PROMPT 1: The Trade is 1 for 1

My favorite hockey team is the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they've had some doozies in their day. A team that seems to excel when they swing for the fences, but fail horrifically when it comes to minor swaps. Their cups in '91 and '92 are thanks to a huge deal involving Ron Francis, their cups in '16 and '17 from Phil Kessel. A lot more goes into it, but bringing high value talent seems to work. On the other hand they've had some horrific duds. I think many forget that Markus Naslund was a Penguin. He was traded for Alek Stojanov, an enforcer who found himself out of the league after one season with the Penguins where he played 35 games and had 5 points. Naslund went on to player over 1000 games and finish his career with 869 points. That's maybe the worst value deal in the history of the organization. But wait, there's more. Trading FOR high end talent may work out, but what about trading the established superstar? Look no further than the Penguins trading Jaromir Jagr. He was traded away in 2001 for Kris Beech, Michal Sivek and Ross Lupaschuk. And if you find yourself asking, "who are those guys?" you are correct. A horrible deal kicking off one of the worst eras for a franchise in the history of the NHL. It's tough to match either of these deals in terms of horrifically giving up value for nothing in return. But I would argue one trade kicked off a devastating series of moves and a philosophy that irreparably damaged the franchise. After winning back to back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, the team made a weird decision. They traded their first round pick for Ryan Reaves and a second round pick. The second round pick retired during his junior career, so that's already something. But as bad as Reaves was for the Penguins (and he was quite bad), it was the first of many moves that slowly tore down the Stanley Cup contending Penguins until they were left as a shell of what they were during their championship runs. Slowly the cupboard was stripped clean and no real talent was brought in for it. There have been good moves since then, and many years the team looks quite strong as their core seems to defy the aging curve. But bringing in Ryan Reaves as an attempt to "change the team's style" moved them away from a winning formula and brought them into many early exits and a tough future.

tl;dr = Ryan Reaves trade was worse for the Penguins in the long run than trading Jagr or Naslund for nothing.