
So many overlooked -- how about the hiring of Ned Harkness, who took a team that finished four points out of first place in 1969-70 and traded it into the worst team in hockey? Or drafting Fred Williams fourth in 1976, when Bernie Federko was available? (It was not as if they did not know about Federko -- he and Williams played on the same junior hockey team!) How about Red Kelly for Marc Rheaume? Kelly would win four Stanley Cups in Toronto and Rheaume did nothing except show Red Wing fans how to spell an unusual name? Signing Rogie Vachon (who was essentially past it) and losing No. 1 overall pick Dale McCourt as compensation? Trading Peter Mahovlich for Bart Crashley? Roger Crozier for one year of Tom Webster and a few seasons of Ron Stackhouse? Losing four in a row in the 1966 Final, three of them on home ice? The 1967-1983 spell when the Wings made the playoffs twice, winning three games? Mailing in a 13-0 loss to Toronto in 1971? Giving Terry Sawchuk to Boston and then giving up Johnny Bucyk to get him back?
Your first five picks are almost highlights compared to some of these!
Ned Harkness was brought in from a successful coaching career at Cornell to take over the Detroit Red Wings in the 70s. He ended up absolutely ruining the Red Wings for many years to come with his lack of professional hockey understanding and management skills. Gordie Howe was let go and it just set the stage for one of the Original Xix hockey teams to decay into the Dead Wings.
Hockey was all but dead in Hockeytown. It wasn't until the time that Steve Yzerman came along about 20 years later that the Wings started to revitalize.
When my beloved Red Wings traded Mike Vernon to San Jose for DRAFT PICKS! Right after he won them the Stanley Cup as well. Think we'd be having goaltending trouble right now if Vernie was still backstopping us? I highly doubt it.
In the late 1970s, Detroit Red Wings GM and former legend Ted Lindsay traded the Wings' captain Dan Maloney to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maloney had been obtained by the Wings from the L.A. Kings as compensation for losing Marcel Dionne, and soon made everyone in Detroit forget the little whiney sniper.
Maybe not the most skilled player on the ice, Maloney's talent was leadership and elevating the play of his teammates. It was due to his presence that the Red Wings made their one playoff appearance of the late 70s, during a time when they were among the worst, most mismanaged teams in hockey at any level and known around the NHL as the Dead Things. The Red Wings lost a player with a combination of passion for the game and a fearsome checker the likes of which was not seen in Detroit until Vladimir Konstantinov hit his stride.
Being a Red Wings fan, there was no worse trade than Paul MacLean and Adam Oates for Bernie Federko and Tony McKegney. Seeing Oates and Hull together and then watch Federko wither away his final season in the NHL with a sub-par Wings team did not help.
For all the Red Wing fans out there I'll tell you one that was worse than the Bernie Federko for Adam Oates trade: How about the Troy Crowder for Randy McKay debacle? At least Bernie played after he got traded. Crowder hurt his back and was never seen again. McKay is one of those guys you win Stanley Cups with, and he has, but not with Detroit.
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Though not technically a transaction, dozens of Wings fans cited Vladimir Konstantinov's crippling car crash as their biggest heartbreak.