The problematic group think is that fans think they can package lesser pieces into high end assets. That only happens when there's a breakdown in the locker room and someone needs to be moved immediately. Calgary's defence without Brodie is abysmal, and makes any trade a waste of time.
I think that happens often enough every year to prove that this isn't correct (and I'll ignore the trade dead line deals and the obvious cap moves). Just go look at some of the moves last summer (not much of a surprise nothing outside the TD happened mid season).
- New York traded Brassard to Ottawa for Zibanejad and a 2018 2nd.
- Florida traded Kulikov, 2nd (33rd) to Buffalo for Pysyk, 2nd (38) and 3rd (89)
- Montreal trades Eller to Washington for a pair of 2nds (2017 and 18).
There's the pure hockey trades which are almost always a 1-1 deal (Jones/RyJo, Subban/Weber, etc), or like the Perron/Hagelin or Scuderi/Daley deal where one side adds slightly. Then there's other moves where GMs decide they want to change directions. Or that they want to acquire player(s) X to improve their team, and that player B is the only way to make that happen.
I'm not saying that Calgary and Brodie fit into any of these situations/scenarios, but I call BS on the idea that the only time this happens is when there's a "breakdown in the room and someone needs to be moved immediately." Because we see this happen far too often for that to be the case. GMs make moves all the time to make their team better based on what
they perceive
their needs to be. Sometimes these moves make a lot of sense to the fans, and other times fans are outraged at the stupidity of said move. Sometimes the fans are proven right, while other times it turns out the GM actually knows what they're doing (or just got very lucky).
But the idea that no team looking to get better ever trades a higher end player for a collection of good players (I'm not talking futures, but actual players) outside of a very specific set of circumstances is just plain false - because it simply happens far too often for that to be the case.