Any evidence of anyone thinking a 17 EK trade was a good idea ?
It doesn't matter what everyone (fans) thought. The GMs job is to make the right decision for the franchise. On December 1st, this was the situation:
• Erik Karlsson was still considered a top 5 defenseman in the NHL
• He had 1.5 years left on his contract, at $6.5 million per season (a steal)
• Ottawa was in the midst of a 7 game losing streak, comfortably out of the playoffs
• In a media scrum before a game against the Islanders, Karlsson said “When I go to market, I’m going to get what I’m worth, and it’s going to be no less, no matter where I’m going”
• Dorion knew the financial realities of this franchise under Melnyk and their inability to pay any player 10+ million per season
At that point, the best decision would have been to quietly shop Karlsson and trade him before the media circus started. Would fans have been pissed? Yes. But they were pissed when he was traded in August, so that should have had no bearing on the situation.
Instead, Dorion spent the rest of the year grand-standing in the media, presented an "offer" to Karlsson that everyone knew would be turned down, and traded him on the first day of training camp after other teams had already filled out their rosters and used most of their cap space.
Genius!