I'm not defending the deal, Dallas lost it big time. But he was trading a young forward with upside, for a young dman with upside. Goligoski had inflated numbers in Pittsburg, as does Neal right now. Goligoski is still around a 40pt guy, making him a top 3 dman. While he is not on Neal's level, I understand the reason he made the trade. It didn't work out the way Dallas had hoped, and they lost the deal, it happens.
Just because a GM loses a deal, or makes a mistake, does not mean they are terrible at their job. I would argue mistakes offer the best learning curves because it can cost a GM his job. If Joe was hired, I expect a much better version of himself than the one that was in Dallas.
Honestly, you could defend the deal at the time it was made.
When the deal was made, Dallas was pretty stacked down the Left Side.
Loui Eriksson, Jamie Benn, Brenden Morrow and James Neal are all natural LW's that were on that team.
On defence, their most dynamic D-man was Stephane Robidas. I mean, he's clearly not offensive dynamite.
They traded from a position of strength to a position of weakness. Benn was younger and putting up similar stats as Neal at the time, it just made him expendable. Eriksson and Morrow were untouchable at that point of time... so there was also that.
At the time of that trade, Goligoski was a 25 year old top 15 in scoring Dman in the NHL... you have to give up a lot to get. To get an idea, what do you guys think would be the price right now to get Hedman or Fowler from their respective teams?
At the time, the trade looked great on paper. I don't think Neal makes these types of scoring strides without Malkin/Crosby... but none-the-less, when this deal was made, it was the going price for what they needed.