Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as “The Hockey Maven,” shares his humor and insight with readers every Wednesday.
With the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, this week compares the New York Rangers’ deal for J.T. Miller on Jan. 31 with the first nine-player trade in NHL history between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks in 1950.
When the New York Rangers acquired center J.T. Miller in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks, it was hailed as a blockbuster. The Rangers got defensemen Jackson Dorrington and Erik Brannstrom in the deal. Defenseman Victor Mancini, center Filip Chytil and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft were sent to the Canucks.
The Miller trade necessary for several reasons:
1. Strength down the middle: Miller had NHL career highs of 37 goals and 103 points last season. He fit the bill.
2. Stanley Cup Playoff bid: The Rangers went 4-15-0 from Nov. 21 to Dec. 30 after a 12-5-1 start. They split a back-to-back weekend set, losing 8-2 to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Sunday returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off, which entering Tuesday had them two points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference after winning the Presidents’ Trophy last season. They’re hoping Miller can be a catalyst.
3. Leadership: The trade of defenseman Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6 left the Rangers without a captain. Miller has been a natural leader wherever he’s played and was imported to fill that void.
The Rangers were 4-3-0 since the trade entering Tuesday. What remains to be seen is whether Miller can provide enough of a push on all levels to secure a postseason run. Some critics believe that he arrived a month too late.
The New York-Vancouver exchange paled in comparison to a deal between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks on July 13, 1950, that involved nine players including two future Hockey Hall of Famers. The defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings sent goalie Harry Lumley, defensemen Al Dewsbury and Jack Stewart, and forwards Pete Babando and Don Morrison to the last-place Black Hawks for goalie “Sugar” Jim Henry, defenseman Bob Goldham, and forwards Gaye Stewart and Metro Prystai.
Henry, who played two seasons in the minors, was considered just a throw-in.
“It’s the biggest player trade in the history of the NHL,” said Hockey News publisher and editor Ken McKenzie at the time. “It made headlines in numerous cities.
“The trade will definitely strengthen Chicago defensively and their goaltending worries should be over for several years.”
Red Wings general manager Jack Adams’ motive was puzzling. Why break up a dominating team? Why deal the heroic Babando, who scored the 1950 double-overtime Cup-winning goal in Game 7 against the Rangers? Why unload the outstanding Lumley?
“At the time,” said Red Wings publicist Fred A. Huber Jr., “Harry was only 23, in his sixth year with us, and considered one of the best goalies in the League.”
Said Adams: “I broke up my team because after we won our second straight Cup in 1937, I stood pat when I should have been dealing and in the next season we missed the playoffs. After that I said I’d never hesitate to bust up championship clubs.”
But Adams was gambling. Terry Sawchuk was projected to be Lumley’s replacement despite the 20-year-old having only seven games of NHL experience and recent failed surgery on his right elbow.
“Sawchuk had a crippled right arm,” wrote Marshall Dann in The Hockey News, “He’ll be the biggest question mark in organized hockey this winter.”
Sawchuk confessed to Dann: “I still can’t straighten my right arm any farther than I could before the surgery. My right arm is two inches shorter than my left.”
Adams also took a chance on Prystai, who was destined to replace aging center Sid Abel.
“Adams felt Sid was nearing the end of the trail,” wrote author Ed Fitkin. “The big deal they worked with Chicago was tangible proof that he was seeking a successor for Abel.”
For Chicago, it looked like a Windy City windfall.
“With Lumley in the nets and Stewart on defense,” wrote Bud Booth in The Hockey News, “the Hawks may have a combination lifting them out of the League cellar and into playoff consideration.”
Lumley had a 2.42 goals-against average in 1948-49, which fell to 2.35 a season later. Stewart, a future Hall of Famer, was a three-time First All-Star and notorious for his crushing body checks.
Writing in “The Trail of The Stanley Cup,” author Charles L. Coleman noted: “The Red Wings were loaded and could well afford the deal. It also was supposed to give Chicago a lift.”
It did not. The Black Hawks plummeted to 36 points (13-47-10) from 54 (22-38-10) in 1949-50. Lumley’s GAA climbed from 2.35 in his final season with Detroit to 3.88 for Chicago.
“Harry was one of the greatest goalies of all time, but he lasted only two years in Chicago before Conn Smythe rescued him and brought him to Toronto,” historian Richard Podnieks wrote in his book, “Players.”
Sawchuk and the Red Wings were eliminated from the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. Prystai failed to replace Abel on the first line. Ironically, after Abel was traded to Chicago by Detroit for cash July 22, 1952, the Black Hawks hired him as player/coach, and he guided them to their first playoff berth in seven seasons.
Even with Sawchuk, the league-leading Red Wings were ousted in the first round of the 1953 playoffs by the under .500 Boston Bruins spearheaded by once-forgotten goalie Sugar Jim Henry.
“Not only did Henry knock off the champs,” wrote Podnieks, “but he helped revive an awful Bruins team!”
As for Sawchuk, after helping Detroit become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions April 14, 1955, he received his third Vezina Trophy given to the best goalie in the NHL. Less than two months later — June 3, 1955 — he received a phone call from his boss.
“Terry,” Adams said, “I’ve traded you to Boston!”
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