I think two of the most unexpected trades were in recent seasons. The First was the New England's trade for Finn-Rhys. For some reason a team that was middling at the bottom of the Atlantic decided it was time to upgrade. They went and brought in a player that is really only a move a win now team would do. New England was in the midst of a rebuild as seen by being at the bottom of the division. Instead they tried to win now which backfired as they did not make the playoffs.... again.

The other unexpected trade was when Minnesota went and traded for Badwolf. Although I believe she is a good member and a good person, they gave up a lot of assets on a team that was heading to rebuild. Because of this they stagnated their growth as they had many players in rebuild ad were not going to be able to turn things around quickly. To me on aging teams there comes a part when you start selling off players before the rebuild vs just hanging out mediocrity with no chance of moving forward