It has been 24 years since the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Darcy Tucker from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade on Feb. 9, 2000, and it had fans very interested. Although Tucker wasn’t as big of a name that Leafs’ fans came to love, his trade price wasn’t astronomical. The Maple Leafs gave up a roster player and a collection of draft picks, and in return, got Tucker, who headlined the trade, as well as two draft picks.
Tucker Returns to Canada
Darcy Tucker, originally drafted by the Montreal Canadiens, was traded to the Lightning in 1998. Two seasons later, he was shipped back to Canada in a trade with the Maple Leafs, where he would make it his home. In this transaction, Toronto traded Mike Johnson, Marek Posmyk, a fifth and sixth-round draft pick in 2000, which turned out to be Pavel Sedov and Aaron Gionet, as well as a 2001 fifth-round draft pick. Tampa used the 2001 fifth-round pick to select Terry Denike.
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The key return for the Lightning in this trade was youngster Johnson; however, the Maple Leafs got an asset that would become a part of their core for years to come. Tucker played eight seasons for the organization and was linemates with team captain Mats Sundin. Over those eight seasons, he scored 148 goals and 171 assists for 319 total points in 531 games in the blue and white. He also was a part of five playoff appearances with the Maple Leafs, where he played in 58 playoff games, including an Eastern Conference Final loss in 2002, which is the last time the organization made it that far in the postseason. He had 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 playoff points in 58 games with the team.
Unfortunately for Tucker and the Maple Leafs, there was no real playoff success during his time with the club. There were years like the 2002 Eastern Conference Final loss that the team came close to but never close enough to play in the Stanley Cup Final. Throughout his later years on the team, he was a true veteran who helped younger players like Matt Stajan, Alexander Steen, and Kyle Wellwood. Wellwood was selected with the 2001 fifth-round pick that Toronto got from Tampa, and he had a decent career in the NHL. Tucker was made the assistant captain during the 2007-08 season, which was the last season he was on the Maple Leafs. Sadly, the team bought out the remainder of Tucker’s contract on June 24, 2008, paying him $1 million per year for six years.
As for the aforementioned Wellwood, he would play four of his nine seasons for the Maple Leafs. He appeared in 189 games, registering 31 goals and 77 assists for a total of 108 points. He played for the Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, and Winnipeg Jets to round out his nine-year NHL career. As for the other player going to the Maple Leafs in the deal, Miguel Delisle didn’t make it to the NHL after being drafted in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL Draft. He spent the bulk of his career in the ECHL.
The Package Headed to Tampa
As the main piece going the opposite way in trade, Johnson was only 25 years old when he was dealt, having spent four seasons with the Maple Leafs. He appeared in 226 games and scored 48 goals and 72 assists for 120 points. While he was still young and entering the prime of his career, he was valued enough to bring in a fan favourite in Tucker. Johnson’s career was a fairly long one, spanning over 11 seasons with five different clubs, collecting a total of 375 points in 661 games.
His time in Tampa Bay was short; he only played two seasons, scoring 60 points in 92 games. His career improved when he joined the Phoenix Coyotes (now Arizona), where his production increased, as well as his role on the team. He scored 159 points in 242 games over five seasons, which included his career-high in points with 63 in 2002–03. After his time with the Coyotes, Johnson had stints with both the Canadiens and St. Louis Blues before heading overseas to finish his career.
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Posmyk was the other known player in the deal, and his career wasn’t good at all. He only appeared in 19 career NHL games over two seasons before heading overseas for 12 years before retiring. The three players that were selected with the draft picks didn’t turn out the way Tampa may have liked, unfortunately. Sedov, Gionet, and Denike collectively played a total of zero NHL games.
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It is safe to say that the Maple Leafs got the better part of the deal, bringing in a player who made his mark in the organization for the better part of eight seasons. Whereas the Lightning could have had a better outcome with the draft picks they received in the trade, they failed to draft players who could have made an impact. They missed out on players like Roman Cechmanek, who was drafted in the sixth round by the Philadelphia Flyers, or even Henrik Lundqvist, who was drafted in the seventh round by the New York Rangers, Unfortunately, they didn’t have success in the draft, which could have made fans look back on this deal and think that Tampa Bay won the trade. Instead, it was most definitely the Maple Leafs that won it.