I was arguing with a Penguins friend of mine about the impact this trade had. We went back and worth about it and I commented that Giroux would not be the superstar he is if Carter and Richards were still there (He commented that Giroux is not a superstar and he could name 10 players better than him).

So let's look back since the trades:

LA Kings acquire:
Mike Richards and Rob Bordson

Columbus Blue Jackets acquire:
Jeff Carter

Philadlephia Flyers acquire:
Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, Jakob Voracek, 2011 8th overall (Sean Couturier), 2011 3rd rounder (Nick Cousins), 2012 2nd rounder (trade for Nick Grossman)

Might as well add Bryzgalov to this list because that's the second reason why they were traded. LA obviously came out on top huge by winning the cup. And they rightfully so have a reason to claim winners of trades but there are only a few pieces missing from PHL and one of them will come back from injury soon: Meszaros.

I think it says a lot that this core can beat Pit consistently now. Obviously with the trades, Homer did not anticipate Pronger losing his career to an injury or he may have never traded Richards.

If this team had Pronger, could they have been Stanley Cup champs instead of LA?

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16 Team Full Keeper FWD positioning. G,A,PTS,+/-,PIMs,Shots,PPP,SHP,GWG,W,SO,GAA,S%

Malkin,Parise,Datsyuk,RNH,E.Kane,Fleichmann,MacArt hur,Schwartz,
Ennis,Konopka,Turris,Brodziak

Karlsson,Kaberle,OEL,A.Larsson,Edler,Seidenberg

Bryzgalov
Vokoun

BENCH
SK and AK, Bishop, Strome,Caron

With Timonen and Pronger still in a good shape, the chance to win a cup was there. With Richards and Carter it would have been higher.

I never really understood these trades at all!

Needed cap room for Bryz & needed a dry island.
Simple.

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ESPN - 12 Team H2H Keeper League, 25 Players - 13 Keepers
(G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG, GWG, W, GAA, SV%)
Keepers
C: Tavares, Benn, Stepan
LW: Galchenyuk, Parenteau, Ryan.
RW: Brunner, Conacher.
D: Pietrangelo, Subban, Schultz.
G: Price, Dubnyk.

ESPN - 12 Team H2H Keeper League, 24 Players - 10 Keepers
(G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG, PTS, W, GAA, SV%)
Keepers
C: Duchene, B. Richards
LW: Skinner, Ovechkin,
RW: Ryan, Eriksson
D: Subban, Shattenkirk,
G:Halak, Quick

okay but giving Bryzgalov this totaly insane contract is actually the second thing i didn´t understand!

The Kings may have won the cup, but I think the Flyers did very well long-term on this trade.

They had to do the trade anyway given that Richards/Carter were toxic in the dressing room.

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12 Teams, Points Only (G/A = 1, DG = 2, W = 2, SO = 1)

The Motherpuckers (5 NYR, 2 PIT, 3 VAN)
Forwards: Neal / Iginla / Nash / Richards / Stepan / Roy / Higgins
Defense: Del Zotto / Garrison
Goalies: Lundqvist

All I can say is LA won the sum of all those exchanges, oh and Columbus lost. Philly probably neutral although you have to like their success against the Penguins in the past year and a half since those deals were made. For whatever reason Crosby and the Pens seemed to have their way with the Richards led Flyers.

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When the news broke I was dumbfounded, but after thinking it over I decided it was and would be a great deal for the Flyers.

I still think they've done well since the forward group is remarkably deeper and they wouldn't have hosted the Cup with Richards and Carter anyway since the loss of Pronger made a bigger impact than those trades could account for. Overall I firmly believe those moves made the Flyers much better going forward.

As for your Pens friend, his thoughts on Giroux sound like the standard Pens/Flyers bias that comes from one side or the other. G still would have flourished with Richards and Carter in the line up, he did the season prior, he just would have taken a smaller step up in scoring.

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10 team full keeper: 4C/LW/RW,6D,2G,5BN

G,A,P,+/-,PIM,SOG,GWG,PPP,SHP,Hit,Blk,FOW
W,GAA,SV,SV%,SHO

C- Giroux,Hanzal,M.Richards,J.Staal
LW- Lupul,JVR,Tlusty,Zetterberg
RW- Backes,Clarkson,Havlat,Kessel
D- Bogosian,Carlson,Enstrom,Kulikov,Markov,Yandle
G- Miller,Hiller,Crawford
BN- Kuba,Ruutu,Robidas,McDonald

Prospects- Armia, Connolly, Couturier, Etem, Forsberg, Girgensons, Huberdeau, Kucherov, Nyquist, Okposo, K.Palmieri, Stransky, Toffoli, Barberio, Gardiner, Gormley, Josi, Marincin, Moore, Morrow, Savard, Vatanen, Allen, Bernier, Campbell, Fasth, Hackett, Mrazek

Does your friend smoke meth? I can't think of 6 players better than Giroux. (Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Lundqvist, maybe Quick, maybe Karlsson) As far as the trades go I think they will both pay off very well in the long run.

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H2H Each Cat - Yahoo - 14 teams - Cap Hit
Start: 2C 2LW 2RW 4D 2U 2G 7B
Cats: G A +- PIM SOG PPG PPA SHP GWG FW HIT W GAA SV SV% SO
Svalbard Armored Bears:
C: Getz, M Richards(LW), Turdis, Little
LW: Kovy(RW), Moulson, Kunitz, _
RW: Eriksson(LW), Clarkson, _, _
D: Pietrangelo, JJ, Streit, Spurgeon, Brodie, Nikitin
G: Lundqvist, Holtby, Harding
JV: Tarasenko, Bishop, Eakin, Killorn, Grigorgenko, Grimaldi, Collberg, Faksa, Lindholm, Irving

"He commented that Giroux is not a superstar and he could name 10 players better than him"

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12 team H2H dynasty, most categories under the sun, incl. hits/blocks. Main team, farm

C: Kopitar Backstrom Stepan Cammalleri Little Bolland Laich Johnson
LW: Parise Lupul Erat McDonald Martin Silfverberg Nyquist Schwartz Morin Nieto Conacher
RW: PKane Doan Pominville Nash Clowe Lupul Rinaldo Stafford Rattie Stone Chiasson Ritchie
D: Green Suter Seabrook Dillon Beauchemin Schenn Letang Schultz Hamilton McNabb Rielly Harrison
G: Bryzgalov Pavelec Holtby Neuvirth Nihlstorp Lack CalPickard Andersen Stalock Sateri Eriksson
IR: Halak

The Richards trade was a huge WIN-WIN.
The Carter trade was a WIN for PHI, CBJ lost it. Then LA won the Carter trade again with CBJ.

Philly had to make those moves because of lockerroom issues.
And realistically, Richards & Carter played really well with new scenery in LA.
Simmonds/Schenn were perfect acquisitions for PHI.
Voracek also a perfect acquisition for PHI.
And PHI created cap space to get a goalie... Bryz has been meh... but otherwise maybe they are still only rolling with Leighton or Boucher right now. (worse)

LA looked brilliant because they won the Cup... but perhaps they could have done it without the trades the way that Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Quick played.

Columbus just looked like a fool in their part of the Carter trade.
I think enough of us predicted that Nash/Carter wasn't going to work.
I remember the one BET that one forum member had.

Speaking of those trades... anybody know whatever happened to playmaker26?
He had the scoop on those trades and then disappeared.
FantasyHockeyWitnessProtectionProgram???