#1: Ryan McDonagh, Chris Higgins, Pavel Valentenko and Doug Janik traded for Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Mike Busto
The Canadiens had a disappointing season during their centennial campaign in 2008-09. Due to this performance, they pretty much decided to get rid of as many players as they possibly could. Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Mike Komisarek, Robert Lang and Mathieu Schneider all left the team as free agents.
That wasn’t enough evidently. The team needed to get rid of a few more players via trade. SO, on the eve of free agent frenzy 2009, the Canadiens traded Chris Higgins, Doug Janik and prospects Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko to the New York Rangers for Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Mike Busto.
Janik, Valentenko and Busto would not play much more at the NHL level after the deal, so it was essentially Gomez and Pyatt to Montreal for Higgins and McDonagh. It could have been nobody for Scott Gomez and the deal would still be a huge win for the New York Rangers.
Gomez had signed an incredible seven year contract with the Rangers in 2007 worth $51.5 million for an annual cap hit just north of $7.35 million. The salary cap at the time of the trade to Montreal was only $56.8 million. That means Gomez was taking up about 13% of the Habs total cap space when he arrived.
You would think a team trading their top prospect for someone making such a substantial income would be acquiring a terrific player. Gomez was coming off a season with the Rangers where he scored 16 goals and 58 points. I mean, that’s not bad production, but not nearly enough for one of the highest paid players in the league at the time.
Gomez basically matched that production in his first season with the Habs. He scored just 12 goals and had 59 points in 78 games. His second season in Montreal was a colossal disaster as he scored seven goals and 38 points in 80 games, though he was consistently playing top six minutes and top power play. He had 11 points in 38 games the following year, capping off an embarrassing stretch where he went more than a calendar year without scoring a goal.
When the Habs returned from the lockout that wiped out half the 2012-13 season, teams knew they were going to be allowed to use two compliance buyouts at the end of the year. With it being so obvious that Gomez would be bought out, new general manager Marc Bergevin didn’t invite Gomez to training camp, asking him instead to stay home and avoid injury so he could be bought out.
The league stepped in and changed the rule so Gomez could immediately be bought out of his awful contract. Meanwhile, Higgins had some productive years as a third line winger for the Vancouver Canucks who were one of the best teams in hockey at the time.
Just to make the terrible trade even worse, McDonagh turned into a top pairing defender who some Norris Trophy votes in six different seasons in his career. He is just 30 years old now and is still a great defenceman for the Tampa Bay Lightning.