#6. Leafs Give Up Two Studs for One Dud
The Trade:
- Toronto Maple Leafs acquire: Lee Stempniak
- St. Louis Blues acquire: Carlo Colaiacovo and Alexander Steen
Even at the time, this trade didn’t make a ton of sense. Sure, Stempniak had previously scored 27 goals in a season, but that was a fluke. Even a one-for-one trade for Stempniak for Steen would have been bad, but to throw in Colaiacovo as well, I couldn’t understand it.
Both Stempniak and Colaiacovo were previous first-round picks of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the team decided they needed to acquire the one-dimensional Lee Stempniak instead. Colaiacovo may have had injury problems throughout his career, but he turned into a steady defenseman and had his best years in St. Louis.
Stempniak never scored 20 goals in the NHL again, while Steen had four 20-goal seasons, including a 33-goal campaign in 2013-14. Not only was this trade so lopsided, but Stempniak was flipped to Phoenix only two seasons after getting traded for.