Four Notable Trades Between Division Rivals In Recent Memory
After the trade rumors between Toronto Maple Leafs' left winger Matthew Knies and the Montreal Canadiens, here are some notable trades that involved two division rivals in recent history.
Video Transcript
I'll go back Oh, go ahead, Ryan.
No, you go ahead.
Okay.
I'll, I'll go back kind of, Toronto, Montreal.
Like, it wasn't too long ago, it was a year where they went out against Boston.
Yeah.
So you could kinda guess how many years ago it was, but, seems like it happens all the time.
But the Leafs acquired Tomas Plekanec, from Montreal.
Mm-hmm.
He was supposed to come in, be their third, or fourth line center.
He never got comfortable and, you know, afterwards, you know, he said and he's like, you know, that trade kind of just killed him.
Like, he couldn't play.
Yeah.
And it was something about going from the Habs, and he understood the history of it, to Toronto, and it just never got comfortable, and ended up being just a terrible trade acquisition.
But, you know, that, that, that's the kind of rub when you have two teams that are rivals trading for one another.
It's like you think that they just can kind of put that behind them and, you know, sometimes it's, it's, it's too hard.
Like, it's just ingrained in you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It runs deep.
Yeah.
I'm, just so we're not too Toronto-centric, I'm gonna go old school and Phil Esposito for Brad Park between- Ooh the Bruins and Rangers way back in the day.
And I remember talking to Brad Park a few years ago and he was like, "I thought the fans were gonna kill me 'cause they hated me- when I played, for the other team, but they actually embraced me."
and, yeah, that turned out to be a trade that, featured two future Hall of Famers, but at the time was very shocking.
