An excerpt from ESPN’s Scott Burnside who discusses the seven biggest impact trades:
Jan. 26, 1971: Ralph Backstrom traded from Montreal to Los Angeles for Gord Labossiere and Ray Fortin
As time passes, the significance of this seemingly inconsequential deal fades, but given the ultimate impact the deal had, it remains a significant transaction in league history. At the time the Montreal Canadiens owned the No. 1 draft pick in the 1971 draft, having acquired the pick from the California Golden Seals.
But as the 1970-71 season progressed, the woeful Los Angeles Kings looked as though they were going to be even worse than California and end up with the top pick and the opportunity to select French Canadian star Guy Lafleur. Montreal GM Sam Pollock, considered among the finest hockey minds in the history of the game, sent still-useful Ralph Backstrom to the Kings for two players who never played a game for the Habs. Backstrom, however, had 14 goals and 27 points in 33 games for the Kings and his contributions were enough to lift Los Angeles out of the NHL basement and allow the Canadiens to draft Lafleur with the No. 1 pick at the 1971 draft.
Lafleur, of course, was the offensive cornerstone of the Canadiens’ dynasty that would win four straight Stanley Cups in the mid to late 1970s — teams that are considered among the best of all time.
The Kings are still looking for their first-ever championship and have advanced to just one Cup final in their more than 40 years of existence.
Dec. 6, 1995: Patrick Roy and Mike Keane traded by Montreal to Colorado for Andrei Kovalenko, Jocelyn Thibault and Martin Rucinsky
In hockey-mad Quebec, this is simply known as Le Trade or The Trade. As with all things relating to hockey in Quebec, the trade of the man known as St. Patrick involved more than a little emotion. Already at odds with head coach Mario Tremblay, a former teammate with whom he had squabbled, Roy was enraged after the Detroit Red Wings poured nine goals past him en route to a 12-1 shelling of the Habs on Dec. 2. When Roy was finally pulled in the second period of the drubbing, the netminder stormed past Tremblay and mouthed to team president Ronald Corey, who was sitting behind the bench, that he was done in Montreal. By the end of that week Roy was shipped to Denver.
After what amounted to a shotgun deal, the Habs managed to win just one playoff round over the next six springs following the trade. Although the appearance of Jose Theodore in the Montreal fold eased some of the pain of having lost an elite player who was also a native son, in some ways the trade will always haunt the franchise.
As for the Colorado Avalanche, who had just relocated from Quebec City before the start of the 1995-96 season, there was more than a little irony at play in the spring of 1996 when the Avs won their first-ever Stanley Cup. The Avs would win again in 2001, and Roy would earn his second Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Roy’s arrival in Denver ensured that the NHL’s second go-round in the mountain city would be a success, and when he retired from the NHL after the 2003 season, he was considered by most to be the finest goaltender of all time.