When Cowen was first signed to that contract? Yeah, probably wasn't totally against it. Maybe even in favour of it. IIRC I wasn't thrilled about the dollar value given his relative inexperience in the NHL, but at least it wasn't the 8 year deal. And we're talking 3 years ago. Things change.
No, my issue was that Cowen sucked for years and Murray adamantly stood by him, defending him with lines like "he's 6'5, he's gonna be real good" or "he wants to be good." The first year back, coming off injury that made him miss most of the previous season, I could understand. But the 2nd year, where Murray continued to defend him while any value he would have had in a trade dropped like a rock? No. Called for them to trade him then.
This season? No excuses given the hernia surgery, which would have only accounted for his crap play in the latter stages of 2013-14, not how he started out like crap and even at his best for about a month showed he was nothing more than a competent 3rd pairing guy. And look at that, he was crap again. Truly, how shocking