Remember this guy? That's Nick Bjugstad, and the Edmonton Oilers traded for him at the 2023 trade deadline to bolster their bottom six forward depth, having Bjugstad play the role of third line center. The Oilers would go on to beat the Kings in the first round (as they always do), then lose in six games to the eventual Cup champions the Vegas Golden Knights before going to finals last year.
Well, the trade went a little something like this - the Oilers sent out a third rounder in that year's draft plus (at the time) prospect Michael Kesselring, who was drafted by the Oilers in the sixth round in 2018 but at the time was bubbling under and stuck under all the Oilers depth, which at the time had just seen the emergence of Vinnie Desharnais at the NHL level, and with Philip Broberg and Evan Bouchard above him in the depth chart (again, this was at the time), there simply wasn't room for Kesselring on the Oilers roster. Their depth was just too good. So, seeing a team need and an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, GM Ken Holland pulled the trigger on a deal. Bjugstad would go on to re-sign as a free agent with Arizona and Kesselring, now on a team with less depth and more cap space, would go on to spend only another six games in the minors before emerging as a regular in the now Utah HC's D corps.
The Oilers also got prospect Cam Dineen in the deal, who remains in Bakersfield to this day.
So that's the story behind the trade but then he comes up with this piece that doesn't make any sense. This piece is lacking context in so many ways, let's pick it apart and show this guy how he's missing the obvious and a lot of common sense in the process.
1. Bjugstad was only viewed as a rental anyway
That was the consensus amongst management and the media. Word on the street is Holland did try to re-up Bjugstad, but he chose to re-sign as a free agent with the Arizona/Utah organization - and at the rate of $2,100,000 per season, something a bit too rich for a cap strapped team in win-now mode like the Oilers were (and still are). The Coyotes/Utah HC are an inferior team that IIRC has never once spent to the cap ceiling, so they naturally had more cap space for luxury items like Bjugstad. If you see this trade for what it actually was - a rental - then it doesn't look nearly as bad and saying it was "the worst trade Ken Holland ever made" is nothing but melodramatic ignorance.
2. Arizona/Utah doesn't have the same abundance of depth the Oilers have
As a team with what at the time was a much less of a fanbase than the Canadian-based Oilers have, the Coyotes/Utah HC wouldn't have the same success at any part of building their roster as the Oilers have - whether that's drafting, free agency, or trades, the Coyotes/Utah HC have been run pretty badly for most of their existence. The same cannot be said of the Oilers in the Daryl Katz era. Thus, the Oilers are able to ice a much better team with more depth. The silver lining of being the Coyotes/Utah HC is that when a guy like Michael Kesselring gets acquired at the right time, there's room for him.
3. The Coyotes/Utah HC have had injury issues the Oilers haven't had
Most of the time the Oilers have been blessed with not having major injury issues with their top players (notwithstanding Evander Kane of course), something the Coyotes/Utah HC can't say last season or this season. In fact, two of their three incumbent RD from last season - Sean Durzi and John Marino - are out with major injuries right now. This creates opportunity for their callups who replace them, if they have the kahones to seize it. This is what has happened with Kesselring, who has had a lot more opportunity with the Coyotes/Utah HC because of it. Combine this with the inferior depth and inferior team in Utah, and you can see why Kesselring would be given more opportunities and rope than he would've received in Edmonton.
4. There was no way to know that Kesselring would produce the way he has in Utah
Kesselring has done so well with Arizona/Utah, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if the Utah HC was looking to get rid of one of Durzi or Marino to make room for Kesselring on the roster (maybe the Oilers would be interested in bringing Marino back into the organization). But there was really no way to know that Kesselring would be knocking on the door of being an NHL regular. Drafting and development is an inexact science and there's oftentimes a lot of leaps of faith or "let's give him a shot" kind of mentality. Kesselring stayed with the big club for 65 games in 2023-24, and in 32 games this season already has 15 points - so if he stays on the roster long enough there's a good chance, he'll eclipse the 21 points he put up last season for (what at the time was) the Coyotes. He can certainly handle the defensive responsibilities, and he can put up offence too. But you can't compare apples to oranges - which is exactly what a comparison of the Oilers vs. Utah HC looks like. On a team that's in win-now mode like the Oilers are, you need veterans who have been there, done that, yet still young enough to contribute a role, whatever that may be. Comparing that to the Utah HC, a team that isn't even a playoff contender yet, and a team that is much less of a finished product to boot, and the landscape looks much different.
Look, no GM can predict the future. They can try, and the best ones will usually have some success, but in the end it's really only an educated guess. It's easy to look back in hindsight and say the Oilers should've hung on to Kesselring instead of trading him away if we'd known that Desharnais was going to bolt to Vancouver in free agency and if we'd known that Broberg was going to be stolen away from us with an offer sheet by St. Louis, and if Kesselring was going to emerge as he did, then we should've put a different prospect in that trade. But we didn't know any of that at the time. A GM can only make decisions on the roster based on the information they have at the time. Looking back at past decisions based on today's information is foolhardy because you can't travel back in time.
It's also important to note that usually prospects have to have a short cup of coffee in the NHL when they first get there where they don't produce much of anything. Kesselring did have a short stint in the NHL in his first callup, but he showed much better than anyone expected, producing three assists in nine games with a -1 to boot, solid numbers for a guy playing his first NHL games. This is the best league in the world, so you have to treat guys playing their first games with kid gloves, then once they prove they can handle a bigger role and more responsibility, then you give them a more permanent spot.
So, context is important in these things.
So, what was the worst trade Ken Holland ever made? How about the Andreas Athanasiou trade - Sam Gagner and two second rounders for AA? I'd think that trade was much worse than this one. The Mike Green trade was also pretty bad, but at least the Oilers didn't give up much in trade to the Wings - only a fourth liner (Kyle Brodziak) and a fourth-round pick. It's also important to note that we couldn't predict that Mike Green would only play two games for the Oilers before suffering a career-ending injury. So, again, context is important.