Weird...

I found out about the Courtnall/Tikkanen trade in a hotel room in Ithaca, NY, at 2:00 AM (four hours before I had to be up to cover a fencing meet--great time to get wired...). With my brain then going 5000 RPM, I came up with the following nifty little curiosities:

1. This is the second trade in which one of the 1994 champions was traded for another; in fact, both of those the Rangers dealt were among the 29 Men on 6/14/94. (The other 29er for 29er was Jay Wells to St. Louis for Doug Lidster, 7/31/95)
2. On 7/24/94, as part of the compensation for Mike Keenan running to the Blues, the Rangers traded Esa Tikkanen and Doug Lidster to the Blues for Petr Nedved. Nedved is gone; both Tikkanen and Lidster are back.
3. The day after the deal, 3/10/97, was the 1000th day after the Stanley Cup championship. So, the trade happened on day 999, which has to be a Wayne Gretzky meta-reference.
4. Tikkanen joins Lidster and Noonan as the only three--so far--of the 29 to leave and then come back. Tikkanen has now been involved in a deal with both of them. (By the way, not counting Doug and Esa, there are just eight of the 29 left: Graves, Mark Messier, Leetch, Beukeboom, Mike Richter, Healy, Kovalev, and Karpovtsev)
5. And a semi-curiosity (this one's a real stretch): Many years ago, I think 1988, Phil Esposito signed a winger named Courtnall to an offer sheet. Geoff Courtnall had the offer sheet matched (controversially--had to do with Canadian versus US currency) by Edmonton, and he was traded to Washington shortly thereafter. Now, almost a decade later, a Courtnall will make his New York debut--but it's his younger brother, Russ (against? The Caps. Insert eerie music here...). By the way, Geoff Courtnall was on the Canucks in 1994 when they played the Blueshirts in the finals. Russ arrived the following year.