Disagree completely. They were probably the 2nd best or best team in the west last year, and almost took out the Kings with their best defenseman injured. They're potentially trading away their two best forwards in order to be less competitive while the window is still wide open. It's crazy.
It isn't just this year, they've had countless opportunities and failed at every turn. He is basically saying that he doesn't have faith in Thornton and Marleau to lead the team to the promised land.
They had their chance, and dealing them now will return very solid assets to help the team going forward. The alternative is to keep pressing on, keep picking over 20th, keep failing, and then end up with two late 30's players who aren't worth their contract who won't net any real return. And since they've been picking so high all these years, their only future is what they already have.
That is what you do in the new NHL. You trade your players before they lose all value. You're a little worse off in the short term for it (a 2-3 year period), but long term it's a wise decision.
What he's doing is the smartest move he could make. But who knows what he's really thinking. Maybe he's just trying to light a fire under their *****.
