Stu Barnes finished his career as a journeyman, but he should have finished it as a Panther. On November 19, 1996 then Panthers GM Bryan Murray foolishly traded Stu and and Jason Woolley to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Chris Wells. The thinking at the time, even though Barnes helped lead the Panthers to the previous season's Cup Finals, was that they needed a bigger top-line forward to go up against the monstrous Eric Lindros. Wells turned out to be quite a bust as he couldn't skate and nor did he have the skill set to actually play in the NHL.
That trade still haunts the Panthers to this day as it pushed them to make other bad trades to try and make up for the Wells trade. Wells played only 4 years for the Panthers, logging only 25 points during that tenure. Harldy the results expected from a player who garnered that kind of a return.
Barnes, on the other hand, went on to play another 10 seasons for the Buffalo Sabres and the Dallas Stars. He logged another 389 points during that tenure. He unfortunately never won the Cup.
Thanks Stu for so many years of hard work!
0 comments:
Post a Comment