by J. Scott Moore
Over the course of franchise history the Colorado Avalanche have engaged in a lot of horse trading with the Washington Capitals. Perhaps as much as with any eastern conference team. I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at them. Here’s the list with a little commentary on the more interesting transactions.
July 1995 Avs trade a 3rd for John Slaney who was later traded for a pick that would become Brian Willsie. Nothing too exciting there.
April 1996 the Avs trade Anson Carter for a 4th rounder that never amounts to squat. Carter went on to score 40-60 points in the next six of eight seasons. Ben Storey, the Avs pick with that 4th rounder never made it to the big dance.
November 2nd, 1996, Keith Jones and a 1st rounder were traded to the Avs for Curtis Leschyshyn and Chris Simon. One good year for Jones with the Avs and kaput. Oh, and that 1st was Scott Parker. Really, blow a first round pick on Scott Parker? At least he stuck with the team quite a while. Jones goes down as one of those promising players that were plagued by injuries. On the up side Jones was traded for Shjon Podein, a fan favorite.
June of 1998 Avs traded a 3rd for two 4th’s and a 5th. No outstanding players emerged, no surprises.
March, 1999 – Avs bring in Dale Hunter and a 2nd round pick in 2000 (Sergei Kliazmine) for a 2nd round pick in 1999 (Charlie Stephens). All of this rigmarole was simply for Hunter’s benefit; he was traded to the Avs with the hope that he would finally win a Cup.
July 1999, Avs trade Craig Billington to Caps for future considerations. Like what, letting him come back? I dunno, anyone know?
October 22nd, 2003 - The Colorado Avalanche traded Bates Battaglia and Jonas Johansson to the Washington Capitals for Steve Konowalchuk and a 3rd round pick. The pick was later traded to Florida. While the Avs clearly bent over the Caps on this one a career ending condition would mean a premature end once again. Fortunately Kono has come back to the Avs in a coaching capacity. This marks the second captain that the Caps have traded to the Avs, the other was Hunter.
July 2005 Avs trade a 1st in ’05 for two 2nd’s. It’s a wash.
Nov 2010 the Avs send Scott Hannan to the capital city for Tomas Fleischmann. We all know how the Fleischmann situation has turned out for the Avs, yet another trade highlighted by injury. The lingering question is whether or not Flash will continue to have a productive career in the NHL.
Eh, maybe the Avs ought to stop trading with Washington? Not a very good track record. The injury bug that follows the high-level players in these trades is uncanny.
And the deepest fear of course is that the current trade for Semyon Varlamov will be no different.
Thanks to Avalanchedb.com for the awesome site they maintain. Couldn’t have done this without it.
You should list that Varlamov trade if this is a list of Avs trade history with the Caps.
ReplyDeleteAnd Konowalchuk was an asst. coach last year but he left the club this offseason to coach Calvin Pickard's junior team, Seattle. Class-act, though.
Good read.