Sneaky worst part of that deal, at least for me, was not seeing Briere finish out his career here. Especially considering that Briere and Lecavalier's production after that point was a complete wash so I much would have kept Briere for 2 more years. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I did feel it was a short sighted move when back end of the team was patchwork at best at the time.
I must say though, had Pronger stayed healthy, things might have turned out quite differently. For one, we wouldn't have had to go with band-aid solutions like Grossmann and MacDonald. I don't even think we make that Luke Schenn deal had Pronger been healthy. So in that sense, the success or failure of Homer's tenure was defined in large amount by the consequences of Pronger injury.
Ugh, enough about the depressing what-could-have-beens.... Back to the present, I wouldn't be surprised to learn later that Fletch and the org. is trying to do a solid for Simmer and send him to a contender regardless of his modified NTC. Perhaps other deals need to happen to set the market but we might not be getting offered as much for Simmer as we think. At that point, Fletch might just consider Simmer our own rental player since we look like we are in the hunt still.
