Thirty-two years ago, a relatively unknown blueliner named Tom Kurvers was 9th among defensemen in scoring in the 1988-89 season for the NJ Devils. On October 16, 1989, at the beginning of the 1989-1990 season, Kurvers was traded to the Toronto Maples for a future 1st round pick in 1991.
The 1989-90 Leafs at the time had a young, promising team (Wendel Clark, Vincent Damphousse, Eddy Olczyk, Al Iafrate, Dave Reid, Luke Richardson, Rob Ramage, etc) and were in contention after 10 straight losing seasons.
But in the following season, the Leafs spent most of the season at the bottom of the league, projected to finished dead last. This was setting the NJD nicely with their pick for 1st overall in the 1991 draft (Eric Lindros draft). So to avoid that scenario, the Leafs made a trade with the Quebec Nordiques, then in 2nd to last place, to acquire three of the best Nordiques veterans for prospects and picks. This allowed the Leafs to crawl out of the basement of standings, but ensured Quebec would tank until the end of 1991.
The rest is history. Quebec selected Eric Lindros 1st overall in the 1991 draft. Lindros sat out a year and was eventually traded to the Philadelphia Flyers (for Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Mike Ricci, Chris Simon and others).
The 1991 Leafs pick, held by NJD, was third overall and used to select Scott Neidermayer.
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Today, PK Subban is likely the closest we have to Tom Kurvers today. Leafs would acquire him at half price to play 2RD and help them return their power play to half of league.
I don't see a bottom five finish for Toronto next year. Or Subban being the guy who gets a 1st this summer. Severson, maybe? To a team that made the playoffs and loses a defenseman in expansion?
McDavid, Connor
250 000 $)
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