The Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes Trade History
The First Trade
Date: December 2, 1980
Leafs Acquire: Cash
Jets Acquire: Richard Mulhern
After going their first year in the NHL without making a deal, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the original Winnipeg Jets struck a deal shortly into the 1980-81 season.
It’s no secret the 1980’s Toronto Maple Leafs were not good, to say the least.
In the 1979-80 season, the team finished 35-40-5 for 75 points and were swept in the first round by the Minnesota North Stars.
On the blueline, the Leafs only had three regulars that appeared in the lineup for most of the season. Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull, and Dave Burrows were the only defenders to play more than 70 games, fourth on the team was way down at 46. In total, the 1979-80 Leafs used 13 defencemen that season, including Richard Mulhern.
Mulhern, an 8th overall pick by the Atlanta Flames, had seen his play diminish significantly since his 44 point rookie season in 1976-77. By 1980, Mulhern had become a depth defenceman that was struggling through back injuries.
After starting the year in Los Angeles, Mulhern was claimed off of waivers mid-way through the 1979-80 season by the Leafs, serving as a solid depth defender on a team that had cycled through their fair share of options.
Come 1980-81, however, and Toronto had restocked the cupboards. Turnbull and Salming remained, but the likes of Dave Farrish, Robert Picard, Vitezslav Duris, and Barry Melrose entering the fray resulted in Mulhern being sent down.
It wasn’t until December 2, 1980, when the Toronto Maple Leafs found a new home for Mulhern when he was sent to Winnipeg in the first deal between the two franchises.
Unfortunately, Mulhern’s 19 games for the Jets in 1980-81 would be his last in professional hockey, as he decided to retire at just 26 citing back injuries resulting in declining play.
The Biggest Trade
Date: November 10, 1990
Leafs Acquire: Dave Ellett, Paul Fenton
Jets Acquire: Ed Olczyk, Mark Osborne
Early on in the 1990-91 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs were looking to shake up their roster.
Sitting at an abysmal 2-15-1 to start the campaign, Toronto made a major move sending young star Ed Olczyk and consistent scorer Mark Osborne to the Jets, receiving defenceman Dave Ellett and depth winger Paul Fenton in return.
The trade saw Toronto send two of their top five scorers from the previous 1989-90 season to Winnipeg.
Olczyk, 23, was the major piece being sent out the door. Coming off of a 32 goal, 88 point season, he had a relatively slow start to the 1990-91 season. With four goals and 14 points in 18 games, the Maple Leafs were looking to cash in on his value while also resetting the team.
While Olczyk still had significant value, there was a troubling trend beginning to form. Each year in Toronto he had seen his goal total drop, from 42 goals his first season down to 32 in his third. His start to 1990-91 with just four in the first 18 games didn’t help that worry either.
Osborne, meanwhile, had just enjoyed the best offensive season of his career. With 23 goals and 73 points at age 28, Osborne was a prime sell high candidate from the Leafs end, especially considering his lacklustre six points in 18 games to start 1990-91.
From the Jets perspective, adding Olczyk and Osborne would be a significant boost to their offence. Winnipeg had just traded their leading scorer, Dale Hawerchuk, to the Buffalo Sabres that summer. Olczyk would come in and immediately replace his production while also making the team younger. Osborne, a bonus in the deal, would provide more depth up front.
So what did the Leafs get in this deal? The primary reason the Toronto Maple Leafs made this trade was to get Dave Ellett on their blueline.
Ellett, 26, was a mainstay on Winnipeg’s defence through the second half of the ’80s. Peaking in 1987-88 with 58 points in 68 games, Ellett became expendable thanks in part to the aforementioned Hawerchuk trade. Part of the package coming back the other way in the trade was future Hall of Famer Phil Housley, taking the number one position on the Jets’ blueline from Ellett.
The other piece in the deal, Paul Fenton, was similar to Mark Osborne in that he was a great sell-high candidate. Fenton was coming off of a surprising 32 goal season, joined for the Jets team lead with Pat Elynuik. His entire career, though, Fenton was nothing more than a solid third liner, and at 31 years of age, the 32 goal campaign was much more likely due to his astronomical 21.1 shooting percentage than it was a sudden spike in talent.
Overall, this trade made sense for both teams when it was made, though on the day of the trade it would’ve been hard to argue that the Leafs won while giving up a 23-year-old, point per game centre.
And yet, looking back on the deal some 30 years later, I’d say Toronto won.
Both Paul Fenton and Mark Osborne flopped in their new destinations. Fenton was traded later that season by the Leafs after just 30 games in the blue and white, while Osborne would be dealt back to Toronto in the 1991-92 season.
Neither reached the heights of their 1989-90 seasons again, with Fenton scoring just five goals in Toronto and Osborne picking up 32 points for the Jets.
Where the trade is really won for the Leafs is the seasons they got out of Dave Ellett. With 446 games as a Leaf, Ellett’s totals are greater than Olczyk and Osborne’s in Winnipeg combined.
Though the Leafs were terrible at the beginning of the ’90s, a swift turnaround thanks to Doug Gilmour saw them become a contender by 1993, where Ellett remained on the Toronto blueline. Throughout parts of seven seasons in Toronto, Ellett was consistently among the Toronto Maple Leafs top defencemen.
Olczyk, on the other hand, remained a high-level player for the Jets, but never reached the peaks of his early work in Toronto. Olczyk would never top 32 goals again, and his 71 total points in 1990-91 would be the highest of the rest of his career. He would spend parts of three seasons in Winnipeg before being dealt to the New York Rangers.
In total, Toronto got 476 games and 238 points out of the trade, including a major piece on the blueline when they got back to contention. The Jets got just 230 games but a solid 174 points from the two forwards they acquired but failed to match the win total they did in Hawerchuk’s final year in Winnipeg in Olczyk’s first tenure with the Jets.
The Fleecing
Date: February 27, 2007
Leafs Acquire: Yanic Perreault, 2008 5th (Joel Champagne)
Coyotes Acquire: Brendan Bell, 2008 2nd (Roman Josi)
Don’t trade second-round picks at the deadline.
At the 2007 trade deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs were looking to make a run to the playoffs. The Wayne Gretzky coached Phoenix Coyotes, conversely, were well out of the race.
Sitting at 30-24-9, the Leafs wanted to add centre depth, specifically someone who would win a significant amount of faceoffs. Yanic Perreault, already a two-time Maple Leaf, was enjoying a pretty solid campaign with the Coyotes with 19 goals and 33 points in 49 games.
And so, John Ferguson Jr. brought Perreault back to Toronto for a third time, sending 23-year old, depth defenceman Brendan Bell and a 2008 second-round pick to the Coyotes.
The risk you always run when making a trade like this is twofold. When acquiring an expiring contract, you better make the playoffs or retain the player to justify giving up assets. Then there’s the risk of the team hitting on the draft pick and making you look dumb a few years down the road.
In this case, all three happened.
Perreault wasn’t much more than a fourth-line centre in his 17 games back in blue and white, averaging 9:42 TOI/GP and scoring just five points. Even worse, the Leafs would go 10-7-2 down the stretch and miss the playoffs by one point (thanks Wade Dubielewicz).
The Coyotes then made the trade infinitely worse….by trading the second-round pick to Nashville.
On Draft Day 2008, the Predators had a target they wanted and were willing to trade up to get him. Holding pick 38 thanks to the Perreault deal, the Coyotes decided to move back, acquiring picks 46 and 76 from Nashville to do so.
Nashville would then select Roman Josi, and the rest is history.
The Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick in this trade, Joel Champagne, was never signed by the Leafs. After a strong QMJHL career, he has gone on to become one of the top players in the French league.
Next. Top 10 Leafs Draft Misses of the 2010s. dark
Next up in the Toronto Maple Leafs trade history is a big one, as I’ll be taking a look back at the 90-plus year history of deals between the Leafs and the Boston Bruins.