Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning complete a trade today in hockey history

A trade that would have a big ripple effect on the Detroit Red Wings happened on this day, 29 years ago.

Indeed, the Red Wings General Managers at the time, Jim Devellano and Scotty Bowman, sent a renowned veteran for a draft pick, which was later flipped to get another player who helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 1998.

On August 27, 1996, the Red Wings sent Dino Ciccarelli to the Tampa Bay Lightning in return for a fourth-round draft pick in 1998:

Later, at the 1998 trade deadline, the Wings sent that pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return for Jamie Macoun.

The Leafs used that pick to draft Alexei Ponikarovsky.

Let's take a look at these players.

Ciccarelli played in 1,232 regular season games in the NHL, with 141 additional games in the playoffs.

While he never won a Stanley Cup, he managed to produce great numbers in his career, tallying 1,200 points, including 608 goals, for the Minnesota North Stars, Washington Capitals, Red Wings, Lightning, and Florida Panthers.

Ponikarovsky was limited to 678 NHL games, spending parts of his career in Russia, notably winning a Gagarin Cup with SKA St. Petersburg in 2015. In the NHL, he played for the Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, and Winnipeg Jets between 2000 and 2013.

As for Macoun, the player won two Stanley Cups in his career: the first with the Calgary Flames in 1989, and the second with the Wings in 1998.

The defenseman scored 358 points in 1,128 games over his career, while tallying 1,208 penalty minutes. He added 42 points and 169 PIMs in 159 playoff games.

Stay tuned for more stories about the Red Wings' past as we near the start of the Centennial season.