It was a pretty great year for jaw-dropping transactions in the NHL. The Mikhail Grabovski buyout, which greyed the hair of more than a few bloggers. The subsequent overpayment of Tyler Bozak. The David Clarkson contract. The firing of Brian Burke. The trade for Jonathan Bernier.

And these are just transactions that didn't make our top 10 -- from one city. (You so crazy, Toronto.)

Here are the transactions that shocked us in 2013.

10. Ilya Bryzgalov bought out

We all saw it coming, but it was still pretty audacious. After two disastrous seasons in Philadelphia, and just one start shy of 100 in the orange and black, Ilya Bryzgalov was disappeared from the Flyers' organization. Only two summers earlier, Ed Snider had crowed about the signing, a $51 million deal that ran through 2020, saying, "for me, the goaltender is the final piece on this team.” Now, the Flyers were paying $23 million to rid themselves of a huMANGous mistake.

9. Ryan O'Reilly rides an Avalanche back to Calgary

Most of the NHL's players returned from Europe in early January, when the league finally agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement with the player's association. (The end of the lockout: Puck Daddy's least shocking transaction of 2013, by the way, since it shouldn't have taken until this year.) But O'Reilly stayed behind, playing two more games for Magnitogorsk in Russia on Jan. 21 and Jan. 23 as he awaited a contract extension from the Avalanche.

Finally, nearly two months later, O'Reilly signed -- but not with the Avalanche, with the Calgary Flames, who inked the centre to a $10 million, two-year offer sheet. The Avalanche quickly matched. This in itself was not shocking.

Then we learned that, even if they hadn't, O'Reilly may not have been able to join the Flames. Those two extra games he played made him waiver-eligible if he signed elsewhere. As Chris Johnston pointed out, "That would have created a potentially disastrous situation where the Flames had to send two decent draft picks to Colorado before losing the rights to O’Reilly immediately afterwards."

That was shocking. Jay Feaster has since been fired, which probably makes some sense.

8. Capitals trade Filip Forsberg to Nashville for Martin Erat

It's even more shocking in hindsight, with Erat demanding a trade from the team to which, only months earlier, he demanded to be traded. But it was plenty shocking at the time too, as the Capitals made a big splash at the trade deadline by sending one of the top prospects in the game to Nashville for the long-time Predators' winger.

It didn't work out. Erat played just four playoff games for the Capitals, who didn't make it past the first round. And now he wants out. Meanwhile, Forsberg remains 19 years old and good.

7. Islanders acquire Thomas Vanek

Last year's Islanders appeared to take a step forward, making the postseason for the first time in ages and then giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a scare in the first round before bowing out. So you can understand why general manager Garth Snow might think it was time to add a big piece. And you can understand why he might make the deal nice and early: Evgeni Nabokov and Lubomir Visnovsky are evidence he's good at convincing players to stick around if he has enough time.

It could work out. Vanek could click with Tavares and give the Islanders a truly formidable top line, then decide he wants to keep doing it and re-sign. Or he could head to Minnesota, as many suspect he will, leaving the Islanders with nothing but the hole where beloved Matt Moulson used to be.

6. Bobby Ryan to the Ottawa Senators

The Senators' acquisition of power forward Bobby Ryan should have been the big jaw-dropper in Ottawa on July 1 -- it's not often that you see a four-time 30-goal scorer in his prime change teams -- but suffice it to say, this move was overshadowed by another shocking transaction that we won't mention just yet for fear of spoiling the bottom half of this countdown.

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