I get all of that, but I see that as an argument for why this was not a trade Carolina should have made.
I guess, I see GMs not as salesmen, but as decision makers that approach these types of situations on the basis of what their organizations deem acceptable. Perhaps I’m wrong here, but I have gotten the impression from what I’ve read and heard that it’s not GMs talking other GMs in doing something. It’s not Team X fleecing Team Y. It’s Team Y not making a good decision and Team X being the beneficiary.
I have begun to avoid declaring winners and losers for that reason. Is this a smart trade for Buffalo? Yes. It’s a low-risk, high-reward type move. Is this a smart trade for Carolina? I’m skeptical, as the loss of Skinner hurts the on-ice product, imo, and I would have been comfortable forgoing that type of return to have him for the year; the depth in the organization is there to not obsess with asset accumulation.
I would feel the same way if this had swung in the opposite direction.
I get that's how you feel, but I was trying to put myself in other people's shoes to answer your question of why people think the Canes got robbed, so I was explaining why I think people felt that way. Most of them don't even know enough about the other teams to look at the overall decision on an organizational level, the ins and outs of a team, etc....they look at "Player X scores this much and can get this type of return, so if he doesn't, the team got robbed."
In my view, Skinner was 100% not going to be a Hurricane after this season because either the Canes weren't going to pay him what it would take, or he would move on via UFA. Therefore, there were only 3 options.
1) Trade him now, maybe for the best return you could get and move on.
2) Keep him to the deadline and get some play out of him this year and maybe increase the return at the deadline (and also risk an injury or that he won't waive at the deadline like Ray Whitney didn't).
3) Keep him for the full season and lose him for nothing.
It was pretty clear to me that Rod Brind'Amour wanted to move him now so that played a part in it. Trading him in August, when no team is desperate and his NMC then lessened the return IMO, but he Canes felt it better to move on now. Only time will tell if they were right or not.