Yeah and the "consensus" after last season was that it was a win win for both teams so just like some of the fanatics on this board, the "media consensus" flip flops every year or hell, every month for that matter depending on flavor of the month so I would take the consensus with a grain of salt.
No there wasn't. Many were impressed that the Oilers did what they had to do to be a more well-rounded team, but there simply was NO narrative that the trade was ever good value. When it turned out the Oilers weren't at all a well-rounded team, the stink of that trade is doubled.
I said before I don't blame people for thinking that trade was a necessary evil last year, but it was always an evil.
I'm still failing to see why the Hall trade was a "disaster". Why is it assumed that he would have been a Hart level player here playing a completely different role than he is in Jersey? Why is it assumed that somebody like Demers would have filled the role that Larsson has adequately?
He didn't need to be a "Hart level player". He needed to be what Taylor Hall was for 6 years. Demers wouldn't have filled the role as well as Larsson did, but Larsson is not a star. He's a good, complimentary top-4 defenseman. Probably fits best as a 2 with a great partner, or as a 3 with an average partner. The gap between Taylor Hall and every Oilers winger is a lot greater than the gap between Demers and Adam Larsson.
The Oilers do not have a good enough talent base in 2018. That's unacceptable considering where Chiarelli started. It's no coincidence that the Oilers are garbage unless McDavid is on the ice.
He didn't even leverage that talent loss into an
average Oilers defense.
I feel like we're going in circles with this debate and I don't know why I keep getting sucked in but I still maintain that they need a Larsson more than a Hall long term as Drai develops into a premier 2nd line driver and the young wingers develop into top 6 players. The only reason why this trade looks like a supposed disaster at the moment is because of the success Hall and the Devils had THIS season and the struggles of Larsson and the Oilers THIS season. Opinions will change once again next season if the Devils regress and the Oilers improve.
Just to clarify, the Oilers obviously lost the better talent in the trade and they should have gotten an addition from the Devils but from a needs perspective, I'm still fine with the trade and won't waiver on that until I see a much larger sample size over many years to make a proper evaluation.
The Reinhart trade was the real disaster. It cost them an entire draft, a draft with tons of impact players to choose from deep into the 2nd round, and they got zippo out of it. This will be remembered as one of the worst all time sports trades.
We're going around in a circle in the sense that neither will change our viewpoint. I don't consider your argument to be compelling in any way. I think it's pretty clear, and any impartial hockey person will consider that trade to be among the worst in modern history.
Arguing which disasterous trade was worse is pointless. I will never consider trading futures that could have/probably would have gone another way had the Oilers kept them to be as bad as selling very low on a franchise player.