New Jersey Devils: Assessing Trade History Of Top NHL Draft Picks

Philadelphia Flyers trade Ruslan Fedotenko and two second-round picks to the Tampa Bay Lightning for fourth overall.

So, this trade is bad. This trade is really bad. The Tampa Bay Lightning made the bizarre move of trading the fourth-overall pick for a package surrounding Russian defenseman Ruslan Fedotenko. He had shown so flashes of being pretty good, and he was just 23 years old, but this is an undrafted guy who was playing over his head for the Flyers.

It seems like the trade came because of a call from head coach John Tortorella, who said he needed more NHL players on the roster. They had their core in Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis (who only played 53 games the year prior), and Brad Richards. The team needed another offensive piece to work around them.

However, this seems like a team that was desperate to find the perfect fit, and they paid handsomely for it. Fedotenko was not the right player for the situation. After the trade, scouts quit the organization according to The Hockey News. It feels like the wrong move overall.

On the other hand, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup two years later. The Flyers ended up taking Joni Pitkanen with the fourth-overall pick. He played just three seasons with the Flyers. Fedotenko played five seasons with the Lightning, and he won the 2004 Stanley Cup. He had 12 playoff goals during that run. Three of them were game winners. In the Lightning front office’s mind, that was enough to make the trade worth it.