Now approaching the twilight years of his career, Gretzky wanted another chance to win a title before retirement. However, frustrations led to Gretzky pressuring management by demanding the Kings acquire suitable talent - a high scoring forward and an offensive defenseman to play alongside him, or he would seek to play elsewhere when his contract expired at the end of the season. But the ongoing bankruptcy issues made it near fiscally impossible given the chances of players checks bouncing. On February 27, 1996, Gretzky was traded to the St. Louis Blues, for young forwards Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif, Roman Vopat, a first-round pick in the 1997 draft (Matt Zultek) and a fifth-round choice in the 1996 draft (Peter Hogan). With the exception of Craig Johnson who would earn a mainstay spot on the roster for seven more seasons, the rest of the players involved were gone within much shorter amounts of time, and neither draft pick acquired from the trade played a single game for the Kings, thus making it one of the worst trades in franchise history.