Not that I doubt you, but point counter point. Did anyone predict we would be worse with Kevin Shattenkirk? We are collectively damn smart when it comes to hockey and we all applauded the move. It turns out he was best served as injury depth. The D work best in pairs. Breaking one up to make a new one isn't guaranteed.
If we snagged EK, Carlson would get bumped to PK2 and PP2 duty. Suddenly, wouldn't he maybe be a bit overpaid? The grass ain't always greener, not to mention the green money cap room thing. We could go for the full right shot monty if we bring back Green too.
Green Nisky | Karlsson Carlson | Shattenkirk errr Bowey
Very true, I would argue that Karlsson and Shattenkirk are in two different leagues in terms of quality, but the point it keeps coming back to is that there basically isn't enough room for Carlson and Karlsson (lol), and as we just signed the former we can't exactly trade him away to make room for the latter.