Toronto Maple Leafs: Who Are the Biggest Trade Deadline Losers?

2.  The Tampa Bay Lightning

Tanner Jeanott will go down as the weirdest, most inexplicable trade in NHL history.

I guess when you’ve won two Cups and gone to three straight finals, it’s pretty hard to doubt yourself, but Lightning GM Julien Brisebois should probably retire after making what has to be the single worst trade the NHL has seen in years.

Probably have to go back to Hall for Larson to see a trade whose failure was so instantly obvious.

Jeanoot netted the Predators a first round pick, a second round pick, a third round pick, a fourth round pick and a fifth round pick.  And also former first round pick Cal Foote.

That amounts to almost an entire year’s picks (they are in different years) and a former top prospect (though one who is basically in bust territory).

Jeanott is about as good as Noel Acciari or Sam Lafferty, two players the Leafs picked up along with two borderline star players (with cap retention) for arguably less overall.

The Leafs paid 2 x firsts, 2 x  seconds, and third + some duds, for McCabe, Lafferty, O’Reilly, Pillar and Acciari.

Compared to what the Leafs paid for their package of potential stars, Tampa paid about 10 x more.  It is inexplicable.

If the Leafs kept one of those firsts and all the players, but they received just Acciari, that would be equal to what Tampa did.

And that is what makes Tampa the biggest loser at this year’s Trade Deadline, even a bigger loser than the Sharks.