Given the context of the time it was a terrible trade. Houle had refused to meet Damphousse's contract demands, which if I'm remembering correct were 3 yrs. for $10m, So Vinnie was moved to SJ for draft picks. Then in the offseason Houle traded for Linden and signed him to a contract @ 3m/yr., basically the same price that Damphousse had been asking. It made zero sense.
Ultimately the trade was (3 teams trade)
Damphousse + 10th overall pick
For
Linden + 16th overall + 53rd overall + 145th overall
Linden signed 15 millions for 4 years with Montreal (3.75 millions a year). Can't find the exact contract Damphousse signed with SJ but his salary the following seasons according to cap friendly was 3, 4, 5.75, 5,75 and 4 for an average of 4.5 so not much more than Linden.
That was a pretty awful string of moves. Not only was Damphousse better than Linden we also gave a better 1st round pick in the process. The point of trading Damphousse was to get picks and rebuild not to trade a better pick for an inferior player right after.
Kind of the same as Shaw versus Eller. We gave better picks and did not improve at all. Considering centers are supposed to be more valuable (they are) we arguably already lost in value by just swapping Eller for Shaw and then we lost again by giving better picks in the process.