Dropping back in to say this:
There is no debating that Nino-for-Clutterbuck was terrible from a pure value standpoint. For straight-up player value, it was a C-minus, maybe a D. That's not why Garth made the trade. He made the trade because Nino is a cancer. I hate to be cliche in an intelligent discussion, but despite Nino being far and away the better player in almost every aspect of hockey, NOBODY in the Islanders organization liked him or his agent. NOBODY. In a locker room that has clearly become a band-of-brothers environment, there is no room for that.
Based on how veterans like Nabokov, Visnovsky, Weight, Halak, etc. have responded when introduced to the fold-- and you can throw in guys who had bad reps in other stops like Grabovski-- it really says something when you are not embraced by this group. Nino was one of those guys, and the lack of value via trade was because it was obvious to the rest of the NHL.
