On this Day: Rangers trade for Robitaille

The Hall of Famer had a brief, but productive stint on Broadway

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
On this Day: Rangers trade for Robitaille
Keystone Press

August 31, 1995: After a disappointing season in which the New York Rangers suffered a Conference Semi-Finals sweep to the Philadelphia Flyers, general manager Neil Smith pulls the trigger on a major offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Heading to the Big Apple were 29-year-old All-Star Luc Robitaille along with defenseman Ulf Samuelsson in exchange for center Petr Nedved and defenseman Sergei Zubov.

At the time the transaction was an immediate boon for the Rangers, as Robitaille would go on to 23 and 24 goals in two seasons for the team before ultimately being shipped to the Los Angeles Kings, the team that originally drafted him, in 1997.

While Nedved would struggle to find consistency throughout his NHL career, Zubov would develop into an elite defenseman in Pittsburgh and become a staple on the blue line for the Dallas Stars for over the next decade.


Source: NHL.com