Revisiting the Penguins’ Shawn McEachern Trade With the Kings

The Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Waltham, MA native Shawn McEachern with the 110th overall pick in the 1987 Draft. He debuted in 1991-92 and played 15 regular season games before 19 more in the playoffs to get his name on the Stanley Cup at 22.

In the following season, McEachern played in all 84 games, scoring 28 goals and 61 points to finish eighth in team scoring behind four future Hall of Famers: Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Larry Murphy, and Joe Mullen.

After the season, the Penguins traded McEachern to the Los Angeles Kings for Marty McSorley, who had just led the NHL in penalty minutes with 399.

It would be McSorley’s second tour of duty with the Penguins, who signed him as an undrafted free agent in 1983. Before jetting off to play with the Edmonton Oilers in 1985, the defenseman had nine points in 87 games over two campaigns.

In Edmonton, McSorley would win two Stanley Cup titles in 1987 and 1988 before being one of the players in the Wayne Gretzky trade to the Kings in August 1988.

While in Hollywood, he scored 172 points in 354 games and racked up 1,560 penalty minutes. Pittsburgh acquired him to be a more challenging opponent to skate against and sacrificed a young 20-goal scorer in McEachern.

Upon returning to Pittsburgh, McSorley collected 139 penalty minutes in 47 games with three goals and 21 points. Meanwhile, McEachern, now skating alongside Gretzky, scored eight goals and 21 points.

The experiment wasn’t working out for either player on their new teams, so in February 1994, just five and a half months after their trade, McEachern was traded again for McSorley, this time in a four-player deal that sent defenseman Jim Paek to Los Angeles and forward Tomas Sandstrom to Pittsburgh.

In his old digs, McEachern bounced back with 12 goals and 21 points in 27 games, while Sandstrom contributed 17 points in 27 games. McSorley scored 10 points in 18 games, while Paek had only two in 18 games.