I obviously don't know for sure, but Manson is way cheaper, is homegrown, has less of an injury history, and is currently playing better than Despres. He's also a more physical player willing to drop the gloves more often. It seems like he'd easily have more value to a budget team, and that's coming from a huge Despres fan.
As for the panic over losing a player to the expansion draft: it is a little confusing. We're a fan base that raves about our scouts ability to draft NHL defensemen in any round. They got Vatanen and Manson in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft, and Montour at the end of the 2nd round. We have Theodore and Montour ripping it up in the AHL and Larsson who everyone says is extrememly polished likely coming over to San Diego next year. You either have confidence that our coaches can develop those players like they did Vatanen, Manson, LIndholm, Fowler or you don't.That's kind of the life of a budget team. You pick the best players to protect from the expansion, move on from the rest for futures (or forward help), and give a young kid (Theodore) a shot. We're not the only team that will have to do that, but we are in a better situation with more talent on defense to survive than almost any team
It's time to stop viewing Lindholm, Fowler, and Vatanen as kids. They're the core of the defense and are now the guys that will have to take hard matchups away from Theodore/Montour/Larsson when their time comes.