Have people not learned after the Skinner trade and many other trades? The team trading the "best" player ALWAYS loses.
That's not true
Jones/Johansson
J. Staal for 8th OA, Dumoulin, Sutter
St. Louis for Callahan and 2 1sts
Duchene for Girard, Kamanev, Bowers, 2019 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Erat (who was the best player at the time) for Forsberg
Kessel to Toronto for a 1st (Seguin) and 2nd (Hamilton)
M. Richards for Simmonds and B Schenn
Drouin for Sergachev
That's just off the top of my head. There are plenty of trades where value is equal or the team trading the best player does well.
No two trade are alike as team needs, contracts etc. Come into play. Skinner was a year away from UFA and wasn't going to be re-signed had a full NMC, and the team wanted to go in a different direction. Not even remotely apples to apples to Faulk.
I'm not predicting what a return for Faulk would be (and I'd expect it to be less the closer he gets to UFA status), just saying that your statement above isn't true.