On February 27 of 1996, the St. Louis Blues acquired potentially the greatest hockey player that ever lived, Wayne Gretzky. They gave up a large amount, but none of it really amounted to much in the end. St. Louis traded away Craig Johnson, Roman Vopat, Patrice Tardif, a fifth round pick in 1996 that would be Peter Hogan (never made the NHL) and a first round pick in 1997 that became Matt Zultek (also never played in the NHL).
Nothing against any of those players, but that’s a real world equivalent of turning a bunch of beans into the golden goose from the Jack and the Beanstalk story.