For my last non-baseball related
post before Spring Training gets underway next week, I thought it might be fun
to look back and see some photos of NHL Super Stars who just didn’t look right
in the uniforms of certain teams. While there are no longer any Nicklas
Lidstrom’s who play their whole 20-year career with one team, something seemed
missing when these famous players donned the jerseys of teams they didn’t
belong with.
#10. Brett Hull,
Phoenix Coyotes
After rising to superstardom
with the St. Louis Blues from 1987-98, Hull then went on to play three seasons
with the Dallas Stars and three season with Detroit Red Wings, winning a
Stanley Cup with each team. Not willing to call it a career, he decided to play
after the lock-out for the Phoenix Coyotes for the 2005-06 season. The
experiment lasted only five games, with Hull recording only one assist while
playing in the desert.
#9. Grant Fuhr,
Calgary Flames
Grant Fuhr will always be an
Edmonton Oilers. Even though he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, then to
the Buffalo Sabres, then to the Los Angeles Kings, then to the St. Louis Blues,
he still remains an Oiler to all hockey fans. However, Fuhr’s final NHL stop
was with the Oilers’ provincial rival, the Calgary Flames. In 23 games with the
Flames, he was 5-13-2 with a 3.83 goals against average. But seeing Fuhr
wearing Calgary’s jersey just didn’t sit well with me, and I’m sure a lot of
80s Oiler fans would agree.
#8. Brian Leetch,
Toronto Maple Leafs
After 17 seasons with the New
York Rangers, including a Stanley Cup victory, Rookie of the Year honours, two
Norris Trophies, and a nine-time All-Star, Leetch was traded at the deadline in
the 2003-04 season to the Leafs for a handful of prospects and draft picks. The
Rangers were looking to dump salary and the Leafs were in one of their “let’s
buy up a lot of washed-up All-Stars” phases so the deal worked perfectly. But
seeing Leetch wear the blue and white didn’t make any sense on so many levels.
#7. Dominik Hasek,
Ottawa Senators
Two years as a back-up to Ed
Belfour in Chicago. Nine years as the best goaltender in the world with the
Buffalo Sabres, in which he won six Vezina Trophies, two Hart Trophies, was a
six-time NHL First Team All-Star. Then off to Detroit in 2002 to win a Stanley
Cup before retiring. Then a return to Detroit. Then he signs with……Ottawa? Even
while he played well with the Sens before being injured in the 2006 Olympics,
Hasek looked out of place in a Sens jersey. After one year in Ottawa, he went
back to Detroit for the final two years of his career, winning another Stanley
Cup, although this time as the back-up to Chris Osgood.
#6. Brendan Shanahan,
Hartford Whalers
While most remembered for his
time with the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings, Shanahan's trip between
those two teams was bridged with a brief stop in Hartford. Traded by St. Louis
to Hartford for Chris Pronger, Shanahan was named Captain of the Whalers and
played in two games before being shipped to Detroit.
#5. Mats Sundin,
Vancouver Canucks
Arguably the best player in
Toronto Maple Leafs history, Sundin knew he would never win a Cup with Toronto
and signed as a free agent with Vancouver prior to the 2008-09 season. The
thing that hurt Leaf fans the most was that even though he knew he wouldn’t be
returning, Sundin refused to waive his no-trade clause in the 2007-08 season so
the team he led for 13 seasons could get some prospects or draft picks for him.
Unfortunately, they got nothing.
#4 Wendel Clark,
Detroit Red Wings
While a handful of former
Toronto Maple Leafs went on to win Stanley Cups with Detroit (Bob Rouse, Larry Murphy,
Jamie Macoun and Dmitri Mironov), Clark’s move to Hockeytown never paid off.
And besides that, both Toronto and Detroit fans who remember the Probert/Clark
fisticuffs over the years, couldn’t stomach the sight of Clark in red and
white.
#3. Jaromir Jagr,
Washington Capitals,
New York Rangers,
Philadelphia Flyers,
Dallas Stars,
Boston Bruins,
New Jersey Devils,
Florida Panthers
Jaromir Jagr will always be a Pittsburgh
Penguin, no matter how much of a journeyman he has become.
#2. Raymond Bourque,
Colorado Avalanche
The life-long Bruin defenseman
and all-star, Bourque took 21 years of his Boston career and sold it for a shot
of glory. Instead of being on the list of players who were devoted to one team
and one team only, he sold out for a Stanley Cup.
#1. Wayne Gretzky,
St. Louis Blues
While I had a hard time
accepting Gretzky’s trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles in the summer of 1988, I
eventually accepted him as an LA King. However, the trade to St. Louis in the
middle of the 1995-96 season was strange. The Kings were looking to rebuild and
Gretzky was on his way to the Rangers as a free agent, so LA decided they would
find some sucker to give them some prospects and draft picks. St. Louis bit.
For three prospects and two picks, St. Louis got Gretzky for 31 games,
including playoffs. It was a bad trade for St. Louis and Gretzky looked totally
out of place in that jersey.
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