With the NHL trade deadline a few months away, it’s never too early to start thinking about deals.
The Athletic’s Chris Johnston has us covered about what’s on the radar for this year’s market, but we also wanted to have a look back with you — the fans — as the focus.
With that in mind, we asked our staff for one trade each NHL team’s fan base would most likely want to undo.
Due to their limited trade history, the Seattle Kraken and Utah Mammoth were given some flexibility in their picks for this exercise.
Which other trades would you like to undo? Let us know in the comments below.
Anaheim Ducks
Shea Theodore for the Golden Knights’ agreement to select Clayton Stoner in 2017 Expansion Draft (2017)
Trading Teemu Selanne after multiple 50-goal and 100-point seasons, along with three top-five Hart Trophy finishes, was an option, but the Finnish Flash returned to Anaheim for an amazing second act. Sacrificing Theodore so the Golden Knights would take Clayton Stoner off their hands in the expansion draft lingers because the offensive blueliner has been a top-four Vegas staple for years. — Eric Stephens
Boston Bruins
Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley and Ryan Button to the Dallas Stars for Loui Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser (2013)
Seguin, 21 at the time, was already a Stanley Cup winner. The year following the trade, he scored 37 goals. He has played in over 1,000 games. Eriksson, meanwhile, scored 22 goals as a first-year Bruin. Smith, Morrow and Fraser, who accompanied Eriksson in the trade, did not become long-term Bruins. — Fluto Shinzawa
Buffalo Sabres
Jack Eichel to Golden Knights for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and 2022 first-round pick and 2023 second-round pick (2021)
There are plenty of candidates for trades Sabres fans would want to reverse, but the Eichel trade carries the most baggage. Eichel was the player who was supposed to help pull the Sabres out of the basement of the league. Instead, he grew tired of losing, the Sabres wouldn’t let him get his preferred neck surgery and he won the Stanley Cup in Vegas instead. Meanwhile, the Sabres’ playoff drought has hit 14 years. The Eichel era should have been different in Buffalo. — Matthew Fairburn
Matthew Tkachuk won the Stanley Cup twice after leaving Calgary. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
Calgary Flames
Matthew Tkachuk and 2025 fourth-round pick for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and 2025 first-round pick (2022)
The Flames just haven’t been the same since that trade. The haul they returned was solid and could still bear fruit (they used a conditional first on Cullen Potter at the end of the 2025 draft’s first round). It hasn’t led to any playoff success, however. Meanwhile, Tkachuk won the Stanley Cup twice with the Panthers and has emerged as one of the NHL’s most prominent stars. The two franchises went in different directions after that trade. — Julian McKenzie
Carolina Hurricanes
Martin Necas, Jack Drury, 2025 second-round pick and 2026 fourth-round pick for Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall in a three-team deal with the Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks (2025)
The arrangement was more complex than just those four players, but those were the main pieces. Some fans have seller’s remorse for letting Necas go in a trade that didn’t lead to Carolina securing a long-term superstar player, but the deal is more layered. Without the Rantanen acquisition, the Hurricanes never would have ended up with Logan Stankoven, Hall or the extra draft picks that helped them afford the K’Andre Miller trade. This one will be judged for a long time. — Cory Lavalette
Chicago Blackhawks
Brandon Saad, Michael Paliotta and Alex Broadhurst for Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano, Corey Tropp, Jeremy Morin and 2016 fourth-round pick (2015)
The Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup window arguably closed with this trade. There was no real reason to trade Saad; general manager Stan Bowman just blinked first. Sure, they were tight for cap space, but Saad had no leverage without arbitration rights. He could have sat out without a deal, but he was a young player on a veteran team and would have likely caved. Saad’s departure had a greater impact on the Blackhawks than expected, and they never fully recovered. — Scott Powers
Colorado Avalanche
Chris Drury and Stephane Yelle for Derek Morris, Dean McAmmond and Jeff Shantz (2002)
In his first four seasons, Drury racked up 85 goals and 137 assists, won the Calder Trophy, and scored 11 goals on the way to winning the Stanley Cup in 2001. Then Colorado traded him and Yelle to Calgary for Morris, McAmmond and Shantz. Morris scored only 17 goals in two seasons for Colorado, while McAmmond played in only 41 games, and Shantz scored three goals in his lone season with the club. It was about as bad a trade as you can make. — Jesse Granger
Columbus Blue Jackets
Jake Voracek, 2011 first and third-round picks for Jeff Carter (2011)
The Blue Jackets were desperate — desperate! — to find a center who could play with Rick Nash, and they hoped Carter was the answer. He wasn’t, and he didn’t want to be, either. Carter never clicked with Nash, pouted constantly and was traded the following February. Worse, the Blue Jackets gave up Voracek, a highly skilled winger who played over 1,000 games and scored more than 800 points. There were two draft picks in the trade, too, and Philly turned them into Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins. — Aaron Portzline
Dallas Stars
The No. 28 pick in 2003 for Nos. 36 and 54 from the Anaheim Ducks (2003)
I’m guessing most Dallas fans would most want to undo the Luka Dončić or Micah Parsons trades. I’d also be curious to know how many Stars fans lament the Jarome Iginla for Joe Nieuwendyk deal, even though Nieuwendyk led them to a championship. However, a truly lopsided one was a draft-day deal with Anaheim, which saw the Stars trade out of the first round. That pick became Corey Perry. The two seconds Dallas got (Vojtech Polak and B.J. Crombeen) played a combined 28 games for Dallas. — Mark Lazerus
Detroit Red Wings
Sébastien Piché and 2012 first-round pick (that became Andrei Vasilevskiy) for Kyle Quincey (2012)
In 2021, the Red Wings were solidly in their “win-now” era, so you can understand them being willing to move first-round picks. To be fair, they did extend Quincey twice, so it didn’t turn out to be a pure rental. The problem is that the 2012 first-round pick they dealt (along with minor-leaguer Piché) for Quincey went on to become Vasilevskiy, the best goaltender of a generation. Meanwhile, the Red Wings have been searching for a long-term answer in goal for a decade. — Max Bultman
Edmonton Oilers
2015 first- and second-round picks for Griffin Reinhart (2015)
This is the worst trade in the Connor McDavid era. The Oilers sent two high picks to the Islanders for Reinhart, a defenseman selected fourth in 2012 and someone the organization knew well because he’d captained the local WHL Oil Kings. Reinhart played just 29 games for the Oilers and was selected by Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft. The Isles nabbed Mathew Barzal at 16. Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Boeser, Travis Konecny and Jack Roslovic were still available, too. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman
Florida Panthers
Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and 2006 sixth-round pick for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen and Alex Auld (2006)
It all worked out in the end, with Luongo rejoining the Panthers in an executive role in time for them to win a couple of championships. However, this Mike Keenan trade 19 years ago was a real head scratcher, subtracting a franchise goaltender for what amounted to spare parts. Bertuzzi ended up getting hurt and playing just seven games for the Panthers, and Allen and Auld didn’t amount to much. — James Mirtle
Los Angeles Kings
Butch Goring for Billy Harris and Dave Lewis (1980)
While Goring is remembered for being the final piece to constructing the New York Islanders dynasty, what gets forgotten is that he was a fantastic two-way center for L.A. in most of his 11 seasons. Harris scored 184 goals for New York but wasn’t the same player with the Kings, while Lewis was a serviceable defenseman. — Eric Stephens
Brent Burns was chosen by the Minnesota Wild with the No. 20 pick in the 2003 NHL Draft. Candice Ward / Getty Images
Minnesota Wild
Brent Burns and 2012 second-round pick for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and 2011 first-round pick (2011)
There are so many Wild trades to choose from, with a particular runner-up being the deal to send Alex Tuch to Vegas to “protect” unprotected players in the Golden Knights’ expansion draft. In 2011, Burns was a budding star coming up on a payday, and it was the same summer the Wild planned on twin $98 million contracts for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Burns would become a Norris Trophy winner, a star offensive defenseman and a future Hall of Famer. Had Zack Phillips, whom the Wild took with the pick they got in the deal, amounted to anything, this trade would be a little more digestible. — Michael Russo
Montreal Canadiens
Patrick Roy and Mike Keane for Andrei Kovalenko, Martin Rucinsky and Jocelyn Thibault (1995)
This is not a particularly hard choice. The Roy trade set the franchise back for at least a decade, and perhaps even more. This was always seen as a side effect of then-team president Ronald Corey’s decision to fire coach Jacques Demers and general manager Serge Savard and replace them with Mario Tremblay and Réjean Houle, but the reality is that Savard was already contemplating trading Roy. The Canadiens simply had to get a higher-quality return. — Arpon Basu
Nashville Predators
Mikael Granlund for Kevin Fiala (2019)
The Preds needed center help at the time and were in go-for-it mode under general manager David Poile, who admitted he was trading away a significant talent. They went on to lose to the Stars in the first round and still haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. Fiala has been close to a point-a-game player in Minnesota and Los Angeles, and was the rare case of good Preds scouting at forward. — Joe Rexrode
New Jersey Devils
Vladimir Malakhov and 2007 first-round pick for Alexander Korolyuk and Jim Fahey (2006)
The Malakhov to San Jose trade was a cap dump for the Devils to get under the cap ceiling. They had to attach a conditional first to make the deal happen, and that pick ended up being David Perron, who has played nearly 1,200 NHL games and won a Stanley Cup. In return, New Jersey got Fahey, who played a whopping total of 13 games for the organization, and Korolyuk, who never suited up for the Devils. — Peter Baugh
New York Islanders
Devon Toews for 2021 and 2022 second-round picks (2020)
Toews became the best version of himself in Colorado, but he still showed a ton of promise on Long Island. He may not have been a prolific scorer with the Islanders — that just isn’t his game — but he was a puck-moving presence, with a strong defensive acumen. The team may have been in a cap crunch at the time, but 1) his contract ended up being reasonable and 2) that wasn’t the player to make a casualty. Teams can only hope to draft players of his caliber. — Shayna Goldman
New York Rangers
Rick Middleton for Ken Hodge (1976)
Younger fans will point to recent trades, such as the 2018 deal that sent Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a package that amounted to very little or the 2021 exchange that shipped Pavel Buchnevich to the St. Louis Blues and left a void at top-line RW that still hasn’t been properly filled. However, old-timers will rightly contend that the 1976 trade is the clear choice. Middleton, a 22-year-old future Hall of Famer, would rack up 898 points (402 goals and 496 assists) over 12 seasons with the Bruins. Hodge was almost a decade older and well past his prime. The hope was he’d rekindle chemistry with longtime linemate Phil Esposito, but he would last only 96 games with the Rangers before being relegated to the AHL. — Vincent Z. Mercogliano
Ottawa Senators
Mark Stone and Tobias Lindberg for Oscar Lindberg, Erik Brannstrom and 2020 second-round pick (2019)
The Senators don’t have anything from that return helping them in their current era. Not even the 2020 second-round pick, which turned into Egor Sokolov. Stone wasn’t interested in staying in Ottawa as it was in the midst of a rebuild, which led to him being on the market; albeit only a limited number of teams expressed interest as Stone eyed a move to Vegas. Stone eventually got his Cup ring with the Golden Knights during the 2023 Cup final win over Florida. — Julian McKenzie
Philadelphia Flyers
Sergei Bobrovsky for 2012 second-round pick and 2012 and 2013 fourth-round picks (2012)
It’s a good candidate for the worst trade in Flyers history, particularly now that Bobrovsky has led the Panthers to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and is a strong Hall of Fame candidate, too. Just as bad was the reason they did it: to sign Ilya Bryzgalov to a disastrous, long-term deal that they ended up buying out. The Flyers are still paying Bryzgalov until the summer of 2027. — Kevin Kurz
Pittsburgh Penguins
Ian Cole, Filip Gustavsson, 2018 first-round draft pick and 2019 third-round pick for Derick Brassard, Vincent Dunn and 2018 third-round pick (2018)
Jim Rutherford made many, many deals that helped the Penguins win championships, but he made a mistake in 2018 when he gave up Cole, Gustavsson and two picks for Brassard. The Penguins needed a third-line center in their quest to three-peat. It was a role that Brassard never embraced. — Josh Yohe
San Jose Sharks
Andrei Nazarov and 1998 first-round pick for Bryan Marchment, David Shaw and 1998 first-round pick (1998)
In this March 1998 deal, the Sharks allowed the Lightning to swap first-round picks. That meant Tampa Bay ended up with the No. 1 pick (a pick San Jose had received from Florida in a trade the year before) and drafted franchise icon Vincent Lecavalier. Marchment, an often-suspended defenseman, played six seasons in San Jose. The Sharks did draft Brad Stuart at No. 3, the pick they got from Tampa Bay, and Stuart played parts of six solid seasons before becoming part of their greatest trade, for Joe Thornton. — Eric Stephens
Seattle Kraken
The expansion draft (2021)
The Kraken’s limited trade history is mostly filled with wins, or, at the very least, trades in which they received meaningful draft pick compensation for players who don’t especially move the needle. When they’ve bought on the trade market — Tomas Tatar, Jaycob Megna — the prices have been modest. What Kraken fans should really regret, however, is how the organization lacked creativity in its approach to the expansion draft. It’s something from which the club is still recovering. — Thomas Drance
St. Louis Blues
Zack Bolduc for Logan Mailloux (2025)
When the Blues sent Bolduc to the Canadiens for Mailloux, there was a lot of second-guessing from fans. Bolduc, 22, was coming off a 19-goal season, while Mailloux, 22, spent 2024-25 in the AHL. That second-guessing has turned into frustration as Bolduc got off to a good start while Mailloux struggled. Fans say they understand that it takes longer for a defenseman to develop, but with Mailloux being re-assigned to the AHL recently, many wish the Blues had a do-over. — Jeremy Rutherford
Tampa Bay Lightning
Mikhail Sergachev for J.J. Moser, Conor Geekie, 2024 seventh-round pick and 2025 second-round pick (2024)
The Lightning needed to move Sergachev to open up cap space, which allowed the team to bring Ryan McDonagh back. Moser and Geekie were both solid adds for Tampa Bay, too. The thing is, this blue line craves someone with Sergachev’s ceiling: a top-pair defenseman with puck-moving ability. It would really help to have that skill with Victor Hedman in the top four, considering some of the two-way shortcomings of this defensive group. — Shayna Goldman
Toronto Maple Leafs
Nazem Kadri, Calle Rosen and 2020 third-round pick for Alex Kerfoot, Tyson Barrie and 2020 sixth-round pick (2019)
Kadri was coming off his second straight suspension in the playoffs when the Leafs dealt him to Colorado. There was frustration there, certainly. The Leafs also had problems on defense and thought they could solve it with Barrie while replacing Kadri at the same time. It didn’t work. Barrie wasn’t a good fit, and while Kerfoot proved malleable, he was not a full-time center. The Leafs missed Kadri and what could have been a dominant 1-2-3 down the middle with Auston Matthews and John Tavares. — Jonas Siegel
Utah Mammoth/Arizona Coyotes
Danny Briere and 2004 third-round pick for Chris Gratton and 2004 fourth-round pick (2003)
The Coyotes soured on Briere in a down year and shipped him to the Sabres for Gratton at the 2003 trade deadline. Gratton only stayed for one underwhelming year in Phoenix. Briere, meanwhile, immediately became one of the Sabres’ top scorers, including a career-best 95 points in the 2006-07 season. To make matters worse, the third-round pick the Coyotes sent became Andrej Sekera, who carved out a strong 842-game NHL career. — Harman Dayal
Vancouver Canucks
Cam Neely for Barry Pederson and 1987 first-round pick (1986)
Vancouver signed Pederson to a contract that carried compensation (think of it as being similar to an offer sheet, but it was a different era) and negotiated a trade that sent struggling young forward Neely and an additional first-round pick to the Bruins in exchange for the talented, oft-injured Pederson. Neely, who grew up in British Columbia, became a Hall of Fame-level power forward in Boston. Pederson had one decent year in Vancouver, but never moved the needle. — Thomas Drance
Vegas Golden Knights
Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar and 2019 second-round pick for Max Pacioretty (2018)
Before the 2018-19 season, the Golden Knights sent Suzuki, Tatar and a second-round pick to acquire Pacioretty from Montreal. Pacioretty actually did quite well in Vegas, leading the team in goals (32) and points (66) in 2019-20. He had 194 points in 224 games with the Golden Knights before he was eventually traded to Carolina for nothing in return. Suzuki, however, has flourished into an outstanding playmaking centerman and obviously has many more years of high-end hockey left. — Jesse Granger
Washington Capitals
Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat and Michael Latta (2013)
With apologies to both Caps trades involving Jaromír Jágr, this is an easy one. Erat was supposed to at least provide short-term help; he wound up scoring twice in 62 games. Forsberg, a first-round pick the year before, has scored … slightly more for the Preds. — Sean Gentille
Winnipeg Jets
2026 second-round pick and 2027 fourth-round pick for Luke Schenn (2025)
It is to Winnipeg’s credit that this is such a tough choice. In 2020, subscribers picked Brendan Lemieux, a 2019 first-round pick and a conditional fourth-round pick for Kevin Hayes, who failed to recreate Paul Stastny’s impact as a rental. Lemieux peaked at 18 points in an NHL season and now plays in Davos, though. A 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 second-round pick for Tyler Toffoli aged poorly (he didn’t want to be in Winnipeg), but Toffoli was a plus player who scored seven goals in 18 games. The Jets paid nearly that much for third-pairing defenseman Luke Schenn. — Murat Ates