The Colorado Avalanche finally completed their trade of center Matt Duchene on Sunday evening after almost a year of rumors and turmoil from both parties involved. Duchene will now report to the Ottawa Senators, and a hefty haul will head to Colorado in return for the multi-team asset swap.
Matt Duchene got traded mid-game and made the sneakiest possible exit
The NHL experienced their first mid-game trade in five years and it was a stealthy operation.
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Duchene’s landing spot in Ottawa is no surprise after this weekend, when reports came out that the 26-year-old forward was rumored to be in the mix of a three-way trade. Multi-team trades are extremely rare in hockey, for all the amount of wheeling and dealing that goes on mid-season.
Even more rare? Mid-game trades. The last mid-game trade the NHL experienced was the deal that sent Michael Cammalleri from the Montreal Canadiens to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Rene Bourque in 2012. While baseball has had a few memorable ones as well, five years in between this one and the last for the NHL is a lifetime for some hockey players.
And if you blinked mid-game on Sunday, you would have missed it. For all the chatter on social media, Duchene’s exit from the Avalanche’s away game against the New York Islanders on Sunday was as quick as could be. Of all things, the Avalanche used an injury to Blake Comeau to sneak Duchene off the ice in the first period of their game.
Of course, reporters caught on quickly that Duchene was no longer on the Avalanche bench, but the on-ice move was as swift as could be.
Later in the evening, Duchene showed up in street clothes with his bags in tow as he headed out of Barclays Center in New York to catch a flight to Ottawa.
BSN Denver also captured video of Duchene leaving Barclays Center as he took questions from reporters.
And that, my friends, is how high-profile, mid-game trades go down in the NHL. The gig was clearly up for the Avalanche the moment reporters keyed into the fact that Duchene was no longer on the ice, but the inner workings of a mid-game trade are things not often seen by this league.
Here’s hoping, however, we get more in-game trades in the future in the NHL. The chaos and excitement surrounding the workings on Sunday night were far more interesting than any recent hockey trade.
See More:
