The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of VHL Trade Deadlines

[Victor 11,064]

The VHL's trade deadline has brought us a mixed bag of results over the years. Sometimes, most times in fact, nothing has happened, while every now and we are blessed with a blockbuster. It's a rich tapestry which I will go through now and pick out a few of my favourite famous or infamous trade deadlines. Please note: I use the trade deadline term a bit loosely as I don't necessarily remember if all of these deals were on deadline day or just before. I am however fairly confident they were all close enough to be considered deadline deals.

 

The Bad - Season 4

To Toronto

Maxim Desny

 

To Helsinki

Sam Lafleur

S6 TOR 1st (Dominik Stryker)

S5 TOR 2nd (Sergei Trepanov)

 

We start off way back with not just one of the worst trade deadline deals, but simply one of the worst trades in VHL history. Helsinki, coming off a Cinderella run to Game 7 of the Continental Cup finals in S3, were struggling to match that success, despite the continued best efforts of reigning playoff MVP Maxim Desny. Toronto, in the meantime, were trying to put together a run into the playoffs despite being up against reigning two-time champions Calgary, about to be two-time champions Seattle, and the upstart Hamilton Canucks. GM Sam Lafleur was also retiring at the end of the season so needed a long-term goaltending solution.

 

On paper, there was no more qualified solution than Desny. Problem is, Desny was a pending free agent and had no love for Toronto after a previous 22-game stint in S1. He promptly played 11 further games with the Legion, they predictably failed to make up ground and make the playoffs, and he re-signed with Helsinki in free agency, before guiding them back to the finals in his last season.

 

The real kicker? Toronto's long-term solution in net was the first-round pick they traded away for the couple weeks of Desny. Instead, the Titans got their new franchise goaltender in Dominik Stryker immediately after Desny's retirement, just in time for a special Season 6...

 

The Ugly - Season 6

 Seattle trades Scotty Campbell to Helsinki for Andrei Dubnikov and a first (Zacky Vengeance)

 Then trades for Calgary's Joey Kendrick

 While Calgary trades Alex Watson, also to Helsinki, for a package including draft picks used to select Matt Bentz and... Scotty Campbell
 

Right, pick this one apart. The Titans, despite running with rookie goaltender Stryker, were a serious cup favourite after a couple attempts as the underdogs in S3 and S5. They showed they meant business with a mid-season trade for the VHL's greatest ever player, despite his own pending free agent status. Campbell would indeed leave Helsinki in the off-season but it was well worth it as he first led them to the franchise's maiden Continental Cup.

 

Before we get to Seattle, it's worth mentioning that Alex Watson, whilst no Campbell, was another fine deadline addition by Helsinki to push them over the edge. It's no surprise Titans GM Daric Radmonovic, also the man behind the Desny daylight robbery, was held in such high regard around the league back then. As for the Wranglers, they got a future Hall of Famer and their future GM Matt Bentz back for Watson, in addition to the amusing tidbit that they drafted the goalie version of Scotty Campbell too. No, he was not the greatest goaltender of all time. He's not even the best goalie named Campbell to have graced the VHL @Banackock.

 

How did Calgary come to this though? Were they not the greatest team in the league's first few seasons? Yes, until Brett Slobodzian retired after just 3 seasons, unretired, lost a lot of TPE (you'll see this described in his Hall of Fame article as a “devastating right knee injury”) and was a shadow of his former self. The Wranglers were still unlucky to miss the playoffs in S4 and came back with a vengeance in S5. That's when things got very ugly against Campbell's Seattle, primarily around accusations of riggery. S5, lest we forget, was a... pretty special season.

 

 

 

The official view is that as this was the league's fifth season, the last before S1 draftees hit depreciation, it makes sense they put up insane scoring numbers, especially against weak goaltenders. Campbell was also the TPE leader by a significant enough distance to make his dominance believable. We do also know that when his next player, Tomas Jenskovic, was a defenceman, Scotty drastically decreased scoring sliders to the extent that Jenskovic became the first and still only defenceman to lead the league in scoring. It's therefore perfectly plausible that in Campbell's day, the scoring sliders were cranked up the other way. You would think this would benefit everyone equally and it probably did, but tempers were flaring in Calgary. Given the seniority of some of the members of that team – Slobodzian, Scott Boulet, Sterling Labatte – maybe they knew something that others didn't, but the fallout was that the Bears beat the Wranglers in a tetchy first-round affair and Slobodzian retired for good, taking some loyalists down with him.

 

Some stuck around to help Calgary out, including future Hall of Famer Joey Kendrick. It was therefore a surprise to see him get moved to Seattle at the trade deadline, even if he wasn't the most vocal critic of his rivals. Of course, by that point Campbell had been moved on, making it all the more surprising that the Bears were back to buying (Kendrick did come a lot cheaper while Campbell fetched a future franchise cornerstone in Zacky Vengeance who would lead Seattle to another cup in S12).

 

Naturally, Calgary, having removed the toxic cloud hanging over them at the end of S5, beat the Bears in the playoffs and went to three more finals with a revamped squad. All in all, total chaos.

 

The Good - Season 8

 To Toronto: Branden Snelheid from Helsinki

 To Riga: Tomas Ziegler from Toronto

 To Helsinki: Radislav Grebeshkov from Riga, a 1st (Noah Lefevre) and Peter Payne from Toronto
 

Let's end this on a positive note with I believe the first mid-season three-way trade and what a wonderful deal it was. This is a rare one where everyone turned out to be a winner.

 

Toronto had well recovered from the Desny debacle to become a serious contender and were actually employing Campbell in the twilight of his career. Branden Snelheid, a Hall of Famer in his own right, would join the core as part of the Campbell replacement plan, and play a key role in Toronto's cup win in S9 and near repeat in S10.

 

Riga gave up very little for a clear upgrade up front. Whilst Tomas Ziegler was no Snelheid, he was a very fine second-line forward and an improvement on Grebeshkov, helping the Reign to three straight finals, winning the last one in S10. He would then actually move to Riga's new rivals in Davos and score a Game 7 2nd overtime winner against Riga in S11 but the Reign got their money's worth well before that.

 

By contrast Helsinki look to have received relatively little for one of their best players in Snelheid and were clearly on the downswing from their S6 championship. Peter Payne is best known for once being the career leader in hits and still features prominently on the top 25 list of PIM in a season. But Noah Lefevre, a steady stay-at-home defenceman in his own right, was used in a huge pre S12 draft trade with Toronto which enabled Helsinki to acquire first overall and therefore Hall of Famer Matt Bailey (the same member as Snelheid in fact @Quik) who went on to GM them to the S15 Continental Cup. So in the long run, everyone gained from this deal.
 

 

I didn't mean to make this so first decade focused at the outset but it is a time period which has some of the best stories in the VHL. In fact, after S8 the volume of big midseason trades dwindled quite significantly, as most of the blockbusters started to take place in the off-season and still do. I do want to give a shout-out to Vasteras trading $4.5 million in cash for Cole Hagstrom in S11 because that was a thing that you could do.

 

I will leave you with one more deal which I was personally involved in.

 

Bonus - Season 15

To Toronto

Alexander Sauve

 

To Calgary

Juha Ikonen

S17 TOR 1st (Adam Blaine)

S17 TOR 3rd (Mario Cilberti)

 

In my first season as New York GM, there was a pretty serious arms race going on between us, the Bears, and the Titans. Toronto was actually a team planning ahead to future seasons but somehow got involved in a huge bidding war with me which went all the way down the wire, for star defenceman Alexander Sauve. I distinctly recall, still living with my parents, on a school night, hiding the fact I was still up at midnight, negotiating with Matt Bentz (yes the one mentioned before) to convince him to take my deal over the Legion's. With an hour to go to the deadline, he confirmed he was going with my trade in private and I went to sleep, only to wake up and find he never accepted my trade despite it being posted publicly, and went with Toronto after all.

 

Who knows what would have been had Sauve gone to New York. What I do know is Toronto didn't end up winning with him on board and actually ended up sending Sauve back to Calgary in S18, where we won a surprising back-to-back set of Continental Cups. Yes, I said “we” as by that point I had resigned as New York GM and been traded to Calgary for a package which included Adam Blaine, the draft pick involved in this trade. It was infuriating at the time, it's hilarious in hindsight, and that's the spirit of the trade deadline that we need back.

 

[Banackock 8,206]

Wooo best Campbell goalie wooooo

 

What a legendary name 

 

Best player, Best goalie, Best GM (playin guys)