NHL history: Worst trade in each team’s history: Edmonton Oilers
It’s the most infamous trade in the history of sports and it’s not because of how happy everyone was with the results. The Wayne Gretzky trade transcends hockey. It even transcends sports. Moms in mid-western Montana know about the Wayne Gretzky trade. Teens on the beach going through Tik Tok in Southern California know about the Wayne Gretzky trade. Your grandmother in South Florida knows about the Wayne Gretzky trade.
The Edmonton Oilers could have been the greatest dynasty in the history of sports by taking over the NHL for a decade, but the franchise needed money and the Los Angeles Kings had a lot of it. They had “The Great One”, but for the first time in eight years, he didn’t lead the league in points. He only scored *gasp* 149 points in 1987-88. The Oilers traded him that offseason in a deal that would shock the NHL landscape.
The Kings got a player that would revitalize hockey in LA. Gretzky was still great, leading the Kings to heights they never really saw on the ice. The town was so used to dominating on the basketball court that hockey was a nice surprise.
Meanwhile, the Oilers got two players and three draft picks along with cash. Martin Gelinas had a really good career, but he only played parts of six seasons with Edmonton. After a 100-point season in his first year in Edmonton, Jimmy Carson played five games the next season before he was traded to the Red Wings.
The trade tree is impossible to follow when it comes to the 1st-round picks. One was traded to the Devils. Another brought Martin Rucinsky who only played two games for the Oilers. The third pick took Nick Stajduhar, who played two games in his NHL career. It’s a bad trade even if it brought some really good pieces. Carson couldn’t handle the pressure of being the guy traded for Gretzky, and that probably derailed his career. The picks didn’t really work out, and Gretzky was still one of the best of all time for the next decade.