After splitting last season between the Manitoba Moose and Ontario Reign, Nelson Nogier is off to the KHL. The minor league defenseman has signed a one-year deal with Barys Nur-Sultan, leaving North America after parts of six years in the AHL.
While a player with just 11 NHL games signing in the KHL isn’t usually much of a story, Nogier’s Group VI unrestricted free agency and subsequent departure ends a decades-long trade tree, one that originated with the most famous transaction in NHL history. As Sportsnet’s Steve “Dangle” Glynn points out, Nogier was the last remaining piece of the Wayne Gretzky tree.
The 26-year-old was a fourth-round pick of the Jets in 2014 and actually made it to the NHL just a few years later, but hasn’t been able to establish himself at the highest level. When he was swapped for Markus Phillips earlier this year, he joined the tree, and after Phillips was left unqualified by the Jets and signed with Assat in Liiga, Nogier became the very last branch.
Trade trees are just for fun, but it is somewhat surprising that Nogier wasn’t able to secure at least a minor league deal in the AHL to this point. Perhaps he wasn’t willing to play for that and was looking for a bigger opportunity, but he has been a capable defenseman for years. He is even coming off his longest playoff appearance, where he added three points in five games for the Reign.
Hah, I have a similar chain that I worked out a bunch of years ago.
In 1953, the Bruins sign Doug Mohns. Very solid player, gives them eleven good seasons, before they trade him to Chicago for Reggie Fleming and Ab McDonald.
Fleming gives them a good year and a half before he’s dealt to the Rangers for Johnny McKenzie, one of Boston’s stars in the late 60s/early 70s, and gets a Second Team All-Star nod. McKenzie jumps to the WHA and finishes his career there.
McDonald — who was usually a good scorer — was mediocre for Boston, and was traded in 1965 with a couple of journeymen to Detroit for Bob Dillabough, Ron Harris, Albert Langlois and Parker MacDonald. After a bottom pairing year, Dillabough and Harris (who was a decent D-man for the Red Wings down the road, but didn’t play for Boston that year) get picked up in the 1967 expansion draft. Langlois, the last Bruin to wear #4 before Orr, retires after that one year. MacDonald only plays a half year before being traded to Detroit for Pit Martin.
Well, Martin’s a pretty good player, and gives Boston two good years before being the centerpiece of a trade to the Black Hawks for three guys named Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield. Now it’s not really that Pit Martin sucked for Chicago — very far from it — but we know what those guys did for the Bruins in the 1970s.
Anyway, after six fine seasons, a lot of shattered records, and two Stanley Cups, Stanfield’s the first to go, traded to the Minnesota North Stars for goalie Gilles Gilbert, who’s Boston’s starter for most of the next seven seasons: 155 wins against 73 losses. Gilbert himself is dealt in 1980 for the last two season of Hall of Famer Rogie Vachon’s career. But I’m getting a touch ahead of myself.
We all know what Phil Esposito did for Boston before he was dealt with Carol Vadnais in the middle of the 1976 season for two guys named Ratelle and Park. The great Jean Ratelle retired after six starring seasons for Boston, while Brad Park was with the Bruins for eight years before signing with Detroit as a free agent.
One final thread: at his request (Espo wanted to reconstitute the gang), Hodge was traded to the Rangers at the end of the 1976 season, in one of the most lopsided deals in history — how many players get to be in TWO of those? Hodge played only one more full season in New York, and the Bruins got 12 seasons and 900 pts out of Rick Middleton for it. Suffering from the aftermath of a bad concussion, Middleton retired prematurely after the 1988 season.
So. Signing Doug Mohns got them 35 years, 9 seasons of solid goaltending, over 4000 skater games, 1500 goals, over 2200 assists, four Hall of Famers, 12 All-Star Team nods, 22 trophy finalists, 5 Rosses, 2 Harts and 3 Byngs. Not a bad signing.
Nhahahaha, you certainly get the award for overthinking this stuff. That said, your posts have entertainment value.
At least he’s not a $hithead troll who does nothing but trash other people’s posts.