Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Who says no to these trades (involving things that cannot actually be traded)?

In the NHL, you can’t trade coaches. There was a time when you could, and it happened back in 1987, when Rangers’ GM Phil Esposito sent a first-round pick to Quebec for head coach Michel Bergeron in a surprise swap. It was a creative move. It also didn’t work, with Bergeron lasting less than two seasons, and the league quickly moved to make sure it wouldn’t be tried again. These days, coaches are one of many assets a team is not allowed to trade.

Or are they? After all, we occasionally see coaching quasi-trades, like when John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault essentially swapped teams after being fired in 2013. More recently, the Rangers and Penguins didn’t actually pull off a Mike Sullivan and David Quinn for Dan Muse trade, but it kind of worked out that way.

Let's use that as inspiration. We've got some time to kill between Stanley Cup final games, so I put out a call to readers: Send me your "who says no?" trade proposals involving things that cannot actually be traded. And you sure did. Can we pull off a blockbuster, or will just be too complicated to make a trade in the cap era NHL? Let's find out.

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