"Seldom are there universal truths in sports. This is one: The Penguins made their greatest trade 20 years ago this weekend. Twenty years. "In some ways, it seems like yesterday," said Hall of Fame general manager Craig Patrick, the man who pulled it off. On March 4, 1991, Patrick sent popular goal-scorer John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker to the Hartford Whalers for Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings. The Hockey News' initial take? Edge to the Whalers. Cullen was among the NHL's top players with 31 goals and 94 points in 65 games, and Francis had fallen out of favor with the Whalers' new ownership and had been stripped of his team captaincy. Opinions changed after the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in '91 and '92 and probably would have won in '93 if they hadn't run into the New York Islanders and David Volek. (Sorry). All these years later, many long-time hockey observers still call the Penguins' end of the trade the greatest deadline deal in NHL history. "That was such a great trade for the Penguins that they probably should have given me a small ring or something," said Eddie Johnston, who was the Whalers' general manager at the time. That was the least owner Edward DeBartolo Sr. should have done after the Penguins won the Cup in '91. Johnston was their general manager when they drafted Mario Lemieux in 1984 and built much of the foundation for the championship clubs before leaving for Hartford in '89. Patrick brought him back to the Penguins in '93 as coach after he was fired by the Whalers, in large part, because of the trade. "The only reason I traded Ulf was because his agent said he was going back to Sweden to play," Johnston said in a 2009 interview. "I had to trade Ronnie before the deadline because the owner [Richard Gordon] ordered me to trade him. "That wasn't a bad trade for Hartford. Cullen was a good player and Zalapski scored 20 goals for us." All Francis did during his seven years-plus with the Penguins was enhance a career that took him to the Hall of Fame in 2007. "We knew he was a great two-way player. He had already proven that," Patrick said last week. "But his leadership and his character were real keys for us. We had character, but we didn't have the right direction with that character. We needed that in our organization. Both Ronnie and Ulf brought that." Samuelsson turned out to be just as important as Francis. Twenty years haven't dimmed Patrick's and Francis' memory of how Samuelsson was known here because of the fierce way he played defense: "Jack Lambert on ice," both remembered." Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11065/1129808-61.stm
