Best Trade Ever made?

What is the best trade you ever had in Franchise? What trade difficulty was it on, how did the player work out for you in the future, and how did your traded players turn out on their new teams?

I don’t care if you fleeced the other team. Just interested in the story.

For me: Penguins. I play my games and my style of play often has my defensemen assisting and potentially scoring on a lot of goals (especially with the new one timer system). Marcus Pettersson had a huge breakout season in year one and had 88 points. He developed three silver XFactor abilities and a gold and his overall jumped to an 89. I loved this and intended on having Pettersson as the backbone of my defense that would eventually take the baton from Letang and Karlsson.

I was toying around with trade finder before the start of the next season and to my amazement, the Devils offered a 1 for 1 Pettersson for Luke Hughes. Hughes still did not have any xfactors and his overall did not progress from his 2025 to 2026 season.

I pulled the trigger.

Hughes goes on to win the Norris. Gets his gold and all silver superstar abilities. Scores 118 points. At one point in the season he lead the league in goals scored. Overall goes to 91.

Pettersson played solid for the Devils, but his overall remained at 89 over the next 4 seasons.

This has been my greatest.

Second place was an aging Bryan Rust for a 25 year old Matt Boldy. Boldy goes on to score 100 points the next season playing next to Crosby on the first line. Rust scores 35 as a third liner. This was a crazy head scratcher trade. I guess Minnesota needed the cap space (although it was only a 2 million free up).

Both trades made on medium difficulty.