Revisiting the Penguins’ Kevin Stevens Trade With the Bruins

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Brockton, MA, native Kevin Stevens in a trade (for Anders Håkansson) with the Los Angeles Kings in September 1983, just a couple of months after he was drafted in the sixth round at 108th overall.

Fred Jewell/The Canadian Press

After four years at Boston College, where he won a Hockey East Championship in his senior year, Stevens debuted in 1987-88 and only played 16 games.

Although he split time with the Penguins and Muskegon Lumberjacks in 1988-89, he found his place in the lineup for the 1989-90 season and had 70 points in 76 games.

However, the best was yet to come.

In 1990-91, the year Pittsburgh would win its first Stanley Cup title, Stevens scored 40 goals and 86 points. When the Penguins repeated as champions the following season, he had his best season with 54 goals and 69 assists for 123 points.

The personal milestones kept falling as Stevens netted 55 goals in 72 games in 1992-93, finishing the campaign with 111 points.

Even though he continued to produce at a point-per-game pace in 1993-94 (1.06) and 1994-95 (1.00), Stevens was never the same after being on the wrong end of a harmless-looking hit in Game 7 of the second-round playoff series against the New York Islanders in 1993.

After the 1994-95 season, the Penguins dealt Stevens, who was only the second player (behind Mario Lemieux) in team history to record two 50-goal seasons, to his hometown Boston Bruins on Aug. 2, 1995.

Pittsburgh trades

Kevin Stevens

Shawn McEachern

Boston trades

1996 third-round pick (Boyd Kane)
Glen Murray
Bryan Smolinski

Stevens played only 41 games in Boston, scoring 23 points, before the team traded him to the Kings for Rick Tocchet, a teammate with whom they won the Stanley Cup in 1992.

Meanwhile, McEachern, another Massachusetts native, skated in 82 games with the Bruins, scoring 24 goals and 53 points before the team sent him to the Ottawa Senators in the offseason.

Interestingly, Murray played 66 games with the Penguins with 11 goals and 22 points before joining Stevens in Los Angeles at the 1997 trade deadline for future Pittsburgh head coach Eddie Olczyk.

Smolinski skated the entire season with the Penguins, scoring the most points of any player in this trade in a new setting, with 24 goals and 64 points.

Yet, like everyone else in the deal, he didn’t make it to a second season, as Pittsburgh traded him to the Islanders for Andreas Johansson and Darius Kasparaitis.

The draft pick the Penguins received turned into Boyd Kane, a third-round pick (72nd overall) who never signed with the team and opted to reenter the draft in 1998, this time selected by the New York Rangers in the fourth round (114th overall).

Kane eventually played 31 games in the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals but spent most of his time in the AHL, where he won three Calder Cup championships.

Ultimately, all four of these players played for numerous franchises. Still, Stevens returned to Pittsburgh in 2001, McEachern retired in Boston on his second tour of duty, and Murray became a 40-goal scorer when he returned to the Bruins.

Six Degrees of Separation

If anyone asked a casual Penguins or Bruins fan, they would most likely be familiar with each player in this trade. However, deeper digging into their careers revealed some amazing trade trees from this one deal in 1995.

At some point in their careers:

Stevens was traded for Tocchet, who was later dealt for Luc Robitaille, who was eventually traded for Stevens.

McEachern was traded twice in his career for Marty McSorley

Tocchet was traded from Boston to Washington in a six-player deal involving Jason Allison, who would eventually be dealt to bring Murray back to the Bruins.
The Tocchet deal between the Capitals and Bruins also included Anson Carter, who the New York Rangers traded for Jaromir Jagr.

Carter was once traded for Bill Guerin, who finished his career in Pittsburgh and helped the club win the Cup in 2009.
Smolinski was dealt with Zigmund Palffy from New York to Los Angeles. Palffy would play his final NHL season with the Penguins in 2005-06.

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