The worst trades in Blackhawks history

In the History of Trade miniseries at Last Word on Hockey, writer Nick McVicar takes a deep dive through the history books of the Chicago Blackhawks and ranks the team’s best and worst trades.

Throughout their history the Blackhawks have been fortunate enough to have some of the game’s all-time greats play for the team. Unfortunately, not all of them managed to stick around for the long haul, which brings us to some truly awful trades. Dominik Hasek for Stephane Beauregard and a 4th round pick? Awful. Jeremy Roenick for Alex Zhamnov and Craig Mills? Terrible. Chris Chelios for Steve McCarthy and Adam Munro. Dreadful. But there’s one trade that trumps them all:

Chicago trades Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge Sr., and Fred Stanfield to the Boston Bruins for Gilles Marotte, Jack Norris, and Pit Martin.

Yikes. This one stinks. Not only would Espo go on to become one of the NHL’s all-time greatest players in Beantown, but Hodge and Stanfield would also go on to be key pieces of the Bruins for years to come. In return the Hawks got essentially 10 fair to average seasons out of Martin, while Marotte and Norris were of little to no consequence for the team. 

No matter how you look at this blockbuster, it looks bad on the Blackhawks. It took them years and years to forgive the team’s management for the trade and only now with their recent success can fans forgive and forget.

For a full review of the worst trades in Blackhawks history, check out McVicar’s article at Last Word on Hockey: