Lol did you even read my post that you quoted? I said it was a terrible mistake to not trade them in the offseason. We could've came to training camp with bare minimum another 1st and 2 2nds, with a roster looking like this:
Leivo-Matthews-Marner
Marleau-Nylander-Kapanen
Hyman-Kadri-Brown
Martin-Fehr-Komarov
Then we could've acquired any of the dmen traded this year, such as Cole (3rd), Vatanen (worth a 1st, playing as NJD's #1), Demers (got traded for McGinn, we could easily do better), or Methot (2nd rounder)
And maybe even acquired Letestu for the 4th line for a 4th. So if we got Vatanen, Methot and Letestu for similar prices, we come out with a 2nd in profit and a roster looking like this:
Leivo-Matthews-Marner
Marleau-Nylander-Kapanen
Hyman-Kadri-Brown
Martin-Letestu-Komarov
IR replacement: Johnsson
Rielly-Methot
Gardiner-Vatanen
Dermott-Zaitsev
Hainsey/Carrick/Holl/Borgman
So yeah. A way better team was possible even this year if we sold off the 2 UFAs. This year was a pretty piss poor performance by Lou IMO.