NHL history: Best trade in each team’s history

NHL history: Best trade in Arizona Coyotes History

There’s really only one deal here. The Arizona Coyotes have made a lot of trades in team history, but nothing made the impact that Jeremy Roenick going to the desert did. Roenick, like many stars who were traded in their prime, was once again having acrimonious trade talks with the Chicago Blackhawks, and instead of overpaying their star, the Blackhawks traded him.

The Blackhawks accepted Alexei Zhamnov, Craig Mills, and a 1997 1st-round pick to get Roenick. Zhamnov was pretty good with the Blackhawks. He played eight years in the Windy City and scored more than 400 points. Mills was not really an NHL player and spent most of his career in the minor leagues and finished up in Europe. The 1st-round pick turned into Ty Jones, and he was a major bust for the Blackhawks. He only played eight NHL games while with the Blackhawks and never really made an impact in the league.

Meanwhile, Roenick was a star for Phoenix when they were desperate for a star. They needed someone to get fans in the building when the team first moved from Winnipeg. As we said before, they just traded Teemu Selanne, so they needed another star to make up for it. Roenick could not score like Selanne, but his gritty style of play and ability to put up points gave the Coyotes exactly what they need.