As is with professional leagues in baseball, basketball, soccer and football; trades and free agency are a normal part of the National Hockey League. Players are traded and they expect to be traded or sign as free agents with other teams. But some players have been traded or signed as free agents a few more times than what you'd expect on average. This site compiles a list of the most traded or moved NHL players. For now, I have decided to tackle the Top 10 most travelled NHL players as this seems like a list we can build upon.
So what type of hockey player do you see on such a list? In most cases it would be a journeyman player, likely a defenseman who has a long shelf life. If the player plays for a long time, he is obviously more likely to be traded or sign on as a free agent. This is seen with the appearance of hall of fame defenseman Paul Coffey who played 18 pro-seasons with 9 different NHL teams and Phil Housley, another great offensive defenseman.