This. Hindsight is always 20/20 for a reason. Let's give Malone and Carey a chance to fill in and hopefully Mitchell and Cliche can step up.
Uh... Usually you're right. However....
There were more people than just myself who could see that we could of used at least one more top 9 forward added to the lineup. At least another McGinn level player (3rd liner who can spot up the line up).
I can't help but agree with skepticism around paying a 2nd for a back up to our backup, and watching two (Maybe even three, can't remember) different trades go down for the exact type of forward we need that involved only a 3rd and 5th in a very shallow draft. (I think both of those trades had the picks in different years as well)
You have Mitchell and other guys whose contracts are up as well, which means there really would be no issue in getting said player with the idea of resigning him.
On top of all of this... We watched Fasth, and
Halak Scrivens go for what
4th 3rd round picks? No matter how you spin it, there is at least some basis to question the move, and lack there of at the deadline.
I get not paying for a rental defender that is only a marginal upgrade, but if the plan is to continue to rely on our forward depth for the season. You might want to take steps to ensure that the area has the needed depth to hold up down the stretch.
Plenty of people could see that we were one injury away from not having that advantage. Now we have two top 6 forwards injured.
Edit : On the call ups, you bring up two scrubs with almost zero NHL future. Instead of bringing up someone like Sgarbossa, or Agozzino who actually posses some offensive ability.
F Lee Stempniak / 3rd Round Pick (2014)
F Ales Hemsky / 5th Round Pick (2014) & 3rd Round Pick (2015)
F Marcel Goc / 5th Round Pick (2014) & 3rd Round Pick (2015)
F Marian Gaborik / F Matt Frattin & 2nd Round Pick (2014 or 2015) & Conditional 3rd Round Pick*
G Ben Scrivens / 3rd Round Pick (2014)
G Viktor Fasth / 5th Round Pick (2014) & 3rd Round Pick (2015)
There is only one trade on this list that really qualifies as 'more' than what we paid for a UFA backup goalie for our backup goalie. We could of used any one of those forwards or goalies instead of what we got. Even while healthy...
O'Reilly - Duchene - Parenteau
Landeskog - Stastny - ___?___ (Hemsky/Gaborik)
McGinn - MacKinnon - Talbot
-------- or ---------
O'Reilly - Duchene - Parenteau
Landeskog - Stastny - MacKinnon
McGinn - Goc - Talbot
And that is HEALTHY (minus Tanguay)
There is a little bit of 'blind faith' going on IMO, if people are willing to completely dismiss the fact that there was some mistakes made.