Trade Trees: Todd Bertuzzi to Florida Panthers

In the next installment of "Trade Trees", we take a look at a trade that sent Todd Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers. The veteran winger came off a 71 point season with Vancouver, and was dealt just before the draft in Vancouver.


It was June 23rd 2006 when the blockbuster trade occurred sending Todd Bertuzzi,  Bryan Allen, and Alex Auld to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek, and a 6th round pick in 2006.

We'll start by looking at what the Florida Panthers received in the trade. To begin with, Bertuzzi only spent 7 games with the Panthers (that's right, seven) before being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings. In those 7 games he managed to collect 1 goal and 6 assists. After trading away Bertuzzi, Florida received Shawn Matthias (312 GP, 97 P) and a 2nd round pick in 2007 which turned into Nick Spaling who never played a game for Florida before being dealt to Nashville with a 1st round pick for goalie Tomas Vokoun.

Next up is Bryan Allen. He was a big, physical defenceman and an established NHL player before coming to Florida. Playing in 284 games with the Panthers, Allen collected 67 points before being dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes for Sergei Samsonov (20 GP, 14 P).

Third was the promising goal-tending prospect Alex Auld. His time in Florida was short lived, as he only played in 27 games with the Panthers and finished with a 3.34 GAA and a 0.888 SV% before being allowed to leave in free agency.

Now to look at the players Vancouver acquired in this deal.
First up we have Lukas Krajicek, a former first-round pick defenseman showing a fair amount of promise. He only spent 117 games with the Canucks (5G, 27P) before being traded with Juraj Simek to Tampa Bay in exchange for Michel Ouellet (3 GP, 0P with Vancouver) and Shane O'Brien (141 GP, 18 P with Vancouver).

Second piece coming back to Vancouver was a sixth-round  pick in 2006, which the Canucks used to draft Sergei Shirokov. Shirokov only spent 8 games in the NHL, all with Vancouver, and only collected 1 goal before departing for the KHL where he spent the rest of his career.

The final piece headed to Vancouver was goalie Roberto Luongo. During his time in Vancouver, Luongo played in 448 regular season games, and even led them to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in 2011. That same year he also won the William M. Jennings trophy for the fewest number of goals against (minimum 25 GP). Unfortunately, his time in Vancouver was cut short as he was dealt back to Florida during the 2013-14 season along with Steven Anthony for Jacob Markstrom (remains with Vancouver today) and Shawn Matthias (96 GP, 34 P. Left in free agency in 2015).

It's very easy to give the win of this trade to Vancouver. They traded an ageing physical forward alongside a couple of prospects who did not live up to expectations and in return received an elite goaltender.

Which trade should we break down next? Comment below.