Trade completed between the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings will shape the franchise for years to come
Photo credit: Dave Sanford
GM Ken Holland used to make great, bold trades, and the trade to acquire Dominik Hasek from the Buffalo Sabres changed the Red Wings' fortunes; all it cost was Slava Kozlov and a 2002 first-round pick.
The Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland made an instrumental move that single-handedly changed the trajectory of the team.
On July 1st, 2001, during free agency, he traded forward Slava Kozlov and a 2002 1st-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres for goalie Dominik Hasek.
Hasek would become a key piece in the Red Wings' lineup and be part of multiple Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2002 and 2008. Which, in terms of cost, eclipses losing one of the Russian Five and a 1st-round pick.
Dominik Hasek Forces A Trade
The only team that got the literal short end of the stick in this scenario was the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres had until the end of Saturday to pick up Hasek's one-year, $9-million option, trade him, or lose him to unrestricted free agency.
The salary issues led to a parting of ways between the Sabres and a goalie who had willed them into the Stanley Cup finals beforehand.
Now, not only did they lose Michael Peca, but they lost Dominik Hasek as well.
Hasek put the Sabres into a precarious place, considering the fact that he wanted to leave the team for a contending squad. Which he ended up finding in Detroit with Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings.
Before being traded to the Red Wings in the 2000-01 season, he earned his sixth Vezina Trophy and would post 11 shutouts.
Hasek gave the Red Wings a dominant one-two punch in the crease, which explains why they were the team to beat in 2002.
Hasek, along with Yzerman and Niklas Lidstrom, were just some of the superstars on that team at the time.
For GM Ken Holland, trades like this made him famous and gave him the notoriety he'd ride into jobs like Edmonton that he had no business having later in his career.
But this one was bold and paid off splendidly.
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AOUT 6 | 523 ANSWERS Trade completed between the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings will shape the franchise for years to come Was goalie Dominik Hasek your favorite Detroit Red Wings goalie? | ||
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