What if Hockey Hall of Fame inductees had to go in representing a single team?

It’s Hall of Fame induction weekend, and there are plenty of ways to turn that into a post or two. Over the years, we’ve looked at active cases that might make for tough calls. We created and maintained the Hall of Very Good. We made the cases for plenty of candidates. We made the cases against others. We even did both at the same time, just because I wanted to know what it would feel like to be right about something.

Today, I want to go in a slightly different direction, by revisiting a post I wrote back in the Grantland days. That was a few years ago, coming in… wait, 2014? As in, 12 years ago? That’s not possible. I can’t be this old. Oh no. Oh man.

(Several hours of staring out the window.)

Where were we? Right, the Grantland post. Back then, I wondered what the Hockey Hall of Fame would look like if they decided to copy the Baseball Hall of Fame and assign each player to a specific team. In Cooperstown, that means a logo on the player’s cap on their plaque. Hockey players don’t wear caps because history has shown that they don’t know how, but we could carry the “pick a team” concept over.

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5 times a player had a monster year, then was traded during the following season

Nikita Kucherov’s stunning trade request got me thinking: Just how often has something like this happened in NHL history? After all, Kucherov won the MVP last season after racking up 130 points. Guys like that just don’t get dealt.

Or do they? A star player being traded, especially after a big season, is unusual in the NHL, certainly. But it’s not all that rare. No reigning MVP has ever been traded, but we saw a Vezina winner dealt just a few years ago. We came very close to seeing the Norris winner traded just this past summer. In fact, there are enough examples of star players being moved in the offseason that we were able to invent a fake award for just that situation.

So sure, maybe it’s not all that unheard of for a superstar to be dealt in the summer following a big season. But that’s not what’s happening here. Kucherov made it through the offseason without any hint of a move, only to drop his trade request bomb after a dozen games were in the books. That means that if he gets his wish, it will be by a midseason trade.

That’s far more rare. In fact, it’s almost unheard of. Almost.

So today, let’s look back at five time where a player had a monster year, only to be traded during the following season. These aren’t necessarily the five best players to meet those criteria, but hopefully they make for some interesting stories which may be new to some of you kids out there.

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NHL weekend rankings: Nikita Kucherov shocker, plus early stories I'm starting to buy

For the second week in a row, the NHL’s weekend was rocked by a Friday news bomb. Last week, it was one of the best players in the league getting traded. This time, it was an even better player saying he wants to be next. And unlike Connor Hellebuyck, the Nikita Kucherov story seemed to come out of nowhere.

We’ll get to that down below. Spoiler alert: It was big enough to significantly shift our Top Five.

But first, let’s clean up some loose ends. A few weeks ago, I gave you my five early-season stories I wasn’t buying quite yet. I think the list mostly holds up – Montreal and Buffalo are good again, Brady Tkachuk started scoring right away, and the bad teams aren’t quite as bad – although the Kraken are giving me some second thoughts.

But now that a little more time has passed, it’s only fair that we try the other angle. So this week, here are five somewhat surprising early storylines that I’m starting to think might be the real deal.

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NHL’s scariest starts: Players starting the 2026-27 season frighteningly slow

It’s going to be a scary weekend in the NHL.

You’ve got Halloween tomorrow night, obviously. The next day, it will be dark around the time you’re finishing lunch. And that darkness will extend to any team that’s outside the playoff bubble, because the dreaded Curse of November 1st will kick in too.

It’s a lot, and there’s no point running from it. So instead, let’s embrace the fear with our annual Scary Start team.

As always, this will be a roster of 18 skaters and three goalies, because there’s never enough room for bad goaltending on this squad. We’re basing our picks off of expectations, meaning a highly paid star putting up mediocre numbers will be a more likely pick than a fourth-liner doing fourth-linter things. In a new twist, we’ll mix in a coach and GM this year. And there’s a firm limit of one representative per team, because Canucks fans can’t have all the fun.

Embrace the darkness. Here we go…

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NHL weekend rankings: A blockbuster shakes the league, but how much does it change?

We like to say that our long-term approach means that things change quickly around here. But there are a few exceptions to that rule, including big trades.

We may have seen the biggest of the year this weekend. But is it enough to shake up the rankings? We’ll find out down below, but let’s kick things off with five observations from the weekend that aren’t about the Connor Hellebuyck trade.

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